What Is Supply Chain Visibility and Why It’s Important?

Introduction

A company needs to be aware of how its products reach the buyer from the production level. A brand's supply chain is often large and contains several stages. This makes it difficult to track crucial information. What can be done? One way is to implement an efficient and transparent supply chain (i.e., maintain supply chain visibility).

Proper supply chain management goes a long way towards implementing fast and efficient production cycles. Improved business operations can mean reduced costs and greater profits per shipment.

This article focuses on increasing visibility of each process and achieve targets. Thus, we will discuss what supply chain visibility means and why it is necessary for your brand.

What Is Supply Chain Visibility?

In simple terms, supply chain visibility (SCV) means awareness of the sub-parts and processes that make up a supply chain. The ideal scenario involves tracking individual components, sub-processes, and the final products throughout the product lifecycle (i.e., from the supplier to the buyer via the manufacturer). Proper supply chain visibility means a company is up-to-date with the status of its shipments and their location. This in turn helps brands improve efficiency and enhance customer satisfaction.

Despite being a simple concept, maintaining a transparent supply chain (i.e., complete SCV) is quite hard to achieve. Fashion brands and manufacturers must invest time and resources into the entire process.

Most businesses use technology developed specifically for supply chain management. This allows them to receive real-time data to monitor the supply chain. As a result, companies are prepared to tackle shortages, check product compliance, and track shipments until delivery.

Ideal supply chain visibility allows the person in charge to access crucial data, including:

• Status of the raw materials at the sourcing stage
• Order receipts issued by the supplier
• Estimated delivery date from the supplier
• Shipping details and customs regulations

The larger the company’s scale of operations, the more difficult it is to track the supply chain components. However, the company’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System can help one understand the sub-processes. In addition, the use of specialized technology helps achieve SCV at a higher level.

What Are the Characteristics of an Ideal Supply Chain Visibility?

The primary focus of Supply Chain Visibility (SCV) is to increase transparency of the supply chain processes and to track changes. However, there are a few other important aspects that SCV can help achieve:

• It helps determine whether the inventory has all the things needed for the manufacturing process.
• Allows integration of the systems of the company, suppliers, and logistic partners for detailed shipment tracking.
• Updates the involved parties in case of any disruption in the process, prompting quick action.

Thus, supply chain visibility affects business operations at a higher level and allows companies to have more control. Now let us look at some of the advantages of SCV and discuss its importance.

Why Is Supply Chain Visibility Important?

Most businesses look for opportunities to expand and use complex operations to maximize their profits. In the long run, businesses that achieve an optimal supply chain process report higher turnovers and profit rates. This can be attributed to the availability of more insights for decision-making. Some other benefits of implementing supply chain visibility are discussed below.

Makes it easier to track complex processes

Global supply chains operate on a large scale and require round the clock supervision. Other than using the right software, businesses also need to have transparent logistics to maintain customer relationships.

Boosts customer satisfaction

Most customers like to track the location of their orders and receive accurate shipment details. Supply chain visibility helps boost customer satisfaction and customer retention.

Ensures compliance with global standards

Global shipments should follow several regulatory guidelines and share updates with customers according to the changes. The supply chain visibility programs help monitor the processes followed at each step and ensure that your company maintains the global standards.

Brings in more revenue and eliminates competition

In a highly volatile market with several businesses offering the same products, you need to ensure that your supply chain process is efficient. Inefficient processes take longer, require administration at regular intervals, and take away the company’s operating budget.

Proper supply chain visibility helps spot inefficiencies and problems at an early stage, generating more revenue and saving on additional tariffs.

As more and more companies research supply chains, the industry witnesses regular changes. Brands need to stay updated with these trends to stay ahead of the competition. In the current market, digital cloud-based solutions last longer and help businesses achieve a transparent supply chain quickly.

Conclusion

Supply chain visibility is important as it can help businesses grow even without state-of-the-art operations. More and more companies are using generated SCV data to gain insights and predict changes. This allows them to refine their decision-making process. Thus, one can transform unstructured data to increase supply chain visibility and weed out hidden inefficiencies.

Get in touch with Fashinza experts to refine your manufacturing and sourcing processes further for better brand operations.