Supply chain management has become more complex due to the revolutionary changes in e-commerce over the last few years. Unfortunately, the failure to address these complexities will certainly affect every aspect of the supply chain. As a result, there has been a surge in demand for effective solutions that give organisations, and their supply managers control over supplies and overall operations.
These technologically driven solutions aim to create real-time visibility to continuously monitor goods from raw components through to final products, as well as from goods in through picking, packing, transportation and delivering the finished product to the customer.
PLM Global offers many solutions, one of which is supply chain traceability. This post explores this solution, shows its aims, and identifies its far-reaching benefits for all organisations ready to leverage it.
Whats Tracking and Tracing in a Supply Chain?
Tracking and tracing in the supply chain is a process that allows for effective and efficient identification, tracking, and tracing of products as they move through the supply chain from the manufacturer to the consumer. The purpose is to transparently create and maintain an end-to-end supply chain such that organisations, supply chain managers, customers, and partners always have full visibility of the status and movement of goods. It improves efficiency and offers optimal customer service. How is this achieved?
All these functions are achieved by leveraging technological tools which automate the processes by gathering and recording all data about the goods. This data collected helps to generate unique barcodes that are used to identify goods stored in the database before shipment. Attaching these codes to the goods is to maintain compliance with safety legislation and create an avenue that gives quality assurance.
The data collected and recorded includes key elements like the location of goods, manufacturing date, place of origin, item type, expiration date, etc. With this data, you can track, trace, control, and identify the chain and custody of goods. PLM Global offers all these tools and many other supply and management services.
The Aims of Track and Trace in Supply Chain
The fundamental aim of track and trace in the supply chain is to create transparency and optimal efficiency so that supply providers, customers, and partners are furnished with much-needed information about the status and movement of goods. This effort is channeled towards improving customers’ experience and satisfaction and, at the same time, helps suppliers to enhance inbound and outbound transportation, fleet management, material handling, warehousing, demand planning, order fulfilment, and inventory management, among many others, which in turn increases profit due to the many benefits it brings.
Benefits of Tracking and Tracing Goods in a Supply Chain
The following are some of the benefits of tracking and tracing in a supply chain:
1. Remarkable Customer Services
There is no disputing that customer satisfaction is the primary goal for all businesses offering sales of goods and services. It will be challenging to retain customer loyalty if that is unattainable or poorly delivered. That is why tracking and tracing in a supply chain is crucial.
As we mentioned, it offers so much efficiency in delivering goods because it offers real-time visibility of the movement of the goods within the supply chain. This in turn means that you are in control of all orders, allowing you to ensure that goods are not only delivered on time, but the right product has been delivered also. This means that customer service is improved, leading to satisfied customers, which should then lead to more customers ordering once word has spread about the service they received.
2. Improves Inventory Management
Authentic information about inventory levels through the supply chain strengthens inventory, enhances management, and eases planning. While human resources may work, it is considerably more profitable to leverage technological options that offer precision and eliminate man-made errors. Track & Trace will help businesses significantly reduce the time it takes to find goods, perform stock checks or count cycles, allowing employees to focus on other essential tasks.
As well as this, over time, it will give valuable data that is not currently available to managers, allowing them to identify changing trends, which means they will be able to maximise production schedules.
3. Cost Reduction and Higher Profits
Track and trace systems in the supply chain will allow organisations to keep costs down to the minimum. For example, you can easily identify areas of wastage, bottlenecks and supply issues etc. then mitigate them, and reduce costs. You can also find faster routes to cut costs on transportation and delivery of goods. When you reduce costs, you automatically improve profits which improves your revenues.
4. Improves Security
Supply processes are delicate such that once the tiniest detail is overlooked, consciously or otherwise, shipment may be misplaced. While this may seem like a material loss for the client, it is also a loss of reputation for the supplier’s brand. However, with track and tracing tools, you have total control of the goods from the time they are picked and packed to the time they are delivered and signed for by the customer. Combine this with the knowledge that the right goods have been delivered to the right customer and the number of issues will be reduced dramatically.
5. Identifies Bottlenecks Within the Supply Chain
Tracking and tracing solutions also help to identify parts of the chain that are consuming too much time. Once you have this knowledge, you can work on how to correct it to establish supply efficiency.
Other notable benefits of tracking and tracing in a supply chain include:
- Easy product callbacks and returns
- Constant improvement
- Enhanced compliance
Conclusion
Tracking and tracing in a supply chain has become necessary because of its benefits, some of which we have highlighted in this post. Those that fail to leverage the benefits fall behind in the industry, so it is better to follow the trend mainly because of its benefits. Hence, you can get effective and efficient tracking and tracing solutions at PLM Global to enhance the management, visibility, quality control and customer service for your organisation.
