5 Ways to Increase Productivity & Performance in Your Supply Chain

Focusing on tactics that will increase a supply chain’s productivity is essential to achieving positive customer satisfaction. There are some very effective ways to do this outside of systems, logistical infrastructure and analytics.

These tactics require that communication within the supply chain must be established and maintained with a high expectation for improvement. Emphasizing the importance of continuous education among employees and management is also vital to the improvement of processes, products, and services

Furthermore, the foundation of a performance-driven culture in a supply chain will result in maximized savings, improved service levels, and an inspired team of talented employees.

Follow these five guidelines to successfully increase the productivity of your supply chain:

1. Efficient Communication: Communicate with your employees in a clear and concise manner that defines organizational goals and the methods to achieve those goals. This communication is crucial to a supply chain’s operations and productivity. By scheduling daily and weekly meetings devoted to collaborative problem-solving, management is able to make essential changes regarding performance. This diligent problem-solving ensures a unified understanding of productivity and operations that will facilitate open communication between employees and management.
2. Development of Procedure Standards: The development of procedure standards reduces error within the supply chain and saves both time and money. Focus on the reduction of probable variation in areas such as receiving, quality control, shipping, shift scheduling, and facilities management. This is one of the many ways to increase collective productivity and establish procedure standards.
3. Determination of Importance: Continuous improvement to supply chain productivity depends on where employees and management focus their time and attention. Do not waste time measuring an outcome if it is not significant to customers and shareholders. Instead, try to focus your key performance indicators on 5-7 critical areas that drive your business, for example: Safety, Service/On-Time Delivery, Inventory Accuracy/Turns, Productivity, Cost per Unit/Total Landed Cost, Product Damage/Claims, Customer Satisfaction.
4. Engage, Align, and Empower Your Workforce: Focus on the core skills of employees and management to empower them. This focus will foster confidence and result in a continuous increase of productivity. Gaining the buyin of your workforce makes it possible to create new ways to engage and align, to ultimately increase productivity. Be sure to define your supply chain’s goals in a clear and concise method that will allow employees and management to take advantage of existing and future opportunities for improvement.
5. Construct a Powerful Training Program: First, formulate a comprehensive plan to increase productivity, reduce costs, and improve customer service and satisfaction levels. Then tie an incentive plan into the supply chain’s core mission, a critical element to building a performance-based approach. Incorporate your workforce into the culture of the supply chain by emphasizing ways in which employees and management may improve their workplace strategies and execution. This constructive training will drive a successful organization and improve supply chain productivity.

Increasing productivity within the supply chain is achieved through a top down approach - everything rises and falls on leadership. Leaders must practice effective communication, create procedure standards, determine a hierarchy of importance, empower the workforce, and enact a powerful training program. Working in unison, management and employees will create and establish a performance-based culture within a company and its supply chain.

A company actively seeking increased supply chain productivity is advised to seek the guidance of an experienced logistics professional. The expertise of a logistics professional will assist a company with the execution of organizational improvements, management of supply chain procedures, and the reevaluation of goals and workforce performance.

Several Supply Chain Outsourcing White Papers from our Supply Chain 24/7 Resources page can provide further information on this.