5 Digital Workflow “Must-Haves” for Your Supply Chain

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5 Digital Workflow “Must-Haves” for Your Supply Chain

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In this digital age, the complexity and scale of sourcing activities have grown exponentially, and outdated processes are no longer sufficient to manage the intricacies of supply chain spend. Transitioning from analog supply chain processes to digital solutions is essential for enhancing sourcing productivity. One of the crucial factors is a deep understanding and meticulous management of workflows, which can serve as the backbone of an efficient procurement strategy.

According to a recent study conducted by LeanDNA, 56% of respondents worry about supply shortages and 41% of organizations are working towards diversifying their supply base in case of disruption.

Digital workflows can help streamline operations, improve efficiency, and supply chain visibility along with making smoother data-driven decisions, significantly improving business processes within the supply chain. The shift towards a digital supply chain facilitates the streamlining of operations and enhances efficiency across the board.

‍Benefits of a great digital procurement workflow:

1) Enhanced data visibility and analytics: Procurement teams should benefit from visibility into spend and supplier performance both real-time and historical to make data-driven decisions. Digital workflows help in discovering cost efficiencies and improve decision-making while reducing risk.

2) Cost reduction opportunities: Strong digital workflows with rich data help procurement teams identify actionable insights which is a crucial part for the strategic procurement process. When discovered early in implementation timelines, they can have the greatest impact on cost savings.

3)Enriched Bill of Materials: Most teams using Excel Workbook will struggle with consolidating and updating their BOMs often resulting in data errors and confusion. Digital workflows can easily track and monitor changes and generate valuable insights.

For example, LevaData’s BOM Awareness provides the dynamic ability to compare BOM revisions and get insights on every component including cost benchmarking, alternate part options, lead times, years to end of life risk, and more.

4)Supply Chain Risk Mapping: 41% of supply chain professionals claim procurement resilience to be their organization’s top priority in 2024. As global uncertainties continue, it’s critical for supply chain professionals to understand their geo-political risk, YTEOL of parts, financial ratings of suppliers and more to build agile supply chains, highlighting the importance of supply chain management in this context.

5) Improving Supplier Relationships: Most teams continue to struggle with the time-consuming process of reviewing supplier bids and collating the data. Automating the quoting process increases the agility of the procurement process and enables upscaling to larger volumes and comparing bids across suppliers. 36% of supply chain professionals fear fractured supplier relationships if their organizations are unprepared for future disruptions.

Optimizing supply chain processes through digital workflows is crucial for improved decision-making and maintaining a competitive edge in global supply chains. Companies with bigger teams and wider product ranges function differently and often get siloed. Mastering sourcing productivity through workflows is no longer an option but a necessity to remain at the forefront of innovation in the global supply chain.

Digital workflows, with their advanced analytics and automation offer significant advantages over traditional models which are characterized by standalone systems and manual physical processes.  

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