The New Rules for Excellence in Manufacturing Supply Chain

Today, the consumer market is evolving fast and pilling pressure on businesses and manufacturers to adopt strategies that guarantee value, quality, and attachment. Unlike in the 1980s, when manufacturing largely followed the theory of constraint, which required optimizing in the plant, the market has changed so much. As a manufacturer, you must focus beyond the factory walls and venture into the market to build your brand for success.

Customers want to feel you and get the assurance that they are getting the best. Therefore, your manufacturing supply chain must be designed to provide a unique connection that allows clients to feel and be part of your system. Here are the three new rules for excellence.

Time to Turn to Your Customer

As customer demands become more volatile, you need to put more effort into understanding them. This is crucial to giving your businesses a direct link to the end-customers for easier flow of information. For example, a company that is dealing with precious metals products, such as engagement rings and trophies, direct link with clients can help them to make the decision on what to buy easily.

If precious metals such as gold are produced as by-products for non-ferrous metals production, as depicted in this site, conscious environmental clients will want to be associated with you.

Make sure to understand the targeted clients and give them the right information about your products. This can also help you to understand what they want so that you can package it properly.

Segment Your Products

As a manufacturer, you will be more successful by adopting a demand-driven strategy when marketing your products. This requires you to become more connected with every stakeholder, including suppliers, distributors and customers.

It will also help you to break down customer segments so that you only manufacture what they want. If you have a manufacturing unit supplying both the US and Asian market, you might want to know; “How do clients in Asia want their products?” and “Should the products for the US market be designed differently?”

Make Your System more Agile

The market is fiercely aggressive. Today, if you do not respond to customer needs promptly, there is a danger of getting swept into oblivion.  So you must make your manufacturing strategy and system highly responsive so that you are not left behind. Here is how to achieve this:

• Work with an active research unit that looks at new methods of improving your products.
• Maintain full connection with clients to get direct feedback on the need for improvement.
• Study your manufacturing competitors to know what they are doing better than you. Then, use the information to enrich your strategies.

To succeed in manufacturing, you need to adopt excellence in your supply chain. This will help you to understand the targeted clients, develop better products, and strengthen your brand.