Customer-centricity is one of the most important aspects of the business. A famous saying is that you shouldn’t find customers for your products, but instead, make products for your customers. Businesses that focus on fulfilling their customer’s needs are the businesses that thrive. A well-managed supply chain is a key to happy customers. After all, fulfillment of offerings on time and efficiently is all a customer wants! Add to that great post-sales support, options for reverse logistics, and transparency, and you have happy customers.
The Covid-19 pandemic caused major disruptions to something that has run like clockwork for years. This forced supply chain management professionals to think outside the box and develop new ways to deal with these modern challenges. In post-Covid times, fulfilling customer demands has changed slightly since the entire world was forced to work remotely through digital systems from home. So how does the logistics sector deal with these new challenges? Let’s find out.
Challenges
The main challenge of this change is that people will adapt to working under very different conditions, which will be favorable and comfortable in the longer run. Global trade will revive eventually, and things will go back to normal, but some changes will be here to stay. Air travel faced major restrictions, making the travel of freight a very difficult occurrence. Ocean freight had been looked at as a viable option for the times to come ahead. Let’s see what logistics companies should focus on.
1. Digitization: This first point is the biggest change that logistics companies had to face. Since their workforce started moving from home, adapting digital mediums to conduct business became a must. There are plenty of digital tools that allow employees to interact and collaborate. Business managers will need to figure out the best way to keep themselves relevant and get the most out of their workforce.
2. Capacity Planning: Since air freight stopped becoming an option, managers must think ahead and plan capacity management. Understanding the containers and space management is important, more so when you are changing the entire processes of how your business is done. Every freight forwarder doesn’t understand the specialized NVOCC business model. On top of that, problems like truck shortages, driver absence, etc., will also cause issues to supply chains. This is why capacity management must be paid special attention to.
3. Integrated WMS: Flexible and technologically stable solutions are a must, especially in the post-Covid era. Warehousing has been a manual task for a long time, but warehouses can be managed and processes can be automated using WMS (Warehouse Management Software) due to modern advancements. There are many WMS on the market, but integrating your existing warehouse with a WMS would require professional help that ARK India can provide you with. With our help, you can have a WMS-enabled warehouse setup to enhance your processes and increase profits!
4. Financial Planning: Because of many variables of the process changing for good, financial planning needs to be tweaked. Preventing leakages and managing tight financial situations is going to be even more important given the times we are in. Logistics managers must provide important inputs for the entire supply chain so that costs are managed better. Handling this phase well financially will determine how smooth the transition into normalcy will be when it is time.
5. Communication: No supply chain is viable without foolproof and clear communication. The communication across the channels must be managed seamlessly so that the supply chain runs smoothly. Managers must spend some time and resources identifying and addressing pain points across the supply chain and finding solutions. A tech-friendly and modern logistics partner is one way this can be managed with ease, and ARK India is your go-to place for any supply chain-related partnerships.