Manufacturing Supply Chain Challenges and Opportunities

The increased complexity of today’s supply chain brings with it a host of challenges for manufacturers. These include:

  • brand identify protection
    major brands are a bad press — and litigation — magnet if anything goes wrong
  • recall efficiency
    if a health-risk is found, it can be a challenge to recall the product in time
  • counterfeit prevention
    the EU seized six million counterfeit personal care products and one point two million food and beverage products at the border last year and the problems in pharmaceuticals are even worse
  • supply chain disruption bypass
    when a natural disaster, energy crisis, or a political situation arises, a company needs to quickly divert its supply chain around the situation to avoid disruption

However, as pointed out in a recent Industry Week article, manufacturers are seizing opportunities across the supply chain by tackling these challenges head-on. Companies that recognize the complexity of the modern supply chain and adopt serialization solutions that enable greater visibility, increased agility, and improved efficiency see the following opportunities:

  • improved responsiveness
    a company with an agile supply chain can quickly respond to changing demand patterns and maintain near-optimal inventory levels
  • consumer demand capitalization
    a company with downstream visibility can gain insights into consumer demand and produce the products customers want before its competition and gain a greater market share
  • SLA enforcement
    traditionally, outsourcing led to reduced visibility … but modern visibility and serialization solutions help manufacturers insure that the third party they outsource to lives up to their performance obligations