Companies know that the customer is king. So, what does a king want? And can you give it to him – before he wants it?
Customers want to be able to personalize the look and feel of their products. They want to be able to place an order anytime, anywhere and from any vendor. They want to be able to track their order from the moment they click the ‘buy’ button to the moment the product arrives at their doorstep. Or in their home. Or in their car boot. They want deliveries to be as fast and as inexpensive as possible – free, even. And they want to be able to change the details of their order (product type, specifications, delivery location, delivery time window) or cancel it all together within a reasonable amount of time after ordering, without getting penalized.
What would you say if I told you all of this is possible?
- In shipping, receivers can change a parcel’s destination and delivery time until the last minute.
- In retail, fully automated warehouses allow home delivery within hours of ordering – or even minutes, when predictive analytics can fill trucks with products not even ordered yet.
- In maritime logistics, containers are tracked throughout their journey, allowing the preparation of customer orders during transit based on a pre-selected range of products.
- In manufacturing, customers can personalize their orders to their specific needs, thanks to dynamic scheduling increasing production flexibility and efficiency.
Not convinced? Here’s how it starts…
The Right Solution
It starts with the right solution. And the right solution will work best with the right mindset: supply chain management must be customer-centric.
A solution like this enables end-to-end planning over your entire supply chain, across all time horizons. 100%-fit to your company’s specific requirements and constraints, it helps ensure that plans generated are feasible. It supports your planners in their decision-making with real-time impact analyses, scenario comparisons and record-breaking optimization.
Only a supply chain, made truly agile with the right solution, can react to the way customers want their products today – as well as predict and prepare you for what they will want tomorrow.
Sounds great, but we cannot afford it
Let’s turn this around. Instead of thinking of what you may have to pay for, perhaps start by considering the value the right solution would bring to your organization. You’d be able to significantly cut down your operating costs by always respecting your delivery time windows and meeting your company KPIs. You will also increase your margins and gain further market share. By utilizing your resources more effectively, you could boost your supply chain efficiency, and give your customers a more positive experience of your brand. By starting with the low-hanging fruit and working your way up toward achieving your business goals, a solution like this will practically pay for itself.
Martin Thesling ist als Berater für den Bereich Supply Chain Management und integrierte Planung bei Dassault Systèmes für die Marke DELMIA Quintiq tätig. Dies umspannt diverse Industrien und Bereiche z. B. Postlogistik, maritime Logistik, intermodale Transportlogistik oder Produktions- und Fertigungsprozesse. Martin Thesling begeistert sich bereits seit seinem Master in „Operations Research and Mathematical Economics“ der Universität Maastricht, Niederlande für komplexe Logistikprozesse.