As a midsize business owner or manager, you likely rely on your supply chain operating at maximum efficiency to ensure consistent production. Yet, many factors can influence that efficiency and you need to be flexible enough to manage the unexpected. The best-run companies consider hypothetical scenarios to ensure they have a backup plan that will work equally well to get them the supplies they need at reasonable cost and risk.
If it sounds complicated, that’s because it is. But the complexity of supply chain management doesn’t have to overwhelm you. The right software enables you to plug in different scenarios, vendors, and other information to help you make smart decisions and stay productive and profitable. A commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) application may provide the functionality you need. If not, consider custom software development.
Supply chain optimization software development services are available to help create exactly the tool you need. While this service will cost you money upfront, it can help save even more down the road by enabling you to seamlessly change plans when anything interferes with the smooth functioning of your supply chain and to help you scale up when the time is right.
What Is Supply Chain Optimization?
Supply chain optimization is the process by which business operators ensure a consistent influx of needed supplies, even when the unexpected happens. This process is critical for consistent production, order fulfillment, and customer satisfaction, as well as inventory management and high-level business planning, as described below:
1 Consistent production
If you’re in the business of making consumer products, you must have those products available to sell. And you must be able to send them in a timely manner.
2 Order fulfillment
While customers might be willing to wait for a product on backorder, it’s not a permanent solution. They can just as easily go to a competitor or decide they don’t want to wait and cancel their order altogether. Optimizing loading and delivery routes can help.
3 Customer satisfaction
In today’s business climate, positive customer experience (CX) is one of the primary differentiators and delayed shipments can turn it negative. You can use supply chain optimization to know when to send out notifications if an order is delayed, ensuring the kind of transparency customers have come to expect.
4 Inventory management
You need to know how much space you require for inventory, raw materials, and other equipment and how these elements will flow through your business. When you optimize your supply chain, you gain control over cost and space planning.
5 Business planning
It’s hard to make decisions about your business without accurate data. That includes in-the-moment data for making real-time decisions as well as facts that can help you plan for the next week, month, and year. Supply chain optimization can give you the facts you need to be smart about how to move forward.
How Custom Software Can Help
As mentioned above, a COTS application may be the perfect solution to help your company with supply chain optimization. But, if you decide to go with a custom software solution, you’ll be able to develop a system that matches your company’s workflows and includes the specific features you need. Additionally:
- You can determine the features that will increase the efficiency of your business processes. The software will bend to fit the way you do things rather than the other way around.
- Conversely, you don’t have to include unnecessary features that will only bog the software down. And you don’t have to spend time learning how to do things that don’t make sense for your business.
- When your company grows, you can easily increase the software’s functionality, enabling you to smoothly expand.
- Custom software is highly reliable, meaning less time wasted on frustrating problems.
- Custom software is also highly secure, meaning fewer worries about cyberattacks and less likelihood of having to spend time and money retrieving data and restoring your reputation.
Finding the Right Provider is Key
If you’re starting your search for supply chain optimization software development services, use the following checklist to get a good head start:
Begin by thinking about what you want to create.
Ask yourself and your team the following questions:
- What is our biggest challenge and how do we think updated software can help?
- What do we want to be able to do that we can’t do now?
- What are our short- and long-term goals?
With the answers to these questions.
You’ll be able to tell potential software vendors exactly what you need. (Remember that good custom software engineers will be good listeners, asking you additional questions to refine their understanding of what you hope to achieve).
Next, think about other needs.
Such as budget, whether you prefer an outsourced team working onsite or remotely, what staff you already have available, what languages you need the team to speak, and whether you want them to work in your time zone, during your business hours.
Request recommendations
To get started researching possible supply chain optimization software development services, request recommendations from colleagues and ask what they liked and didn’t like about the service they received. Also, ask if the end product met their expectations and whether they felt it was worth the cost. You can also do online searches to expand your list of potential providers.
Narrow down the list
Narrow down the list and visit each vendor’s website to determine if they meet the criteria you developed earlier. Here are a few additional considerations to research:
- Does the vendor have experience in your industry?
- Does the provider understand business considerations in addition to technical ones?
- Are they open to questions and discussing your project any time?
- What kind of post-development support do they offer?
Schedule in-person or video meetings
Schedule in-person or video meetings to get to know them even better. When you select a company to work with, be sure they offer a reasonable contract that you can feel confident signing.
Put BairesDev at the top of your list!
We strive to be not just a provider, but a partner. We take the time to understand your concerns and your software needs. When you choose BairesDev for supply chain optimization software development services, you get all the benefits of software outsourcing, including access to new talent, increased efficiency, more flexibility, mitigated risk, improved security, and effective results.
