Monitor and Improve your Global Supply Chain Visibility
Are you tired of the lack of visibility in your global supply chain? Of being kept in the dark in terms of exactly where your shipments are, and when they’ll arrive? Are your suppliers giving you long “windows” of arrival dates–due to high variability–and so your lead-times are sky-rocketing through the roof? If so, we understand your frustration.
Our approach to improve Supply Chain visibility
Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to see supply chains that span the globe; over oceans and through mountains. Due to the great geographic distances, communication impediments, and the high variability involved in global shipments, supply chain visibility and late shipments become major obstacles in the way of expanding businesses.
Our MachSix software suite utilizes Lean best-practices to improve supply chain visibility. You can use the software to open up communications with your suppliers, and virtually shrink the entire globe, through the web, to fit into one holistic, actionable view. Our web-based software can manage the flow of materials across global supply chains, pull data from any Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system (whether it’s an internal system or several external systems from different companies), and grant all supply-chain partners the ability to monitor their shipments and react to potential disruptions.
Conduct a Pull-Design Workshop
The first step to improving supply chain visibility is to design a supply chain strategy that will work best for your company. We recommend our Pull-Design Workshop as a starting place. The benefits are threefold: to develop consensus in your organization on the best supply chain design, to create a relevant business case to greenlight the project, and to identify which software tools you’ll need to support and sustain the new approach to monitor your global supply chain.
Implement your flavor of Pull with Invistics Pull Manager
Now comes implementing and sustaining that design. Lean best-practice dictates it’s best to let consumption (or demand) drive your manufacturing process. With Pull Manager, you can quickly and easily implement electronic-Kanban (or other flavors of Pull) globally, so you can grind down some of that demand variability causing those late shipments.
Monitor your supply chain with Flow Path Health and Lean Insights Modules
Our Flow Path Health module provides real-time visibility from order-to-fulfillment. You can gain visibility into the health of process, purchase, and customer orders through charts and graphs. You can continually monitor current orders and production and address problems as soon as they occur.
Using the Lean Insights module, you can utilize data from existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and consolidate transactions from existing multiple third-party Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and Laboratory Information Management (LIMS) systems to measure actual historical cycle times from order entry to shipment, and from receipt of raw materials through shipment. With Lean Insights you also gain visibility into the cycle time versus production goal for the entire business and be able to drill down to each step in the material flow.
Contact us today to discuss your needs for improved supply chain visibility and to assess if our solution fit your needs.
