The landscape of the consumer goods industry is constantly changing. Effective consumer goods production should focus on growth and mitigation of the inherent risks contemporaneous to this process. Much of this risk stems from supply chain disruption, translating to a loss of customer value and brand damage in the long run. In fact, recent research regarding 250 manufacturing executives concurs that 43% had experienced a supply chain disruption in the last 12 months of the survey. Although it is difficult to identify weaknesses in the supply chain before a disruption occurs, there are several tools by which to achieve a near perfect understanding of operational weaknesses.

The dairy industry provides an excellent example for other consumer goods industries seeking to tackle risks leading to long term profit loss. Operational effectiveness is key here. Margins in dairy operations are slim, running from 0% to 5%. Being one of an essential direct store delivery consumer goods worldwide, these companies have made good on analytical strategies that focus on the supply chain strategy via various methods:

Physical: consolidating and relocation plants

Virtual: new technology investments

Scale: expansion to the point of even reallocating production among plants.

These measures have been found to ensure savings between 10% and 20% of costs. Technological investment can be Cloud-based. Supply chain solutions give companies an integrative layer perfect for data extraction from ERP. Even conventional solutions dealing with transportation of consumer goods and other milestones can be enhanced through features that allow extracting of information from trading partners, and other outside data sources. The cloud provides these services and more creating a connection between parties that will continue to grow over the years. Imagine a solution in which ERP, CRM and WMS data sources are woven together!

If your company is looking for pre built out of the box solutions, feel free to contact us to discuss options!