The present concept of the supply chain has revolutionized the corporate world and has helped businesses and manufacturing firms to become more efficient, robust, lean and profitable. Supply chain management has now encompassed the movement of all goods within a manufacturing company into an efficient flow. The supply chain is the procurement of raw material and consumables needed for manufacturing and the regular flow of finished products to warehouses and customers. There are supply chain consulting companies in India that help client companies make their supply chain system strong and help the companies reduce their costs and become more efficient.
Supply chain consulting firms have professionals in almost every industry field. The first study the existing system in client companies and then suggest major modifications and sometimes even major overhauling of the prevalent system of operations within the client company. Supply chain consulting also involves implementing the suggested recommendations, working with the various divisions within the client companies, and then demonstrating the improvement after a few months of trial with the proposed new system.
Supply chain consulting companies are actually only a phone call away. Once contacted, a team from the supply chain consulting services will visit the company that has contacted them and find out what is required from the supply chain consultant. Once the initial need for supply chain consulting is understood, the consulting team will brief the client company’s top management about their services and work out a mutual agreement on the type of work to be done.
Supply chain consulting companies in India provide several inputs such as staff training, change in procurement practices for raw material and spares, production scheduling, production planning, reduction in raw material and finished product inventories, warehouse management, and logistics. A major part of the consulting activity is changing the concept of supply chain management as most companies carry out supply chain management in isolated and haphazard ways. The consultants’ work also includes lean practices where production is trimmed to ensure that only saleable products are made, and no build-up of inventory is allowed at any stage.
Supply chain consulting companies in India work with the staff in client companies and help revamp their entire supply chain system. Depending on the type of contract agreed with the client company, the consultants work on the production, procurement and logistics systems to ensure efficient movement of material. Supply chain consulting also includes regular interaction with marketing, planning and production to ensure that only products of outstanding quality that are required in the market are made and shipped out regularly to fulfil demand. Regional demands are also examined to ensure that required material quantities are shipped to various regions. There is no reshuffling of products due to wrong demand figures from one region to another. Revamping of logistics is necessary to ensure there is minimum unnecessary movement of material.
Supply chain management also looks at the location of warehouses and service centres and whether they are located strategically close to high demand locations. Supply chain consultants may recommend reducing, adding, or relocating warehouses to reduce transportation costs.
Even within the client company, supply chain consulting looks at processes and analyses rework, rejections and scrap generation and recommends improvement to help reduce production costs.
Supply chain consulting is a great opportunity for companies to reorient themselves to make themselves more efficient and cut unnecessary costs. These consultants have a lot of best practices to offer and are just a phone call away.