Starting Strong with Supply Chain Success

Embarking on a new business journey is exciting, but the road to success often begins with overcoming the challenge of translating aspirations into a concrete plan. Sometimes, the only thing standing between your business and success is knowing how to move forward.

When you begin a new journey to grow your business, improve your performance, or implement something new, putting pen to paper on the plan can sometimes be the hardest part. At Waypost Advisors, we understand that starting strong with your supply chain success involves more than just ideas; you must be able to create a strategic roadmap that turns ambitions into achievements.

Over the years, our extensive experience working with various companies has led us to develop a structured process that offers clear direction and serves as a launchpad for initiating and expediting progress toward business objectives. We strongly advocate collaborating with supply chain experts who can provide valuable insights by drawing on the successes and lessons learned from similar projects in other businesses. This collaborative approach helps your organization ensure the success of your initiatives while helping you steer clear of potential pitfalls.

Steps to Initiate Improved Supply Chain Success

1. Define the Problem, Not the Solution.

As industry-experienced supply chain consultants, we frequently get inquiries from companies about whether we can help them with a specific activity. They may call us and say: “We need to implement a WMS” or “We need to consolidate warehouses”. When we get these questions, we always recommend starting with the problem you’re trying to solve. Explore the assumptions that led you to that conclusion, collect data to validate the assumptions, and deep-dive the business processes to the root cause of the problems you’re experiencing. We have helped clients avoid tens of thousands of dollars in unnecessary expenditures simply by focusing on improving their internal processes and accountability structure before investing in tools and technology they couldn’t effectively use.

Get a peek under the hood and have an expert in the field of focus spend 4-8 hours walking a day in the shoes of the people who are involved. They should physically walk the processes (if applicable), observe how end-users use systems and information and how they make decisions, and map the end-to-end processes that are in scope. This can really help you to define the problem and what’s needed to improve it, and avoid jumping to a conclusion that may be over-engineered, cumbersome, or costly.

Once you have a gap analysis of what you need versus what you have, work to shore up the processes as much as possible. You may find that fixing processes and roles/responsibilities solves a significant portion of the problems you’re seeing. If you’re considering implementing a technology, the saying goes: “You cannot automate bad processes.”  If you invest in technology before having a defined, repeatable, and sustainable process in place (oh yes, and clean data), you will not be able to capture the value of the technology or, worse, the technology will be reduced to nothing more than an expensive way to disengage your workforce.

If part of your improvement and business growth journey involves technology, ensure you are using a request for proposal (RFP) process that selects for your unique needs rather than trying to shoehorn your business needs into the capability of the process. Using a system-agnostic facilitator, such as Waypost Advisors, can be an effective way to ensure your needs are met without falling victim to a sexy sales pitch.

Read: Tips For Supply Chain Continuous Improvement Success

Our experienced team of supply chain consultants finds great satisfaction in guiding our clients through these transformative journeys. When you partner with us, you're not just getting a service; you're gaining a dedicated collaborator committed to the success of your initiatives. Reach out to us today, and let's embark on this journey together. Whether your organization needs temporary expertise or interim staffing, our experts are ready to support your initiatives and elevate your organization to new heights.

Waypost Advisors is an end-to-end supply chain and resourcing solution. We offer expertise in procurement, inventory, project management, planning, transportation & warehousing to fit the needs of your B2B manufacturing or distribution company. Our advisors can provide you with the resources and expertise to tackle your supply chain challenges while allowing you to still focus on running your business.