July 12, 2019 ERP

Strategic Planning to a Smooth Supply Chain Management Process

By Fida-E Zaheer, Read 6 mins

The key to success for any type of business is to be organized and in control of the supply chain process.

To stay competitive in the market, producers need to be able to change supply in reaction to the slightest changes in consumer demands.

The way to go about this is to plan ahead and integrate each part of production so well together that it works like a single entity.

This integration of software ensures that information is automatically transmitted from one part of the production process to another – eliminating the need for switching between programs.

One of the most recommended software along these lines is Odoo.

Odoo offers different packages and modules specially targeted to fix such problems in different aspects of a business.

Odoo is one of the world’s topmost business applications, where they provide over 30 applications to be used by many business organizations ranging from small scale businesses to large companies.

They have over 1500 members. These members have contributed in expanding Odoo’s range to provide up to 1600+ apps, to get in touch with Odoo contact Syncoria.

Syncoria is a digital transformation solution provider based in Canada, and an official Odoo Ready partner.

Having an ERP system that can not only cater to your current requirements but also estimate your future needs is the prime method to get a smooth supply chain.

Smooth Supply Chain Management Process

Odoo’s open source ERP system is one such ERP system that integrates related useful applications and modules to plan ahead and manage businesses better.

Using this, streamlining your supply chain, writing a request for quotation, sending purchase orders, tracking your suppliers’ performances, essentially every possible feature you might need, is available –making managing your supply chain exceedingly easy.

To ensure your supply chain is working at its best, it needs to be automated to reduce human errors and time loss.

You always need to have the necessary equipment in stock and keep idle tools minimised to boost productivity.

Odoo apps were made just for this —it can automate the supply chain in the following ways:

Analyse, forecast and efficiently plan your orders.

It can estimate customer requirements, capacity management, and analyse demand patterns. You can get precise statistics on your suppliers’ performance through reports on delivery delays, negotiated discounts on costs, quantities purchased, etc.

Manage Material Request Cycle

The complete lifecycle management of equipment can be optimised using supply chain management tools with complete analysis of requests, days to fulfil the order, delays in processing, warehouse statistics and priority levels etc.

The application can automatically send requests for quotation to your suppliers based on your stocks levels.

It permits you to enhance your purchase and inventory performance with procurement rules based on stock levels, logistic rules, predict production orders, etc. It also lets you choose diverse replenishment plans for each product depending on your manufacturing and delivery strategies.

Make smart purchases using the best prices

You can easily import suppliers’ price lists and compare them to make smarter purchase decisions based on promotions, quantities and special contract conditions.

It lets you keep track of product availability in your supplier’s stock and check your order status from within the app. You can even set your sales price based on your supplier’s prices.

Moreover, you can negotiate with several vendors at once by launching purchase tenders, integrating vendors’ answers in the process and comparing propositions.

Finally you can use reporting to analyse the quality of your vendors afterwards. Odoo also offers Blanket Order Agreement to buy goods from a supplier at a negotiated price, on a recurring basis during a specific period of time.

Improved Inventory and Traceability

Odoo has an advanced double entry inventory system that gives you the most efficient stocking method and improves all your internal operations.

All operations are stock moves between locations instead of having to input and change the stock each time.

You can track every stock move from purchase to warehouse to sales order. You can also track any serial upstream or downstream from anywhere in your supply chain.

You can resolve complex supply chain proceedings through automatic monitoring and notifications with the application.

Warehouse Management System (WMS) monitors and controls the passage of products within the warehouse.

Shipping and receiving proceedings are controlled with advanced shipment alerts and picking and put away are tracked using implements like auto ID data capture (AIDC) and radio-frequency identification (RFID). WMS software even aids with the design of warehouse arrangement.

TMS software guides the passage of materials to and from the warehouse and the Logistics software can suggest the most efficient delivery modalities (air, land, sea). Moreover, deliveries can be observed by means of sat-comm and other communication tools.

Scheduled Maintenance Operations

Maintenance calls can be scheduled and recorded to keep track of costs. Both planned & unplanned maintenances are recorded automatically. The costs for components, time, labour materials etc. are taken into account. Cost of ownership also involves effective loss with unplanned maintenance which can be reduced with scheduled check-ups.

Integrated Vendor & Contract Management

The supply chain management is particularly hard to manage when global vendor management is considered.

With the application however, you can deal with orders, contracts of vendors from different countries and manage them effortlessly.

You can synchronize operations between different companies or warehouses, create sales orders, share customers, suppliers and products and manage invoices for all companies at the same time. You can reduce time loss by systematizing the invoicing procedure between all the enterprises.

Accurate Invoicing, Bills and stock management

You can Bill automatically based on sales orders, delivery orders, contracts, or time and material.

Moreover, you can take care of contracts, create repetitive invoices, bill timesheets, schedule automated follow ups, and receive online payments via Paypal, Ingenico, Buckaroo, Stripe, Authorize.net, Atos Worldline. You can use the status overview to help keep track of drafts, paid and unpaid invoices.

The application can automatically record all transactions from your bank accounts by importing and reconciling your bank statements and invoices from multiple vendors in different countries can be managed on a single platform.

The application allows you to ensure quality checks, receive inventory items and process bills using an integrated interface.

Track & Measure data according to you priorities

Dashboards and key performance indicators can be used for planning. The usage records, maintenance costs, remaining life of components etc. can be used for better capital & working expenses planning which reduces costs in the long run.

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