4 Ways to Easily Cut Supply Chain Costs

If you’re looking to increase your business’ profits without having to increase sales, cutting supply chain costs is a great place to start. There are several ways to reduce costs such as cutting down on inventory, maximizing shipments capacity, and minimizing resource allocation and retrieval costs. By managing and reworking every step of your supply chain, you can end up recouping anywhere from 5% to 10% of all production costs. 

Not only will rethinking how you manage your supply chain save your business money, it can also make your operations run more smoothly and efficiently. An easy place to start your consideration is with the investment in supply chain management consulting. Although spending more on your supply chain seems like a crazy way to save money, this investment can pay significant dividends over the lifecycle of your products. Below you will find four simple and easy to implement ways to easily cut down supply chain costs. 

Consider Customer Demands 

When a supply chain is typically evaluated, most companies start with the supply. With a focus on customer service and demand, surpluses in inventory and critical to quality product features become extremely apparent. Generally, there is significant room within supply chain operations to reduce inventory and better measure quality inventory, ultimately cutting logistics, warehousing, and capital costs. A good start in measuring customer demand is to analyze purchase order patterns by season or by month. With inclinations to customer forecast, it is possible to adjust your supply base and inventory levels accordingly. 

Dual Source 

By using more than one supplier, you increase competition for orders and have a better chance of getting a good deal. This technique also helps to mitigate quality and delivery risks. Multiplier suppliers help your business avoid costly delays in receiving product, but can also help you mitigate the repercussions of holidays, port closures, and other unavoidable situations. Duel sourcing from entirely different geographic areas also allows you to reduce logistics costs. Suppliers who know they are competing for business typically will look to give discounts based on volume orders or reveal hidden margins that sole-sourced producers will not. 

Streamline Your Purchase Order Process 

A large portion of your supply chain cost comes from your ability and methodology in executing orders. Human error and a lack of communication creates opportunity for the order of incorrect part numbers, old drawing revisions, and even incorrect quantities. Not only is this a cash-flow issue, but also an inventory issue. By implementing a more stringent purchasing system and process, risk can be mitigated. Leveraging and investing in other purchase methodologies, such as blanket order systems, Kanban procedures, or processes for Just-In-Time (JIT) delivery, can end up saving money in capital and operating expenses. 

Rethink your Operations 

When operations are stressed, employees and products are prone to more quality and delivery issues, ultimately drastically increasing your costs. One way to take the stress off operations and off your employees is to consider outsourcing. More and more companies today are outsourcing production services and operations such as warehousing and transport. Although you will certainly pay a fee for these services, warehousing and logistics companies typically offer greater capacity, skill, and effieincy with regard to the specified operations. This also is an option that prevents the need to invest in new technology and equipment. 

Bottom Line 

The supply chain is one of the first places you should consider when reviewing your operational costs. Your business stands to see substantial upside by thorough analysis and review of supply chain operations. Supply chain management consulting is a rapidly growing service industry that can provide significant value to any industrial operation.

How a Product Development Consultant Can Aid Your Business Organization?

A product development consultant helps companies to create profit by more efficiently and effectively developing a product and getting it to market. Most importantly, this type of consultant is used to help ensure products meet customers’ quality and delivery needs, but also establish operational processes so that production is stable and sustainable. Typical product development services include research and planning into product design, prototyping of production processes, the development of key performance indicators, and the creation of quality and control practices. Below are examples of how your industrial business can progress through the help of product development consultants: 

1. Industrial product development consulting is not only needed for new products, but can also be implemented into existing operations. Continuous improvement efforts are utilized throughout manufacturing operations to ensure production is sustainable and is fit to meet the ever changing market conditions and needs. 
2. Analysis of client operations and market research can be used to help identify goals and limitations. Defining the scope of product development challenges is critical to ensuring success. Set achievable goals that are unique to your operations. Simply throwing a framework at your problems will not make them go away. 
3. Make a clear action plan with key milestones and initiatives for the lifecycle of your product. Product development should never be complete with first article approval. A strong industrial product development consultant will ensure that your operations have been established to sustain the lifecycle of your program. 
4. It is critical to always re-visit your market and your customer needs. Feedback is a tremendously useful tool when you can derive specific actions from it. Always account for your target market needs. Typical Industrial product development services will include the establishment of key performance indicators and critical to quality requirements. 

Why Hire A Product Development Consultant? 

A lot of cutting-edge companies are trying to find new ways to develop products and get to market faster. A global market has created increased competition and effective design, development, and deployment is critical to building a strong market base. Although many won’t see value in the investment, consultants will typically have the versatile skillset that can enhance a management team’s capabilities. In the long-term, the potential upside from increased market share, as well as a quicker return on investment, easily off-set any consulting investment.

Key Focuses of Product Development

Before any product can be sold, it must be defined, designed, and built. Product development consulting services are rapidly growing in importance in today’s markets due to the need to quickly get products perfected and ready for the market. As the market changes, product needs change too. Rapid development and deployment can make or break a product’s sales success. At its root, the purpose of product design and development services is to grab maximum market share and to create an error-free production process. Product development services also are one of the key drivers behind strategic innovation. Not only do product development consulting services focus on the creation of new products according to the need of customers and ever changing market conditions, but they also support the reinvigoration of existing products in target or struggling markets. 

One of the core skills of product development companies is the ability to effectively identify the needs of a client and turn them into an efficiency product strategy and design. While innovation is always preferred, practicality in terms of its development, timeline, and cost are most critical to effectively accelerating growth and sales. By effectively designing a product and its production processes, product development consulting services help to create demand in the market. Quality assurance is also critical to ensuring sustained success and customer satisfaction. 

The main functions of product development consulting are: 

1. Translating a customer’s idea to a sustainable and practical design.
2. Defining Critical to Quality and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from prototyping processes. 
3. Drawing comparisons with the top competition to develop a go-to-market strategy
4. Speculative justification for continuous improvement of production processes 
5. Applying analytical and professional skills to design new products and renovate existing products to expand market share. 

Success is measured through the collection of data. The ability to identify outlier data and leverage tools such as statistical process control to better manage production results in effective and sustainable product development and deployment. The use of performance metrics and KPIs is critical to enforcing best practices.