Modern supply chains are global, fast paced and very complex with a myriad of pertinent prerequisites, thus necessitating organisations to adopt a critical risk and process-based approach encompassing procurement, risk, finance and compliance. Using a range of team-based management tools, tools such as PESTLE with the addition of H&S can be a very useful base line; however, a more comprehensive and structured approach is needed in order to minimise risk and add value to your supply chain management. That’s why it is of paramount importance that organisations accurately identify their interested parties and what each party now requires. Compliance alone is no longer enough!

We can review or help draft your supply chain compliance to minimise the associated risks and base our delivery on our eight principles which we would use as our framework when helping you improve your supply chain compliance:

1. Formalise your management system in objectives, policies, procedures and processes. Ensure these are infused within the organisation
2. Do your due diligence on your supply chain, know who you are dealing with and selling to. Don’t just do it once, this is a continual process, THINGS CHANGE!
3. Establish a supplier / vendor monitoring and management system that will output factual data. Act on that data! Keep that data live and current. Continually act on it
4. Risk – Manage it carefully but thoroughly
5. Consider a collaborative arrangement across the customer / supplier and third-party arena. This needs to be global to gain data on your supply chain ‘locally’
6. Don’t skimp on associated training
7. Make sure your supply chain is socially acceptable. Review this, listen to media habits, opinions, stances and politics change
8. Protect your brand and your bottom line

In helping shape your supply chain management, we can base the rationale on international standards which you may wish to expand and gain third party certification. We can help with this:

The above is not exhaustive, but each can play a role in structuring your business processes. Moving forward, focus on import and export compliance will no doubt increase as part of day to day activity within the UK and global supply chain. Additionally, business should be aware of overarching compliance requirements especially when addressing regulatory concerns such as ITAR, EAR and UK Strategic Export Control Lists. Diligence should also be foremost with issues such as human trafficking, forced labour, sustainability and cyber security.

Supply chain management involves an organisation’s flow of goods and services from raw material to finished products. It encompasses the whole of the business processes to bring together the right materials to the pertinent processes at the given time, thus creating a combined process that offers an effective and value adding operation.

Supply chain management is critical to modern businesses and gaining maximum value must be a corporate objective. Coordinating this with the financial strategy and cashflow forecasts must one of the prime processes of the business.

We can help your business formulate a strategy / plan that can bring about an efficient, controlled and value adding supply chain from source to delivered product and beyond to spares market. We can use Kanban, JIT, Lean, Analytics and Vendor Partnerships