Surviving the aftermath of the Great Resignation is no small feat. Countries worldwide are facing an historic labor shortage that is costing their economies billions of dollars. Meanwhile, labor force participation rates continue to decline. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to such a complex, global issue. There is, however, one solution that has the potential to redefine supply chains everywhere: Automation.
The Power of Good Tech
In today’s world, staying competitive means leveraging the power of new technologies that are constantly redefining supply chains. A business’s success depends on how well it can adapt to the market shifts of increasing levels of digitization.
According to one survey, 69% of businesses are now using SaaS solutions to improve their inventory management practices. SaaS solutions are proven to increase productivity and operational efficiency, optimizing workflows even when employees are working remotely.
What Does The Labor Shortage Mean for Supply Chains?
A severe shortage of qualified workers creates challenges at every point in the supply chain, across numerous industries. In fact, few industries are immune to the effects of this historic labor shortage. The industries that have been facing the most extreme challenges include:
- Health Care and Social Services
- Hospitality
- Food Services
- Manufacturing and Shipping
- Retail and Entertainment
- Technology
- Transportation
These industries have learned the hard way that poor inventory management practices intensify the problems created by this labor shortage. Production slowdowns and delivery of goods disruptions are already widespread. Adding poor inventory management to understaffed factories and warehouses, and a shortage of drivers, is a recipe for disaster.
Product shortages, high lead times, and shipping delays will leave customers feeling unsatisfied and cost businesses a lot of money.
Filling Labor Gaps with Automation
Simply put, maximizing the productivity of your current labor force is more effective than repeatedly hiring and training new people. It’s clear that businesses are seeing that their supply chain processes are ripe for automation. When the UiPath team surveyed 500 American executives, they found that 78% are already investing in more automation. 71% of these executives say these tools have saved their customers’ time and 63% have experienced improved productivity.
More employees opting to work remotely only adds to the new challenges brought on by the labor shortage. Contrary to popular belief, automation isn’t about replacing workers with machines. It’s about identifying the repetitive tasks in your supply chain processes that are wasting your workers’ valuable time.
Working Smarter, Not Harder
With supply chain delays and order backlogs exceeding 3 months, the need for automation has become painfully obvious. The best strategy for businesses needing to save time and money is to make their inventory processes more efficient. Implementing powerful inventory management software will automate supply chain processes and solve costly inventory inefficiencies.
There are several inventory management operations that can benefit from automation, including:
Tracking
Achieve full visibility with real-time data. Receive automatic updates about every item in your inventory as it moves through your supply chain.
Warehousing
Automate tasks like updating stock levels, performing cycle counts, and creating pick and pack lists. This will optimize your warehouse operations and boost productivity.
Forecasting
Make data-driven decisions that maximize your profits by analyzing reports that are automatically generated by your inventory management system.
Order Fulfillment and Replenishment
Automatic replenishment determines exactly how much inventory needs to be reordered based on pre-set minimums and maximums. Purchase orders will automatically be created when inventory levels reach pre-set reorder points.
Shipping and Distribution
Automatically generate shipping labels and receive real-time updates about the status of your shipments. Track every movement of your inventory, even as items travel back to you through the returns process.
Take any of these automations one step further by adding the use of a mobile app or barcode scanning technology. Clear Spider’s mobile app allows its users to connect to their inventory system from anywhere, at any time. At the office, the warehouse, or on the road, it’s never been easier for your employees to maximize their productivity.
Succeeding in Our New Normal
At the height of the pandemic, many industries found their supply chain operations under enormous amounts of stress. When economies reopened, businesses were eager to meet the high demand that had built up over the last two years.
Unfortunately, the harsh reality was that there were more than a million job openings just in Canada alone. As a result, manufacturers found themselves struggling with high lead times that had a domino effect. Retailers and service-based companies were left unable to maintain the supply of products they needed to meet customer demand.
In fact, a survey across 17 industries found that production delays caused two-thirds of manufacturers to postpone or cancel contracts. This cost businesses at least $5.4 billion in lost investments. The chief executive of Filtre Plus, a ventilation company, said:
“I’ve always wanted to expand, but we’re at a point now where we don’t want to grow anymore […] Our problem is that we can’t find enough labor to meet the delivery deadlines[.]”
Clear Spider Is Your Competitive Advantage
You aren’t in control of the labor market, but you are in control of your supply chain processes. With Clear Spider’s powerful and easy-to-use system, you’ll never struggle to overcome any supply chain disruption again. Use our cloud-based inventory management solution to automate key processes and ensure your supply chain is always agile and resistant.
