The COVID-19 global pandemic has had an enormous impact on the supply chains of major industries as everything from raw materials and components to supply lines has been disrupted.

This disruption, in part, is due to a reactive and uncoordinated response predicated by unmapped supply networks with low visibility and a weak structure.

Supply network mapping is an essential component of a disaster-proof supply chain; however, it can sap human resources, be rife with human error, and be incredibly difficult to manage.

A strong supply chain management system allows organizations to pivot in the face of market changes to support demand. It allows the creation of targeted sales opportunities that can increase revenues, it ensures inventory is managed properly and resources are used well, and it maximized profits.

According to Deloitte, 79% of the organizations that had high-performing supply chains also had superior revenue growth, while 8% of companies with low-performing chains reported above-average revenues.

Perhaps most telling of all, nearly 50% of businesses of all sizes that fail within five years of inception were impacted negatively by poor supply chain performance.

Despite these numbers, businesses put surprisingly little emphasis on managing supply chains, which often are responsible for up to 90% of total business expenditures.

Simply put, your supply chain is the lifeblood of your business.

A proper supply chain supply helps move materials and products through the fulfillment lifecycle and ultimately impacts customer satisfaction — a factor that can make or break your business.

In today’s rapid-pace environment, supply chain technology is an important tool for strategic — and successful — management of this crucial business process.

Embracing New Technology to Solve Supply Chain Issues

Supply chain technology has a high potential to make a positive difference in your business’s impact on people, performance, and competitive value.

Top technologies include:

• Hyperautomation — mixing legacy with state-of-the-art tools
• Digital supply chain twins — a data-derived digital copy of a physical supply chain
• Artificial intelligence — using machine learning to understand complex content and data
• Supply chain governance and security — protection against security and data breaches
• Edge computing — processing data at the point of collection

Adopting a solid IT management program that uses one — or several — of these technologies can assist in optimizing inventory across channels, manage and reduce risks through enhanced cybersecurity, and improve quality and speed.

How Managed IT Can Solve Your Supply Chain Management Challenges

Managed IT presents a perfect way to deploy supply chain management technologies, fine-tune logistics through data analysis, and lockdown security to prevent disruption.

For example, artificial intelligence can be used to target predictive analytics on machine life and maintenance or even adapt other technologies to changing warehouse demands and conditions.

To get true power from machine learning, you need to collect real-time data, including data supplied by the Internet of Things (IoT). Managed IT allows manufactured to implement end-to-end data collection that can be managed and sorted efficiently.

Data is then analyzed and utilized to streamline workflows that boost productivity and provide outstanding cost savings.

Finally, the cybersecurity threat landscape is constantly changing and for manufacturers, the outlook is grim. Over 40% have been affected by cyberattacks, with most of those breaches resulting in damage over $1 million.

To protect your business successfully, you need a proactive IT security program that ensures business continuity. For many manufacturers, this is difficult due to a small or overburdened IT department.

Managed IT puts the expertise and focus of trained IT security professionals at your fingertips to proactively monitor, analyze, detect, and stop attacks before they impact your business.

Let Blue Technologies Find the Right Solutions for Your Manufacturing Challenges

It’s difficult to stay profitable in manufacturing during typical market fluctuations but managing a supply chain during COVID-19 presents specific problems and challenges.

The team of Managed IT experts at Blue Technologies has in-depth experience in the manufacturing industry to help your company deploy the perfect mix of advanced technologies to meet your needs.

From applying artificial intelligence for data analysis to securing your infrastructure with automated backup, redundancies, and an ironclad disaster recovery plan, our team can assist you in ramping up productivity to drive measurable results.

Overcome manufacturing pitfalls and fine-tune your organization’s business processes to manage risk and boost revenue. Contact a Blue Technologies consultant today to discover the wide range of IT solutions developed specifically for the manufacturing industry.