Tips from Supply Chain Management Experts and Managers and Their Benefits

In recent decades, the acceleration of globalization, the increase of competition and economic pressures has resulted in a demand to deliver goods or services from the supplier to the costumer at a greater value, on-time and at a lower cost. Manufacturers, vendors, distributors, people, entities, activities, information, resources, etc., are some of the main indicators that play an essential role in processes such as handling and/ or distributing a specific product all over the world.

 If something goes wrong and theses processes are obstructed, a company can experience serious problems related to financial and costumer issues. The situation has never been more complex than now due to a huge number of threats such as theft, terrorism, smuggling, preservation of brand integrity and product safety. As a response to this situation many organizations have already created their coordinated and integrated processes in Supply Chain Management Systems with the intention to assess security risks, implement controls, and better manage potential security threats and issues related to the supply chain.

By specifying the requirements for a security management system, adding also some critical aspects such as facilities for packing, storing and transferring goods on their way to locations via various modes of transportation, etc. ISO 28000 has become a very required standard for companies in many industries, mostly, companies which are concentrated in financing, manufacturing and in information management.

ISO 28000 is applicable to all sizes and types of organizations involved in purchasing, manufacturing, service, storage, transportation and/or sales processes, wishing to implement and maintain a secure management system for their supply chain.

Tips from supply chain management experts and managers

Organizations wishing to choose the right supply chain management solution should also consider some of these tips: 

• Integrate all plant locations in one single supply chain solution and in one enterprise solution that can support you everywhere you do business.
• If you are still using old spreadsheets to work, change it and move up to an affordable supply chainplatform.
• Select appropriate supply chain software packages or component modules tailored for your industry.
• Implement tracking and mobile technologies to improve efficiencies and minimize costs and inaccuracies.
• Identify and select all your partners and suppliers, segment them in many different ways arounddifferent criteria so they will be able to help induce innovation in products, services or go-to-market strategies.
• Monitor partners’ performance and identify the reasons for any failure of the supplier chain management.
• Develop supply chain metrics and management dashboards to provide timely insights that help supply chain managers react to disruptions and opportunities in today's volatile markets.
• Develop an appropriate system and integrate enterprise solutions to identify, collect, and access information in most suitable way.
• Inform and give the right training and awareness program to the employees, for the role that they have in reaching customer needs and corporate objectives.
• Consider the information taken from filed, to get information about required products by customers.
• Consider marketing expenditures into supply chain planning.
• Integrate sales, operations and finance to balance customer demand, production capacities and corporate financial performance.

Resulted benefits

Considering the abovementioned tips and the requirements that ISO 28000 has, there are some benefits that will result in companies of all sizes:

• better assess security risks in their supply chain, manage new threats as they emerge and implement appropriate controls to manage potential security threats;
• bring confidence, consistency and market advantages to business by respecting best international practices;
• improve stakeholders’ confidence by demonstrating more robust and secure supply chain management;
• enhance customer satisfaction by demonstrating competence and ability to meet their specific requirements;
• demonstrate systematic security supply chain management;
• develop business cooperation along the supply chain;
• allow management to allocate reasonable resources in areas of greatest concern;
• facilitate trade and expedite the transport of goods across borders, etc.

PECB International is a certification body for persons on a wide range of professional standards. It offers ISO 28000 training and certification services for professionals wanting to support organizations on the implementation of these management systems.

Standards and Professional Trainings offered by PECB:

Certified ISO 28000 Lead Implementer (5 days)

Certified ISO 28000 Lead Auditor (5 days)

Certified ISO 28000 Foundation (2 days)

ISO 28000 Introduction (1 day)

Rreze Halili is a Security, Continuity and Recovery (SCR) Product Manager at PECB International. She is in charge of developing and maintaining training courses related to SCR. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact: training@pecb.com.

For further information, please visit PECB ISO 28000 Training Courses.