The Guide to Selecting Supply Chain Management Software

Understand the benefits of Supply Chain Management Software for your organization by breaking down the key features and taking an in-depth look at the markets top performing Supply Chain Management Software. 

Aaron Klein

Aaron Klein

Introduction

Supply chain management (SCM) in today’s global economy is a complex network of processes involving the planning and oversight of goods and services moving from suppliers to customers. To keep pace with the market and be competitive in this space you need end-to-end visibility of your supply chain, as well as real-time accurate data and predictive analytics to ensure product availability and timely delivery.

Supply chain management software is so crucial for businesses to optimize their supply chain operations, reduce costs, and enhance customer satisfaction, that without it, companies may struggle to keep up with the demands of the modern marketplace and remain competitive.

This article will serve as your comprehensive guide to selecting a supply chain management software solution. You will learn about the key features and functionalities of effective SCM software, from inventory management to logistics and transportation. You will also learn how leveraging automation can improve profitability.

What is Supply Chain Management Software?

Supply chain management software, also known as SCM software, is a software solution that allows you to streamline and optimize your supply chain processes. It provides you with the ability to plan, execute, monitor, and predict the movement of goods and services along the entirety of your supply chain – from raw materials all the way to the end consumer and how finalized products are delivered to them. Effective Supply Chain Management software usually include robust features from inventory, procurement, and warehouse management to logistics and transportation management, as well as demand forecasting, supply chain analytics, and reporting.

Effective supply chain management software solutions include the capacity to; perform continuous planning in near-real time, improve demand forecasting, eliminate stockout situations, and optimize inventory allocations.

The Importance of Implementing a Supply Chain Management Software

Supply chain management (SCM) is a critical component of any business that deals with the procurement, production, and delivery of products or services. Successful SCM involves managing the flow of goods and information, coordinating activities with suppliers, customers, and partners, and optimizing processes to improve efficiency and reduce costs. By utilizing Supply Chain Management Software your organization can achieve these objectives significantly more effectively.

With a centralized hub providing real-time insights into all aspects of SCM, including procurement, inventory management, logistics, transportation, and order fulfillment your team can operate with more speed and confidence than ever before. The implications of this for you and your company are huge, for by employing Supply Chain Management Software and streamlining your SCM processes your company is able to save both time, and money and make better data-driven decisions that improve your customer experience as well as your bottom line.

Key Features of Supply Chain Management Software Solutions

The upcoming sections will break down the following key features of a successful SCM system:

Supply Chain Management

Improve Inventory Management with Supply Chain Management Software

Tracking inventory in real-time allows your business to optimize stock levels and reduce the risk of stockouts and overstocking. The resulting effect is lower storage costs as well as more on-hand working capital because your inventory is calibrated according to need.

By implementing the use of automation within your Supply Chain Management Software you are also able to reduce the risk of human errors, improving the overall accuracy of your inventory management. Additionally, inventory management automation gives you much-needed insights into inventory trends and supply patterns so you can more accurately forecast future demand. These insights allow your business to make better-informed decisions, so when it comes time to reorder products you know exactly what is needed and how much. This of course leads us back to the initial benefit of reducing stockouts and overstocking of on-hand products.

Furthermore, when automation is utilized correctly within your SCM system you are able to reduce the number of manual inventory management-related tasks. From receiving and auditing incoming shipments to tracking inventory levels and managing stock movements your SCM can do the heavy lifting allowing you to reduce your overhead while making more intelligent inventory decisions.

Employing Supply Chain Management Software for Effective Procurement Management

Procurement management plays a critical role in your supply chain operating efficiently. Effective procurement management means that you can supply high-quality products and services in a timely manner while minimizing both overall cost and risk.

Implementing the use of automation within your SCM system allows you to minimize costs and easily monitor supplier contracts and performance. This means you are less likely to experience supply chain disruptions or product quality issues. The result is much fewer delays and a better end-consumer experience, meaning a more consistent revenue stream for your supply chain company.

Understanding Warehouse Management Automation

Warehouse management has significantly changed thanks to Supply Chain Management Software automation, it is no longer effective to walk the isles and manage your warehouse manually. Not only is that method costly, but it is significantly more error-prone than modern automated processes. Be confident in your on-hand inventory levels by trusting the process to automation.

With automated order fulfillment and even possibly robotic picking and packing procedures in place you can ensure that orders are processed quickly and accurately resulting in high levels of customer satisfaction. This means you spend less on the fulfillment process while maintaining a higher level of quality and fewer product returns.

Increase overall visibility with real-time data insights. Effectively see into the future and proactively prevent bottlenecks and other such supply issues with ease.  At the same time, this visibility allows you to minimize storage and warehouse operation costs by managing your physical warehouse space more proficiently.

Utilize Automation to Increase Efficiency

Learn more about streamlining your Supply Chain with Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

Streamline Logistics and Transportation Management with SCM Software

Reduce transportation costs and maximize your ROI with Dynamics 365’s Supply Chain Management transportation module. Increase your throughput with expedited delivery times thanks to automated warehouse operations and delivery route optimization.

Actively monitor incoming and outgoing shipments so you have real-time insights into when materials are arriving in-house as well as products to the end consumer. Source tracking allows you to time your production to a tee, while outgoing delivery monitoring ensures that your deliveries arrive on time and that your available-to-promise (ATP) data is accurate at the time of order entry.

Another added benefit of employing automation in your logistics and transportation management is the ability to expedite delivery times via route optimization. Allow your Supply Chain Management Software to your delivery times are accurate and you are delivering your products to the end consumer using the quickest and most cost-effective delivery routes available. This means higher customer satisfaction at a lower cost.

Utilizing AI for Successful Demand Planning and Forecasting

With AI-enabled demand predictions, you can make confident inventory decisions and guarantee you have the materials and products on hand to meet demands. An automated Supply Chain management solution can ensure you make accurate predictions by measuring and aggregating data from multiple channels including historical sales, market trends, and previous customer behavior.

Make impactful forecasting decisions with the ability to accurately predict future market trends. Operate proactively by utilizing AI and automation in conjunction to source materials intelligently. With this real-time birds-eye view of your entire supply chain ecosystem never again will your production stall due to a lack of materials or logistical oversights.

How to Increase Productivity and Safety with Supply Chain Management Software

Utilize the Internet of Things (IoT) and mixed reality in combination with standard manufacturing processes to eliminate data silos. Allow the entirety of your manufacturing process to be connected and viewed from a data-centric perspective so that make productive manufacturing decisions and continuously improve upon your processes.

Implementing IoT and mixed reality also allows you to improve worker safety conditions without sacrificing productivity. In fact, it enhances both overall product quality and productivity. Meaning you operate safer and more efficiently, reducing time to market and increasing customer satisfaction.

Gain a Competitive Edge with Supply Chain Predictive Analytics

Make tracking your KPIs simple with automated predictive analytics powered by AI. Optimize inventory levels, reduce transportation expenses, and improve customer satisfaction by ensuring that products are delivered on time.

Reporting tools allow businesses to visualize and communicate supply chain performance metrics to stakeholders, enabling them to make informed decisions and identify areas for improvement. Overall, predictive analytics and reporting are powerful tools that can help businesses improve efficiency, reduce costs, and increase competitiveness in today’s complex global supply chain environment.

Uplevel Your Supply Chain

Give your team the tools they need to thrive with D365 Supply Chain Management

Benefits of Implementing a Supply Chain Management Software Solution

Supply chain management software is designed to increase the efficiency of your organization. From process automation to robotics integration, SCM software allows you to operate with increased speed and effective decision-making.
With real-time trend analysis and precision foresight you can reduce operational downtime repair costs with proactive equipment maintenance. Generate ongoing cost savings by automatically noting discrepancies between planned and actual costs and providing data as to why and how to optimize said costs.
Cloud-enabled SCM software is infinitely scalable, meaning as your business grows, changes, and becomes more complex the software you depend on will be able to adapt and perform without compromise.
Automated vendor performance, lead time, and quality tracking allow for smarter more cost-effective purchasing decisions. Couple this with increased productivity reduced stockouts and overstocking as well as optimized delivery routes and streamlined procurement processes it becomes clear that the ROI of implementing supply chain management software is significant as it leads to both cost savings and increased revenue.
By operating more efficiently across the entirety of the supply chain you are able to reduce delivery times and possibly even customer costs resulting in higher levels of customer satisfaction.
The benefits of implementing a supply chain management software solution are numerous and can have a significant impact on your organization. By increasing efficiency, reducing costs, and improving customer satisfaction, you can create a competitive advantage in your industry. The scalability of SCM software ensures that it can adapt to the changing needs of your business, and the ROI can be significant, making it a worthwhile investment. With the ability to automate processes, generate cost savings, and optimize supply chain operations, SCM software is a powerful tool for any organization that wants to achieve growth and success

The Industry-Leading Supply Chain Management Software Solution

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Software is today’s industry-leading SCM software on the market. Let’s break down what factors set D365 Supply Chain Management Software above the rest:
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management (SCM) offers a comprehensive suite of features for supply chain management with a centralized platform for overseeing every aspect of your supply chain. From procurement, and inventory management to production and product delivery D365 SCM software simplifies the supply chain processes with built-in automation.
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is highly customizable, giving you the ability to tailor it to your specific processes and requirements with ease. Additionally, whenever your business processes shift D365 SCM be easily adapted as necessary.
By operating more efficiently across the entirety of the supply chain you are able to reduce delivery times and possibly even customer costs resulting in higher levels of customer satisfaction.
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Software enables true real-time visibility across your entire supply chain. With Inventory Visibility’s ability to efficiently process millions of inventory change posts you always have access to accurate, up-to-date inventory levels across your entire network of channels, locations, and warehouses.
With standard built-in AL capabilities for predictive analytics and automated decision-making optimizing operations literally becomes a no-brainer.
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Software integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft products like Power BI and Office 365. This allows you to leverage the full power of Microsoft’s productivity tools to enhance your company’s operations.
Because D365 SCM is cloud-based you access your data wherever you are and can easily scale operations up and down according to need without wasting resources and without the need to add additional infrastructure
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Software is backed by Microsoft’s ongoing support and updates. This ensures that the software is always up to date with the latest features and security patches.
Overall, Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management Software is today’s industry-leading SCM software due to its comprehensive features, flexibility, ease of use, and ongoing support. It provides your business with a complete solution for managing supply chain operations, allowing you to optimize your performance, and increase your profitability.

Complimentary Consultation

Explore the benefits of Dynamics 365 Supply Chain for your company

Closing

In conclusion, selecting the right Supply Chain Management Software is imperative to the operations and oversight of your business. Because Supply Chain Management involves such a complex web of ever-changing processes, it is important to select a Supply Chain Management Software solution that is fully scalable and adaptable to your needs as they grow and evolve. From manufacturing to inventory to delivery having visibility of our supply chain leads to profitability. Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management is a cloud-based solution that does just that, with its robust analytics and end-to-end real-time visibility, D365 SCM allows you to make data-driven decisions that grow your business.

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