Supply chain resilience: Strategies for mitigating risk and improving agility

Your supply chain’s performance directly influences your business’s efficiency and productivity. As such, it is imperative to establish pre-emptive measures to prevent challenges arising from supply chain delays and issues. This is essential in maintaining the resilience and agility of your business.

We look at several initiatives that can be implemented in your business to minimise risk and enhance supply chain resilience.

Supply chain resilience refers to a company’s ability to adapt and overcome any issues, focusing on how quickly and easily it can recover from disruption. This is important because it allows businesses to reduce the negative impact of disruptions and reduce the likelihood of decreased efficiency.

A company’s ability to respond to changing market conditions will help its longevity. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the instability of the business environment. Therefore, a business that is unable to cope with industry changes is more likely to experience challenges.

Strategies for mitigating supply chain risks

 There are several potential strategies for mitigating supply chain risks, including:

1.Enhancing the overall visibility of the supply chain: Improved visibility allows you to spot potential risks and disruptions before they happen, which enables you to take proactive measures to prevent them. Implementing digital tools to provide real time data is key to achieving visibility.

2.Developing a plan for risk management: Creating a risk management strategy is crucial to effectively managing and responding to disruptions that may occur in your business operations.

3.Developing a solid relationship with your suppliers builds trust, improves communication, and allows for collaborative support in the face of disruption.

4.Leverage technology – the use of technology such as IFC’s cloud-based solutions can aid in identify and pre-emptively addressing potential risks.

5.Continuously monitoring and evaluating your supply chain performance will highlight areas that need improvement and can help improve your system.

 At IFC, we are committed to helping businesses develop a resilient supply chain, enhancing agility and risk mitigation to operate with greater efficiency. As such, IFC has developed two award-winning strategies to ensure our customers remain competitive with our ‘direct-to-store’ and ‘e-commerce’ models.

 Our direct-to-store model dramatically reduces production lead times through its simplified stock ordering process, resulting in improved sales forecasting and aids in marketing promotion planning. The e-commerce model, meanwhile, provides customer-specific supply chain solutions to e-commerce retailers. When consumers expect almost instantaneous delivery of goods, IFC can offer four-hour metropolitan delivery options for our customers, with a 99% success rate. The benefit of such efficient delivery is an improved customer experience, matching competitors’ delivery times and often exceeding expectations.

To learn more about how IFC’s risk mitigation strategies could benefit your business, contact us today.