• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile

  • CORONAVIRUS
  • LOGISTICS
    • Air Cargo
    • All Logistics
    • Express/Small Shipments
    • Facility Location Planning
    • Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
    • Global Gateways
    • Global Logistics
    • Last Mile Delivery
    • Logistics Outsourcing
    • LTL/Truckload Services
    • Ocean Transportation
    • Rail & Intermodal
    • Reverse Logistics
    • Service Parts Management
    • Transportation & Distribution
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud & On-Demand Systems
    • Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
    • ERP & Enterprise Systems
    • Forecasting & Demand Planning
    • Global Trade Management
    • Inventory Planning/ Optimization
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Sales & Operations Planning
    • SC Finance & Revenue Management
    • SC Planning & Optimization
    • Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
    • Supply Chain Visibility
    • Transportation Management
  • GENERAL SCM
    • Business Strategy Alignment
    • Education & Professional Development
    • Global Supply Chain Management
    • Global Trade & Economics
    • HR & Labor Management
    • Quality & Metrics
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • SC Security & Risk Mgmt
    • Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • WAREHOUSING
    • All Warehouse Services
    • Conveyors & Sortation
    • Lift Trucks & AGVs
    • Order Fulfillment
    • Packaging
    • RFID, Barcode, Mobility & Voice
    • Robotics
    • Warehouse Management Systems
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Apparel
    • Automotive
    • Chemicals & Energy
    • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Food & Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • High-Tech/Electronics
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical/Biotech
    • Retail
  • REGIONS
    • Asia Pacific
    • Canada
    • China
    • Europe
    • Latin America
    • Middle East/Africa
    • North America
  • THINK TANK
  • PODCASTS
  • VIDEOS
  • WHITEPAPERS
Home » You Need Technologies That Give a Multi-Tier View

You Need Technologies That Give a Multi-Tier View

March 25, 2014
SupplyChainBrain

More than ever, organizations are seeing a need to share critical information with suppliers, whether for operational planning purposes or to increase visibility into the supply chain. The more visibility organizations have into their supply chains, the better able they are to have an in-depth look at inventory, location of materials at any point in time, and supplier processes and patterns that allow for predictability. Visibility also enables organizations to identify and manage possible supply chain risk. Organizations cannot maintain effective risk management programs and respond quickly to supply chain disruptions without access to key information about their suppliers.

As part of APQC’s recent study, Managing the Risk of Supply Chain Disruption, an overwhelming majority (83 percent) of the 198 participating organizations reported that they were caught off guard by an unexpected supply chain disruption in the last 24 months. This indicates that organizations could do much more to prepare for potential supply chain disruptions. The same study found that the majority of participating organizations identified having poor visibility into risk factors among tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers as the top obstacle to their supply chain risk management program.

A separate APQC study on supplier category management featured organizations that have taken steps to improve supply chain visibility. For example, ATMI—a provider of technologies for the semiconductor, life science, and flat panel display industries—developed a proprietary system that increases visibility into the origin of the materials in its products. ATMI’s approach includes an alert system that uses information from multiple tiers of suppliers. The alert system tracks the components of ATMI’s top revenue-generating products down to the base elements, providing the company with a clear picture of where components come from and what the components contain. When disruptions occur, the system alerts ATMI if any of its suppliers (or its suppliers’ suppliers) are affected. This, in turn, enables the organization to find alternative sources of materials quickly, before competitors are even aware of a potential supply problem.

Close relationships with suppliers, along with innovative solutions like the alert system implemented by ATMI, will be needed for companies to achieve greater visibility into their supply chains. Organizations must consider implementing tools that allow data visibility and the smart use of data. For a global supply chain to be efficient, there must be cross-functional responsibility and systems that work well together.

                                                          The Outlook

As organizations continue to look at ways to increase supply chain visibility, they will innovate new ways to monitor multiple tiers of suppliers. By using technologies, an organization and its suppliers can exchange information more efficiently and achieve greater visibility. A visible supply chain can improve performance and costs by helping organizations identify supply chain risks and inefficiencies as they occur.

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED VIDEOS

Technology Supply Chain Visibility Global Supply Chain Management
KEYWORDS Andrea Stroud APQC collaboration Global Supply Chain Management Information Sharing Research Program Manager supplier network Supply Chain Analysis & Consulting supply chain IT Supply Chain Management Supply Chain Management: Supply Chain Visibility Supply Chain Visibility Technology visibility
  • Related Articles

    Should You Lease or Buy That New Equipment That You Need?

    Do I Really Need a Tier 1 WMS?

    What You Need Is a Global Leader, But How Should We Define Who and What That Is?

SupplyChainBrain

100 Great Supply Chain Partners Issue 2009

More from this author

Wake up to Coronavirus Updates and the latest Supply Chain News!

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

Popular Stories

  • Coronavirus-watch-Armada

    Virus Update: Biden Unveils National Strategy; Pfizer Says It’s Willing to Sell Vaccine to States

    Coronavirus
  • Car Industry

    A Year of Poor Planning Led to Carmakers’ Massive Chip Shortage

    Technology
  • Can Employers Require Employees to Get the COVID-19 Vaccine? Part 1

    Watch: Can Employers Require Employees to Get the COVID-19 Vaccine? Part 1

    Coronavirus
  • U.S. Vaccine Rollout Hindered by Faulty Coordination, Messaging

    WHO Fumes at Western Drugmakers As China Fills Vaccine Void

    Coronavirus
  • COVID-19 Vaccine

    Vaccine Disparities Raise Alarm as COVID-19 Variants Multiply

    Coronavirus

Digital Edition

Scb home issue 27

2020 Supply Chain Innovator of the Year

VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

Case Studies

  • LSP Saves Customer $1.5 Million a Year With MPO Global Inbound Management

  • Auto Supplier Wows Key Client Using riskmethods Supply Chain Savvy

  • Integrating Shipping and Compliance Saves Conglomerate Millions

  • How a Consumer Goods Giant Upped Its On-Time Delivery Performance

  • LSP Wows Global Client, Quickly Advances to Become End-to-End Provider

Visit Our Sponsors

6 River Systems ArcBest Armada
aThingz BluJay Burris Logistics
DSC Logistics DCSA (Digital Container Shipping Association) DHL Resilience360
Genpact GEP Honeywell Intelligrated
Infor Logility Magnitude Software
MPO Old Dominion Oliver Wight
OpenSky Ports America Purolator
QAD Precision Red Classic Riskmethods
TGW Systems Transportation Insights Watson Land Company
Westfalia Technologies Workjam Yang Ming
  • More From SCB
    • Featured Content
    • Video Library
    • Think Tank Blog
    • SupplyChainBrain Podcast
    • Whitepapers
    • Webinars
  • Digital Offerings
    • Digital Issue
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Your Subscription
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Events Calendar
    • SCB's Great Supply Chain Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Case Study Showcase
    • Supply Chain Innovation Awards
    • 100 Great Partners Form
  • SCB Corporate
    • Advertise on SCB.COM
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • Data Sharing Opt-Out

All content copyright © 2016 - 2018 Keller International Publishing Corp All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Keller International Publishing Corp

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing