Here, we explore the benefits of strategic communication within supply chain management and practical ways to improve your own.
The Intricacies of Supply Chain Management
A supply chain is a structured series of stages, ensuring products are crafted, stored, and transported for ultimate delivery to customers. Each stage, whether it’s sourcing raw materials, manufacturing, logistics, or distribution, needs detailed planning and clear oversight to avoid unwanted problems.
When individuals from different departments work together, they need clear communication channels to ensure they remain aware of updates. As people, and often even companies, are involved in supply chains, planning and communication are even more important
With multitudes involved, from suppliers to logistics providers, navigating the supply chain becomes an art and science to establish a cohesive and informed team.
The Role of Communication in Supply Chain
In order for a chain to move together, each link needs a close connection with the others. In the same way, strategic communication provides efficiency in the supply chain through these ways:
Increasing Work Performance: A well-informed supply chain can tackle challenges and streamline operations, ensuring timely and accurate product deliveries. Daily, updates to orders, products, or issues pop up when running a company. Communication between teams means that these changes are understood and they can plan for the changes, helping operations continue without hiccups.
Boosting Employee Morale: Transparency in communication helps everyone know what’s going on and plan accordingly, without stress. It provides employees with a sense of well-being and connection and more autonomy over their work.
Improved Professional Relationships: Collaborative communication cultivates trust between supply chain parties, encouraging logistic teams to work synchronously and help each other better.
How to improve supply chain communication
The whole of a supply chain won’t work under the same roof. They are spread across businesses, warehouses, drivers, offices and even countries, and they’re often large, busy and ever-changing for the people who are involved. Phone calls and Zoom meetings don’t cut it. Integrative technology to assist communication or prompt the next stage of activity is required.
So where do you start?
Regular meetups and meetings
Operations change all the time. In fact, if your business is doing well, its growth will require supply chain changes and growth, too. Having regular meetups with your partners and supply chain parties means these can be communicated in an open and transparent way and fully understood. The parties can raise any concerns they have or are currently experiencing, and you can tackle the problems as a team. These meetings will help your partners feel valued and appreciated and form stronger bonds that will make the supply chain work more efficiently.
Be proactive about updates
If it ain’t broken, it’s still worth checking in. Your supply chain is critical to your business, so having a proactive approach to communication is ideal. Don’t wait until you need to address issues to check in with the various parties, so there can be potential problems you can resolve before they become major issues. Proactivity can also look like providing updates on any changing technology, safety plan, or best practices.
Integrate technology
Finally, while the other strategies are important traits of communication, innovative technology can create a medium for communication. You likely don’t; have the option to speak to everyone in your supply chain daily, so using a tool for communication can do it for you.
Further than that, tools like OpenFreight integrate into your different systems as well as to the different legs of your supply chain, such as carriers. The capabilities of a system like this mean that when an order is placed, automation can prompt the picking, logistics functions and booking of transport, so your whole logistics operations are automated and the supply chain communicates cohesively.
Advancing Towards a Transparent and Efficient Supply Chain with OpenFreight
In the digital age, technology is revolutionising supply chain communication. Advanced tracking systems, real-time data analytics, and integrated communication platforms are ensuring all stakeholders remain informed. TIG Freight’s OpenFreight technology plays a pivotal role in fostering a proactive, responsive, and efficient supply chain, ensuring clients always remain a step ahead.
In summary, supply chains are delicate pathways, where clear, strategic communication is a necessity in order for your business to perform. Contact us to advance the efficiency of your supply chain today.
