Welcome globalized economy! With the emergence of eCommerce, retailing has got a new shape and meaning. End consumers are happier and more satisfied as access to essential items are no more of a concern for someone residing even in the farthest and remotest corner of the world. To elucidate, imagine a situation, a cancer patient stuck at a location due to climatic disturbances and unable to travel for medicines, would certainly be delighted to receive them at the convenience of one’s home. To such patients trust matters, they want end-to-end visibility to ensure temperature is maintained, quality is not compromised and potency of the medicine is not affected in any ways. And icing on the cake is if it comes at a discounted price. This is the magic of supply chain visibility; it brings peace of mind to many who are unable to step out.

The discussion is merely a glimpse into what supply chain visibility can achieve today and in times to come. Social unrest, wars as Iran and Israel, pandemic, weather conditions and economic crisis, anything or maybe everything can disrupt supply chain in the similar fashion as occurred during pandemic. Real-time tracking and insights into inventory can nudge a company at the right time to tighten the noose of the production and when to let it loose to meet demands. Inventory management is more orchestrated and has defined role in earning profit for a business.

Importance of Supply Chain Visibility in a Globalized Economy

Supply Chain Visibility essentially is a story of demand-supply synchronization. It implies there is real-time insight into every single operation of supply chain till the last-mile delivery. Information is shared with all the stakeholders including customers, to keep them in the loop and win their confidence. In today’s fast paced ever evolving economy, it is a must to accurate communication between supply chain network for making informed decisions, agility in responding to crisis, improves efficiency and brings a better control over operations. Let’s see what are the real benefits of supply chain visibility and how it can impact a business’s growth in a positive way.

• 1. Inventory Management: Visibility brings accountability, flow of stocks can be monitored, traced and tracked in real-time. This enhances inventory management as there is exact count of stocks and replenishment can be done as per demand.
• 2. Optimization of Operations: Real-time data about various operations of supply chain allows better management of logistics. This improves production, transportation, streamlines order fulfillment process, efficient management of crisis and overall efficiency improves.
• 3. Improve Collaboration: End-to-end visibility of supply chain improves collaboration with suppliers, dealers and vendors and 3PL service providers. It is one of the most effective collaboration tools in supply chain, a transparent relation with collaborators, help companies in making knowledgeable choices about schedules related with production, inventory dispatch, and in streamlining supply chain strategies. This optimizes coordination, improves time management and enhances relationship with stakeholders.
• 4. Proactive Risk Mitigation: Supply Chain Visibility brings proactive identification of impending risks and challenges in the supply chain whether it is related with wear & tear of items or machinery or disruptions in routes due to political unrest or any unwarranted delays from suppliers or sudden surge in prices or increase in delivery cost. Information is power, and visibility is that power, it prepares management and they are ready with contingency plans before actual crisis hits and they might get off balance. On time risk mitigation minimizes loss, secures last-mile delivery and increases customer satisfaction.
• 5. Enhances Demand Forecasting: Supply chain efficiency helps with predictive forecasting. Real-time tracking of inventories, provide insights into demand. The data obtained can be analysed and studied for demand forecasting. This restricts overflow or outflow of inventories and thus keeps the cost in check.
• 6. Builds Trust and Improves Customer Relations: Transparency builds trust in the entire ecosystem of supply chain. Visibility and real-time sharing of communication regarding order status, availability, reasons for delay, expected delivery dates till last mile delivery, enhances consumers’ faith in a company. And, businesses can balance consumer expectations about order fulfillment, this keeps the customers satisfied and enhances profit.

Unparalleled Transparency Solutions for Supply Chain Visibility in 2024

As seen, supply chain visibility is a great facilitator in improving profit of a business and strengthening customer relationship, the question is how to create synchronized transparency solutions for optimizing supply chain visibility? Supply chain robustness secures and enriches quality of business and helps in growth. In 2024, digitalization trends and advanced technology are going to change the landscape of supply chain and make it more customer centric. Some of the transparency solutions which a business can adopt to optimize supply chain visibility are—

• 1. Advanced Technology: Companies need to adapt and adopt with technological advancement. Integration of supply chain operations for seamless flow of information in real-time through cloud solutions is a pre-requisite. Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, bar codes, scanners or embedded sensors for tracking and tracing inventory can bring transparency in supply chain.
• 2. Warehouse Management: Automation can update the status of warehouse in real-time. From a single dashboard, information related with available space in a warehouse, availability of inventory in the nearest warehouse for order fulfillment or for replenishment or transferring to some other warehouse where demand is higher. All this is only possible if operations are synced.
• 3. Logistics Optimization: Visibility in logistics through IoT and Blockchain ensure smoothness in supply chain. Its greatest advantage is in route optimization, GPS tracking can send alerts about distractions and weather conditions. Drivers can be warned about road blocks and rerouting options are sent. Decision-making is much faster with visibility, this avoids delays, speeds up delivery without adding any extra cost. Overall ends up with greater customer satisfaction as they also get regular updates through sms, emails etc.
• 4. AI and Machine Learning: AI and Machine Learning provide data analytics useful for performance monitoring of a product; this improves marketing of a product. Accuracy in information on the performance of an item after its launch, help in recalling or relaunching or increasing the production of a product as per insight obtained. AI and Machine Learning together help with performance monitoring.