Supply chain resilience is the key to success in today’s market where supply chains have been tested more than ever before. Supply Cloud plays an important role in supply chain management. In particular, small to mid-size businesses (SMBs) have an opportunity with Supply Cloud to reimagine their supply chain as a growth-driver in the face of market shifts and inevitable disruption.

A resilient supply chain is a supply chain with the ability to prepare itself for and adapt to unexpected events and disruptions that might negatively affect its performance. Plus, it should be able to effectively function during a disruption, quickly recover to a pre-disruption state, and be agile enough to meet new demands when the customer or business partner needs change.

Manufacturers and suppliers use several strategies to build supply chains capable of coping with supply chain shocks, such as optimizing production with better supply chain planning, understanding and leveraging data, diversifying suppliers and manufacturing partners, and implementing capacity and inventory buffers. The result is a growing complexity of partner networks that, ironically, weaken supply chain performance.

A resilient but inefficient supply chain is not the answer.

By creating a robust and tightly connected digital marketplace, Supply Cloud allows manufacturers and suppliers to quickly adapt to the dynamic needs, drive new business innovations, and meet customer expectations.

For manufacturers, digitization and resilience go hand in hand.

A digitized supply chain helps improve planning, enhance visibility, predict disruptions, and maximize the productivity of assets with embedded data intelligence and real-time visibility. It makes it easier for businesses to implement technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud and edge computing, IoT, and blockchain – all of which are needed to create supply chain resiliency.

Traditional supply chains use standalone systems. Supply Cloud uses integrated technology systems that work seamlessly together, eliminating silos, and creating transparency within the supply chain.

Furthermore, traditional supply chains rely on historical inputs. Supply Cloud leverages real-time information updated automatically. This enables timely responses, allowing businesses to identify issues or risks before they become disruptive.

Adding new trading partners within traditional supply chains is cumbersome and is often faced with delays. With its OneConnect technology, Supply Cloud makes adding partners fast and easy, allowing your business to scale and grow.

The digitalization provided by Supply Cloud improves supply chain forecasting and allows for better inventory planning. Lead times are reduced as electronic orders flow seamlessly without the need for translations or manual intervention. Time to market shrinks drastically as product information for new lines is transmitted electronically to all trading partners.

Supply Cloud Creates an Agile Supply Chain

Supply Cloud streamlines interactions between trading partners, creating a centralized, synchronized data ecosystem with which manufacturers and suppliers can respond to disruptions effectively.

Trading partners using Supply Cloud to communicate, exchange documents, and transmit product information interact more seamlessly and frequently, develop a better understanding of each other’s business, and strengthen their business relationships. Together, they can collaborate to solve problems and exploit opportunities more effectively.

Digitization helps embed visibility and intelligence into supply chains. With Supply Cloud’s connected supply chain, manufacturers can predict disruptions, enhance visibility, improve planning, and maximize asset productivity.

Resiliency means not just operating and surviving now. It also means building better processes and operations for the future. Supply Cloud allows manufacturers and suppliers to operate in a resilient, secure, and sustainable way.