I’ve noticed over the last few years that companies with high performing Supplier Management Processes were able to weather the pandemic challenges better than those who did not have such processes.
A key part of a Supplier Management Process is a supply chain risk assessment. The organizations that were performing supply chain risk assessments during the good years, and acting on identified weaknesses, were able to better address the Covid challenges faced by all of us.
A high performing Supplier Management Process will also improve component quality, decrease component cost of ownership, reduced new product development time to market, result in the best allocation of available resources, and ultimately be a competitive advantage for your organization.
I have experience designing and implementing High Performing Supplier Management Processes. The process that I helped design and implement at Philips Medical was identified by APICS, now ASCM, as a best practice.
As the Fed raises interest rates to slow the economy, our supply chains will loosen up, and the pains suffered during the pandemic will fade in our memories. But, now is not the time to sit back and take a sigh of relief. Now is the time to evaluate the performance of your Supplier Management Process. If your process isn’t producing real tangible business results, and does not have a well thought out risk assessment component you should take action.
Investing time and money now to improve your Supplier Management Process will position your company to better leverage the good times to come and will also position your organization to weather the next crisis that will be sure to come sometime down the road.