In March the Institute of Supply Chain Management conducted the first phase of a survey that investigated what impact COVID-19 would have on businesses and supply chains. The results were staggering with nearly 75 percent of companies reporting supply chain disruptions in some capacity due to transportation restrictions, and more than 80 percent who believed that their organisation would experience some impact because of COVID-19 disruptions.
While this survey was conducted in the United States, there is no doubt the results can be seen as a global trend. Companies across the world are experiencing massive restrictions and challenges.
The national lockdown instituted by the South African government towards the end of March has created a unique set of challenges for local businesses and consumers alike. With massive restrictions placed on the movement of people and goods, the distribution industry has felt the fall out quite keenly.
Some of the major challenges the sector has faced are staff and customer safety and radically shifting demand trends (unprecedented demand for essential goods/services and a complete lack of demand for others). These fluctuations at a time of uncertainty are hard to plan for.
Thankfully there are technologies available that can dramatically improve efficiencies and support companies’ ability to weather these shocks.
The wholesale and distribution marketplace has traditionally been highly competitive, leaving companies with little room to manoeuvre. In the past, in order for businesses to succeed, they had to differentiate themselves by excelling at customer service and keeping prices competitive.
However, this global crisis is creating unprecedented challenges and businesses are being forced to innovate and optimise beyond the usual in order to navigate their unexpected vulnerabilities. This is likely to accelerate digital transformation with tech-led businesses emerging as industry leaders.
Says Managing Director of Seidor Africa, Heinrich de Leeuw, “In order to effectively digitise your business and create a competitive advantage in a currently ‘disrupted supply chain’, it will be important to ensure that your Enterprise Resource Planning system is on-par with the latest technology innovation to enable synchronisation between your physical supply chain of goods and your digital supply chain of information.”
Digital transformation and end-to-end information management is going to be key to future-proofing distribution businesses. With a leading ERP tool such as SAP Business One, what would this look like?
Now more than ever wholesalers and distributors must be optimising their stock holding and making their internal processes, from sales to shipping, purchasing to warehouse management, as streamlined, responsive and effective as possible, using the best digital technology available to them.