3 Benefits Of Using Supplier Management Within Your Logistics Processes

In the world of the supply chain and logistics processes, having multiple sources of procurement is a common theme. Often, companies will need to find multiple sources of procurement for the best possible material sourcing, and for high quality relationships. This, however, can become complex. Having multiple sources means managing many different relationships and other processes that accompany it. With this overwhelming task, companies can easily make mistakes which can be costly.

Supplier management for these reasons is a great choice for any company with multiple sources of procurement. It involves outsourcing the management of vendors for procurement. These professionals will typically have significant experience in improving the efficiency of these processes and keep the operation running smoothly.

If you are feeling overwhelmed with all of the vendors you are dealing with, and want to improve transactional efficiency and vendor relationship, then outsourced supplier management might just be for you.

Read on to find out what they can do for your logistics processes.

Reduced Price Volatility

Price volatility involves reducing the fluctuation of goods. Fluctuation of goods can happen for a number of reasons, including shortages of materials or increased demand for a certain product. This can mean that your business may miss out on products at some point, which could harm your business. When outsourcing your supplier management to professionals, you are able to reduce price volatility. A way this is done is by negotiating a fixed price agreement with the vendor. In doing so, you may fix a certain price, and they are obligated to supply you with products regularly. These fixed prices are usually agreed upon through supplier management by agreeing to a certain price for a set period of time, before having slow increases in price over a long period of time. Both you and the vendor win, and you ensure stock is always available for you.

Streamlines the Supply Chain

The supply chain is something that involves many different processes, and when these processes pile up, it can get out of hand. This can make managing the supply chain difficult and complex. With supplier management, you help to reduce the number of vendors you work with, which helps to streamline the supply chain. In streamlining the supply chain by reducing the number of vendors, they are able to focus on specific relationships which would be beneficial to the company. They are able to bargain better deals and ultimately save costs for the company. With supplier management, they are also able to gain more valuable information, such as what the supplier is looking for in a buyer and how they can meet these demands to garner good deals.

Improved Flexibility of Supply Chain

Flexibility of the supply chain is vital, as it means that it can react quickly to any changes that may disrupt it. In doing so, it can minimize disruption and keep the supply chain running smoothly. To achieve supply chain flexibility, supplier management will typically take the advice of its own consultants and experts in order to apply these to their client company. In making these changes, the client company can improve flexibility. Further, the client company has access to the resources and technology that supplier management companies provide, and this will further improve flexibility, as they can react better in case of any disruptions.

Supplier management is a crucial part of a successful supply chain, and here at BCR, we understand this better than most. For this reason, we offer supplier management, in which we will help to automate schedule exception reporting, provide PO management, help to set up KPIs, monitor vendors and their compliance and streamline information flow through our exceptional warehouse management.

Feel free to contact us now for a consultation!

How The Supply Chain Was Kept Up And Running Through 3pl Companies During The Pandemic

The COVID19 pandemic affected the entire world, including a number of different industries. The virus spread throughout populations across the world, and subsequently forced entire populations into lockdown. As such, the business world was disrupted in a major way, with the supply chain for many companies also being disrupted. It caused logistics processes, and the supply chain subsequently, to be slowed down, with great difficulty surrounding the procurement of materials and the shipping of products worldwide. People were more wary of what entered their borders, and the processes involved in the supply chain increased tenfold as a result. This, of course, slowed down the logistics process, causing supermarkets to go out of stock, customers to take longer to receive items and so on.

So, how do 3pl companies come into play? How exactly did they help to keep the supply chain up and running?

Read on to find out.

They Drove Cost Savings

During a time of uncertainty and instability, people were reluctant to spend, including companies. Driving cost savings was absolutely crucial in order to allow for companies to have enough to keep themselves afloat in case the worst happened. As such, those using 3pl companies for their supply chain typically drove further cost savings than others. The supply chain involves a multitude of different processes, which can be expensive when handled on your own. From hiring warehouses, to employees and other professionals to manage logistics and so on, all of this costs a significant amount of money overall. With 3pl companies, all of these aspects are handled by outsourced professionals with access to high quality resources. Thereby, companies using 3pl companies typically saved a lot more on costs compared to those that didn’t.

Kept Shipments of Products on Time

During the pandemic, countries became much more wary of what was entering their boarders. To add to this, there was usually a delay in the logistics processes/supply chain, and processing of documentation. Consequently, this often made shipments late. Those handling their supply chain with 3pl companies, however, often had their shipments of products kept on time. This is largely because of the access to resources, equipment and connections that these companies offer. With this, they are available to leverage technology and other resources to keep the shipments on time, by streamlining the logistics process and focusing on planning ahead for shipments.

Ability to Make Quick Decisions

The pandemic and the volatile situation it created required quick decisions to be made due to last minute changes, in order to keep the supply chain running. Those without 3pl companies would need to rely on themselves to make these decisions regardless of how busy they were with other parts of the business. As such, these companies largely suffered. Those who had their supply chain handled by 3pl companies, usually were fine. This is because outsourced professionals only handle the logistics processes, and will be made aware of any changes and an use their experience to make quick decisions. Because they are highly used to this environment, and have access to information, they were able to make decisions which were intelligent.

Overall, the COVID19 pandemic disrupted entire industries, including the supply chain for many companies. This caused significant delays in the supply chain, which ultimately caused problems for companies and consumers. Those with a 3pl company would largely have had smooth running operations, in comparison to those that did not.

As such, our team here at BCR highly recommends our services to any companies, as you never know what might happen and when you will need help. With our professional services, we can guarantee that your business will always run smoothly, no matter what.

Contact us now for a consultation!

How Artificial Intelligence Enhances Third Party Logistics Capability

While a boogeyman in the 1980s, Artificial Intelligence has gained a lot of traction in the realm of third party logistics. There were not shortage of films, literature, television, and general campfire stories that foretold a world of self-aware machinery running amok. Thankfully, they remain stories in the fictional side of life.

Truth be told, at BCR, we couldn’t be more excited for the practical utility that AI and its various subsets (machine learning etc.) brings to third party logistics as well as to grand scale supply chain management. The fear that most people have (besides the fictional) about artificial intelligence implementation is that it could lead to a loss of jobs – this could not be further from the truth.

In fact, as AI becomes more integrated into third party logistics protocols, there’ll be even more credence for human intervention and consciousness in decision-making. As AI systems become more intuitive, they will further enhance the experience for clients and workers throughout the supply chain model – tightening up response times and exponentially increasing productivity and efficiency.

Let’s explore a few of the ways that artificial intelligence technologies are changing the way we perceive third party logistics – and the potential it holds for the future.

Analytical Capabilities

Collating, managing, and reading through mounds of data was once the most time-consuming aspect to maintaining an effective process in third party logistics. Detecting trends and maximising efficiency had to be conducted with a great number of variables in mind to avoid potential avenues being missed or miscalculated.

With the implementation of artificial intelligence systems that have the ability to render and analyse complex and dense amounts of data in real-time. As third party logistics providers, we can take advantage of this processing power, we can detect and mobilise on trends as they occur, rather than waiting until its too late.

It’s not just the analysis of past data that is enhanced with AI and ML capabilities in third party logistics, they also offer transparency by tracking with peak accuracy on relative elements occurring throughout the warehouse, delivery routes, and packing procedures across the entire supply chain. As an example, some companies have begun installing AI monitoring components to their facilities to focus on quality and efficiency assurance for clients and customers.

Through complex learning capabilities, these systems have allowed more third party logistics providers to bolster their ability to tighten loose ends and perform beyond expectations, which smooths out the experience for everyone involved.

Practical Enhancement

Analytics and data organisation is one key aspect to AI’s positive influence in the space – the practical benefits are almost endless as well.

While Tesla’s self-driving cars are still wandering across their fair share of testing grounds – the notion that machine learning can be implemented in autonomous vehicles spells a positive future for the delivery side of third party logistics. The prospect of driverless trucks and automated delivery systems is a lucrative one at that, once the technology catches up a little more of course.

Warehousing has already seen its fair share of enhancement thanks to autonomous organisation and communicative synchronisation of delegated tasks within its network of robotic workers. This has implications for the scalability of most third party logistics providers like us, with automated delegation and prioritization of the supply chain in real-time and with data-based considerations automatically implemented.

A BCR Future

We’ve been in the supply chain game for over 100 years, we’ve seen technology and capability shoot far beyond our expectations. The prospect of a more efficient supply chain and intuitive third party logistics protocol bolstered with AI parameters is certainly exciting. We’ll be keeping a steady eye on the developments as they manifest.