These are extraordinary times with heightened disruptions for many manufacturers around the globe. But change of this magnitude also provides opportunities. Opportunities to think differently about how we operate, to find new efficiencies or to introduce new cost saving actions which are imperatives for companies today. Additionally, we have the opportunity to embrace new processes and approaches that can help us move faster and better prepare for future disruptions. This is especially true in the area of supply chain operations.
Business Disruption in the Supply Chain
We’ve heard the recent stories where supply chain performance plays an increasingly important role in a period of business disruption. Producers of toilet paper, cleaning wipes and personal protective equipment saw spikes in demand where production was unable to meet customer requirements. Farmers had to dump milk and break eggs as sales to restaurants, hotels and cafeterias slumped. Trampolines, playground sets, camping equipment and outdoor furniture saw increased sales as families desired to keep their children entertained and maintain physical activity throughout the summer months. These are just a few business disruption examples that had supply chain professionals scrambling and many are still in a catch-up mode today.
PwC’s Connected and Autonomous Supply Chain Ecosystem 2025 report calls out that “Tomorrow’s supply chains will be connected and self-orchestrated ecosystems and more than 80% of Digital Champions describe their supply chain focus as external integration or end-to-end orchestration.” Increasingly, we hear a similar emphasis from our customers where manufacturers are placing more importance on supply chain connectivity, agility and collaboration. As a result, they are in a better position to consistently prepare for unplanned events that include labor shortages, natural disasters, geopolitical issues and other events.
Boosting connected supply chain strategies leads to increased responsiveness and intelligence across the end-to-end supply chain. Manufacturers gain a rapid and more intelligent approach to supply chain decision making, enabled by real-time data collected from and shared with supply chain partners. Consider the following areas to boost supply chain connectivity and mitigate the risks of future supply chain shocks.
Supply Chain Traceability
Supply chain traceability is a priority for those manufacturers that rely on outdated processes or lack rapid access to data for delivering global business performance improvements. The PwC report mentioned above indicates that “Digital Champions are significantly further along the road to achieving end-to-end transparency and report much greater levels of visibility over product content, supply chain financials on a transaction level and logistics flows in near-real-time.” It’s not uncommon for manufacturers to rely on a number of disparate IT systems across their supply chain operations. This situation reduces efficiency, responsiveness and real-time insights. Without immediate information access, supply chains have limited visibility to rapidly respond to unforeseen supply chain events.
By increasing supply chain connectivity, manufacturers gain the insights required to exceed customer expectations with the comprehensive collection of operational supply chain data. For example, manufacturers can accurately communicate product origins and provide proactive alerts to keep customers informed of “hot shipments.” Employees can gain quicker access to the information needed to cost effectively manage supply chain operations. As a result, manufacturers are able to build on existing customer relationships, make real-time supply chain decisions, enhance order traceability and improve on-time delivery performance.
Digital Transformation
Digital transformation and new technologies continue to take hold around the globe and introduce challenges and opportunities for maximizing supply chain performance. A 2019 Gartner Supply Chain report devoted an entire section on the importance of digital technologies as a competitive necessity and delivering efficiency. But which technologies will produce positive business outcomes, and which will quickly become obsolete?
The adoption of digital technologies varies from company to company, but many manufacturers are implementing new technologies to boost supply chain connectivity and responsiveness. A pragmatic method starts with smaller prototype projects like machine learning to improve forecast accuracy, IoT approaches to increase shipment visibility or advanced analytics to enhance decision making. Only to the extent that advanced technologies make a meaningful impact on supply chain performance, can manufacturers fully support the investment. By leveraging digital capabilities to boost collaboration externally with suppliers, customers, carriers and other partners, manufacturers gain tighter supply chain coordination and competitive advantages for their business.
Global Trade Compliance
Many trade compliance programs have simply been created to avoid global regulatory fines and penalties. Today, manufacturers better understand the impact compliance operations have on global supply chain performance. For instance, how is on-time delivery performance impacted when shipments are delayed at Customs due to missing information? How do I gain access and share accurate information to ensure cross-border shipments and trade? How does customer satisfaction improve with a rapid response to unexpected supply chain disruptions? Have all duties and tariffs been considered when deciding where to build a plant or making other strategic supply chain decisions? Can my organization take advantage of free trade agreements?
To transform trade compliance and global supply chain operations, manufacturers must recognize the connected interactions required to successfully address cumbersome regulations. An effective global trade approach collects the required supply chain data, documents the necessary import/export data and rapidly shares the information with global trading partners. With connected global compliance and supply chain operations, manufacturers are advantageously situated to reduce global trade risks and improve supply chain performance.
Manufacturing executives increasingly seek innovative ways to better leverage supply chain relationships and more rapidly respond to supply chain disruptions. To address these objectives, QAD’s Connected Supply Chain capabilities help manufacturers effectively collaborate with supply chain partners and address the challenges associated with managing complex and ever-changing global supply chains. The result is a foundation for continuous efficiency improvements, cost reductions, risk mitigation and process innovation.
How effective are your supply chain connectivity strategies today? Contact QAD to see how we can help you better coordinate with partners to optimally plan and execute global supply chain operations.
