Increasing globalization, demand variability and the need for new production and supply locations have made integration of suppliers (in order to gain a competitive advantage through a reactive, dynamic and aligned supply chain) more critical.
Investing in a project to simplify and speed up the customer-supplier communication allows the company to :
- Achieve greater efficiency in operational terms
- Be more responsive on the market
- Improve the reliability of production planning
- Reduce inventory and accurately measure the performance of suppliers.
(see also “Five good reasons to improve communication between customers and suppliers”)
The issue of communicating with the supply chain can be addressed by following a logic focused on the satisfaction of needs – and business demands – or with an approach based on a philosophy of “partnership” between all players in the supply chain .
However, the need to have optimal communication, makes the use of a tool that allows companies to communicate easily and quickly with all of their suppliers essential, whatever their size and wherever they are.
So, achieving effective communication with suppliers is important, but how can you do it?
In this whitepaper we have analyzed various approaches (practical and academic), from which a set of tools specially created and designed to improve the exchange of data and information through the supply chain were born.