Supply chain management is often slow to change. Many companies still use Excel spreadsheets to plan their inventory needs, especially for ancillary production items. In flexo printing, these include mounting tapes, splicing tapes, doctor blades/end seals, cleaning supplies, safety supplies, pump hoses, and many more similar items. Previous thoughts were, “If it isn’t broken, there’s nothing to fix.”

But as we all know, things have changed. The seemingly never-ending logistics issues brought on by the pandemic, labor shortages, increasing port congestion, truck driver shortages, and devastating weather events are wreaking havoc on supply chains around the globe. These developments now require bringing in increased orchestration and advanced planning into the mix, so we can weather the current supply chain issues and react quickly to opportunities and disruptions as they appear.

Covid-19 amplified everything. Visibility of inventory has become so much more important, and beyond visibility, we must tie this into timely replenishment execution. An easy way to think of it is the system should be able to plan, track and adjust, so we not only always know where our inventory is, but we can change course as needed. Visibility and execution working in tandem give supply chains agility. Agility allows us to make changes on the fly to overcome logistics and supply chain disruptions.

More than ever, we need to be creating automatic procedures instead of relying on manual work and streamlining operations wherever feasible. Real-time inventory visibility simply means knowing what inventory you have on-hand and where that inventory is located at any given moment. Improving your inventory visibility means creating a more accurate picture of your current inventory levels to eliminate shortages or carrying too much.

Technology today can utilize real-time data and predictive analytics that can dynamically reset min/max/reorder points to assist us in managing the supply chain for our customers. This allows us to optimize the amount of inventory kept on the floor and reduce freight costs.

“Just in time” or “Just in case” or “Just right.”
There are typically two major types of inventory management: “just-in-time” and “just-in-case.” While a just-in-time system is highly efficient and frees up capital, it can be easily derailed due to the uncertainties caused by unknown disruptions – especially if it is working without real-time inventory information. It can also result in higher freight costs for multiple or rush shipments.

Just-in-case also has its downsides. Its robustness and ability to protect against outages, rush shipments or backorders come at the cost of tying up capital in inventory and taking up much-needed floor space. JIC can also be slow to adjust when needed. In the current environment, with so much uncertainty around inventory and supply chain disruptions, many companies are being forced to keep more inventory on-hand than usual.

Each has its place, but companies rarely work strictly with one or the other. Their inventory management usually falls somewhere between these two extremes. So which strategy is the correct one?

A Hybrid – Just Right
To successfully reap the benefits of both systems and build resiliency into your supply chain, you need tools and knowledge to enhance your inventory visibility, increase agility, and minimize your risk.

To maintain the agility of a Just-in-time system but the assurances of Just-in-case, it’s essential to have access to both historical and real-time data about your supply chain. With increased visibility, you will be able to better forecast risks or disruptions that may impact your business.

To experience improved efficiencies, increased inventory control, elimination of misplaced items and responsiveness, you need increased end-to-end visibility. By utilizing RFID technology combined with predictive analytics as part of the process to forecast appropriate stock levels, you can more accurately detect your inventory needs, thereby reducing unnecessary inventory and operating more efficiently during hectic periods. In addition, the combination of RFID and predictive analytics evaluates demand and improves planning, giving you more peace of mind and confidence the products required to run your press room will be there when you need them. It can also cut down the likelihood of having too many items on hand, impacting space utilization and increasing working capital investments.

Having visibility to this real-time inventory data allows the ability to display it on dashboards across multiple locations within a facility or among multiple facilities. Improved inventory visibility enables you to see trends more clearly. With a consolidated view of real-time data about your inventory, your business can make quick decisions that can save money.

APR offers a solution with SupplySentry, an RFID-enabled Supply Management System that provides real-time inventory information to avoid unnecessary risks. Giving real-time visibility to all the inventory can prevent issues before they occur. Multiple reports are available to show trends and other valuable information – even on your mobile device. The system utilizes predictive analytics and automatically restocks the supplies that you absolutely need to get your job done without you having to spend as much time to do so.

You have enough supply chain issues to contend with on a daily basis – a lack of visibility to your inventory shouldn’t be one of your challenges!

About the author: Dave Nieman is the president and CEO of All Printing Resources, which has headquarters located in Glendale Heights, IL.