Bring visibility to supply chain blind spots

Last year, some 80% of organisations’ supply chains were said to have been disrupted, some as little as once, others as high as ten times.

Logistics and warehousing are a critical element of supply chain continuity but their reliability is key. Sometimes, it only takes one disruption to ripple down before effects are felt in areas like inventory management and delivery schedules. Disruptions are said to cost supply chain businesses 6-10% of annual revenues, not to mention the reputational costs.

Legacy planning systems and traditional processes, designed decades ago, no longer provide the agility and visibility that logistics providers need, many of whom are only just beginning their journey of digitisation.

Today’s supply chains can’t afford blind spots, errors, or inefficiencies. Not when there are solutions out there. Smart automatic data capture (AIDC) solutions from TSC Auto ID could transform risk into resilience, cost into value, and compliance into competitive advantage.

How to optimise your supply chain with AIDC

Traditional linear barcodes, 2D barcodes and RFID have become invaluable tools for digitising supply chains, from the automatic generation of work orders to inventory management and product traceability. So, when designing, upgrading and deploying AIDC equipment like barcode and RFID label printers and mobile computers, it’s important to keep in mind six key factors to maximise your ROI, scale your solution and future-proof your processes:

• Get an automation assessment to understand how RFID could merit you financially, through increased supply chain visibility, improved cycle count accuracy and less unproductive labour.
• Goods out and incoming raw materials rely on readable barcodes, eliminate costly reworks and avoid chargeback fines with automatic barcode inspection.
• Minimise downtime and maximise your mobility by generating and scanning codes anywhere, anytime.
• Automate workflows and boost your ROI with print engines and labelling automation.
• Support sustainability and cut both waste and costs through linerless and ribbon saving labelling.
• Securely manage and scale your printer and mobile devices with remote device management, it enables you to control your assets for maximum ROI and minimum headaches.

Dual sourcing strategies and barcoding

To improve supply chain resilience and mitigate disruptions amid trade tariffs needs a dual-sourcing or multi-sourcing strategy that can minimise not just import taxes levied but also lead times and product costs. But such strategies also make it more complex to manage suppliers and inventories, plus they require more communication and coordination with time-intensive sales and order planning processes. Having duplicate inventories can also increase costs.

It’s not easy to manage such complexity in supply chains where global compliance teams require detailed product information like country of origin to be captured in barcode labels. But barcoding is a foundational technology and advances like RFID and 2D barcodes have been game-changing in how much information can be included on labels.

Accurate and reliable printing and scanning of barcode labels improves:

• Visibility and tracking of inventory, order statuses, and shipment ETAs, which helps identify bottlenecks, predict disruptions, and inform decisions.
• Warehouse operations by reducing manual errors and improving efficiency in picking, packing, and shipping. Accuracy can be further boosted by ODV-2D technology.
• Business intelligence through efficient data capture, enabling businesses to collect and analyse valuable insights into their supply chain performance.

In these times of supply chain uncertainty get started on meeting your global challenges.