Agile and robust supply chains are core to business success
They’re called fast-moving consumer goods for a reason. And the food production sector moves faster than most with speed, agility and quality underpinning its global success.
The sector is of huge strategic importance to the Irish economy generating almost €24 billion (net selling value) or 18 per cent of total industrial production in 2022, according to the Central Statistics Office.
Household names such as Kerry, Fyffes, Kepak, Greencore and Glanbia have helped to establish Ireland as a leader in high-quality food production.
Many manufacturers operate in global markets and rely on robust, resilient supply chains to grow business, maximise profit margins and reduce operational risk in a hyper-competitive environment.
Supplier life cycle management is very often cited as a pain point by these companies, according to Andrea Wallace, director for Ireland with ServiceNow Elite partner, Unifii.
“Siloed workgroups and non-integrated line of business applications can lead to a situation where many organisations have no visibility over the day-to-day workflows associated with their key suppliers,” she said.
“This leads to a dip in staff productivity and a loss of production output, both of which negatively impact the bottom line.”
At a time of geopolitical unrest and unpredictable disruption to global supply chains, having that centralised, real-time view of supplier activity is critical for efficient procurement operations and ensures that risk to the supply chain can be minimised. The more integrated a supply chain system is with ERP the more robust the process can be.
Enabling seamless supplier collaboration
The goal of efficient supply chain management is to co-ordinate assets, balancing supply and demand so that raw materials, technology and labour are delivered on time and on budget. Having real-time data which points to a supplier delivering late or short-shipping allows for the adjustment of production schedules to minimise risk and protect against lost revenue.
“Suppliers need to be properly onboarded to ensure they integrate into the supply chain,” said Wallace.
“Their performance also needs to be tracked over time, SLAs enforced and forecast accuracy reviewed. Having this data readily available allows for accurate performance review and the ability to put measures in place to either improve supplier performance or contractually terminate the relationship,” she said.
ServiceNow provides a unified platform for complete supplier lifecycle management. It gives a 360-degree view of all supplier activity from supplier onboarding and managing the complex web of legal, regulatory and financial requirements to supplier intelligence, empowering teams to lower the overall cost of supplier engagement.
For example, legal can collaborate on contractual processes, finance can work on reviews and oversight and risk teams can tackle compliance requirements. A single pane of glass report provides a detailed view of each process supported by a cloud-based portal for staff to manage all day-to-day activity.
And because it integrates with existing ERP and procurement technologies, it can positively impact many workloads throughout the business.
“Supplier collaboration is a must, but organisations need the tools to help them make it a reality. We’re seeing increased interest in businesses looking to move away from supplier relationships that are dominated by reactive activity to ones which are structured, transparent and keep everyone on the same page,” said Wallace.
Unifii is a ServiceNow Elite partner with consultants in-country. The company works with some of Ireland’s best-known brands in food production, retail, engineering and IT services and can deploy complex projects in areas including IT asset management, IT service management, supplier lifecycle management and more.
For more information, see unifii.ie
Unifii Ireland
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