Global supply chains are battling anxious economies, increased trade wars, environmental sustainability issues and an ongoing shortage of truck drivers. You need the right supply chain management system to tackle these complexities and stay agile. However, picking the best fit for your business can be tricky.

Before choosing a solution, you must determine features of supply chain management your business needs most. That’s why we’ve created this SCM requirements checklist to help you make an informed decision.

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Article Roadmap

• Key Requirements/Features
  • Supply Chain Planning
  • Inventory Management
  • Warehouse Management
  • Logistics and Transportation
  • Mobile Capabilities
  • Procurement and Supplier Management
  • Analytics and Forecasting
  • Purchase Order Management
• Other Features To Consider
• What Is Supply Chain Management?
• System Selection Tips
• Next Steps

Key Requirements/Features

Though not exhaustive, the following list is a good starting point when deciding what core SCM features to look for.

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1. Supply Chain Planning

This SCM feature has AI built-in. It gathers data from various sources to identify and analyze potential disruptions and suggests suitable mitigation measures for smooth operations. Supply chain planning estimates future product demands based on past sales data and market trends while demand-sensing fine-tunes forecasts in real time.

The software generates forecasts through data analysis, providing a clear picture of future supply chain activities.

SCP includes supply chain network design, which optimizes network structure by integrating data from suppliers, manufacturing, warehousing and customers.

Production scheduling adjusts to demand, supply and capacity changes, ensuring timely production and delivery while considering resource constraints.

• AI-Based Disruption Mitigations Recommendation
• Demand Planning
• Demand Sensing
• Lifecycle Planning
• Production Scheduling or Rescheduling

2. Inventory Management

Advanced SCM features focus beyond just material flow evaluation. They should provide comprehensive insights into the entire process chain, shedding light on supplier interactions and inventory locations.

Your company must have a reliable and efficient way of inputting inventory data, which is where RFID tags or barcodes come in.

Rapid inventory identification improves visibility and enables strategic business decisions. If you effectively evaluate inventory levels, you can take preventive measures to meet future demands and respond quickly to market changes.

State-of-the-art inventory management platforms use built-in intelligence to maintain optimal stock levels, preventing shortages and surpluses from affecting productivity.

Furthermore, they automate the reordering process to ensure a smooth workflow, saving time and reducing human error.

• Barcode Scanning
• Cycle Counting or Stock Counting
• Inventory Replenishment Through Min/Max Planning
• RFID Tracking

3. Warehouse Management

AI-powered slotting dynamically groups items for fulfillment based on sales trends, product variations and consumer demands. This innovative method updates placement and picking locations in real time and provides configurable run strategies aligned with warehouse picking patterns.

Billing management provides a sophisticated billing engine and activity-based costing solution. This module accommodates complex billing rules, rate structures and logistics service cost elements, ensuring that financial processes are in sync with the dynamic nature of supply chain operations.

Furthermore, cross-docking streamlines the movement of inbound inventory directly to the correct outbound dock or staging area, eliminating the need for storage and significantly reducing handling time.

• Billing Management
• Cross Docking
• Warehouse Slotting
• Returns Management

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4. Logistics and Transportation Management

This critical SCM requirement connects you to a vast network of carriers like FedEx, UPS and USPS. It also enables the creation and approval of dock door appointments, provides visibility into scheduled and rescheduled dock appointments and supports drop-ship management.

It facilitates logistics planning by forecasting transportation and considering promotional and seasonal sales variables. What-if simulations add a layer of strategic foresight, allowing you to make informed and optimized decisions in complex transportation management scenarios.

Finally, yard management tools ensure operational efficiency by providing intuitive tools to shipping and receiving staff, gate guards, and yard personnel to manage trailer moves, inspections and security seal changes.

• Carrier Management
• Dock Appointment Scheduling
• Evaluating Freight Rates and Schedules
• Fleet Management
• Transportation Planning and Forecasting Yard Management
• Yard Management

5. Mobile Capabilities

Mobile SCM features let you automatically count and establish dispatcher-driver communication to update route statuses and deliveries.
View the status of on-hand inventory across facilities, track material reservations and unreserved on-hand inventory, support proof of delivery with signature and photo capture, and manage purchase orders via mobile devices.

Mobile supply chain technology also improves collaboration and communication among teams and third-party providers across warehouses, distribution centers and suppliers.

• Cycle and Physical Counting in Mobile
• GPS-Enabled Automatic Vehicle Location Tracking in Mobile
• Native Mobile Application
• Proof of Delivery in Mobile

6. Procurement and Supplier Management

As your products go to market, you’ll need relationships with suppliers and other businesses. That’s where the B2B communication platform of this module comes in. You can generate a detailed bill of materials for accurate procurement planning and encourage collaborative supplier scoring by cross-functional teams.

Material Requirements Planning (MRP) coordinates procurement with production schedules, ensuring materials are available on time. Finally, the non-conformance tracking feature identifies and resolves non-compliance incidents, improving product quality and supplier accountability.

• B2B Communication Platform
• Bidding and Negotiation Management
• Bill of Materials
• Collaborative Supplier Scoring by Team Members
• Material Requirements Planning (MRP)
• Non-Conformance Tracking
• Purchase Contracts Management
• Spend Analysis or Assessment
• Supplier or Vendor Portal
• Vendor Performance Tracking

7. Analytics and Forecasting

Custom dashboards and reporting help you visualize and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs).

They also support demand forecast simulations for various scenarios, end-to-end supply chain visualizations and analytics capabilities such as fuel consumption, inventory optimization, labor utilization, procure-to-pay, and replenishment planning.

Furthermore, this SCM feature includes visualization tools for monitoring warehouse operations and tracking metrics, throughput and inefficiencies.

• Custom Dashboards
• End-To-End Supply Chain Visualizations
• Inventory Optimization Analytics
• Procure-To-Pay Analytics

8. Purchase Order Management

This module creates automatic or recurring purchase orders for routine purchases, which reduces manual work and ensures timely procurement of goods or services.

You can also create blanket purchase orders, which are long-term contracts between an organization and a supplier to supply products or services at a fixed price consistently for a set period.

The software streamlines the purchase requisition process, allowing users to create and submit purchase requisitions for approval quickly. SCM features for tracking purchase orders let organizations monitor the status of their orders, identify potential issues and ensure timely delivery

• Automatic or Recurring Purchase Orders
• Blanket Purchase Order Creation
• Purchase Order Approval Workflows
• Purchase Order Revision Details
• Purchase Order Tracking
• Requisition Automation

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Other Features To Consider

Cloud Access

This SCM feature provides immediate and unrestricted access to the system from any location with a secure internet connection. You can seamlessly integrate all aspects of supply chain management and minimize discrepancies between various units.

Cloud SCM tools make significant contributions to scalability and security. They provide a streamlined format for scalability, eliminating the need for large-scale hardware upgrades. Security is a top priority, and advanced measures such as data encryption, user authentication and regular backups protect sensitive data from potential cyber threats.

Pay-as-you-go models provide operational flexibility and let organizations manage expenses, aligning technology investment with business needs effectively.

Collaboration

All supply chain partners can share real-time data, gaining end-to-end visibility into the entire supply network. The module supports user-configurable workflows, allowing you to tailor the system to your needs.

Bidirectional communication and decision-making centralize data from various sources and integrate seamlessly with existing systems, such as ERP and CRM, ensuring smooth data transfer.

Real-time data sharing and visibility aid in the early detection of potential problems, allowing for proactive problem-solving and lowering the risk of costly disruptions.

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What Is Supply Chain Management?

Supply chain management is the central administration of all workflows that help you turn raw materials into finished products and deliver them to customers.

SCM allows you to improve your operations while gaining a competitive advantage in the market. It delivers intricate visibility into your operations and identifies opportunities to reduce losses or make profits.

You can reduce excess costs and deliver services faster by managing supply-side activities, resulting in a better customer experience.

But which SCM features should you strategically include to ensure your business is a front-runner?

Draven McConville, CEO and founder at Klipboard, the London-based business management tool for field service businesses, says:

Strategically adding features that focus on the customer is a key part of increasing sales. By putting the user experience first, businesses not only get more new customers but also make more money because they keep more of the ones they already have. In a competitive market, how easy it is for customers to find and interact with products or services can set you apart, affecting their decision to buy and spreading good word of mouth.”

McConville expanded on the importance of customer-focused strategies,

A second benefit of this customer-centered approach is that it leads to less customer turnover. When companies emphasize making customers feel valued and understood, customers are less likely to look for alternatives. It’s not enough to just solve problems as they come up; you need to build a connection that goes beyond transactions.”

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System Selection Tips

Take the complexity out of system selection with our Lean Selection methodology,

which helps you narrow your options and choose the ideal platform that fulfills your SCM requirements.

Here’s a quick breakdown of our nine simple steps:

• Establish: Determine why you need a new platform and define the contributions you want it to make.
• Collaborate: Create a selection committee of your stakeholders, department leaders and power users.
• Define: Design a structured requirements checklist that addresses everyone’s needs.
• Distribute: Contact vendors and send them your checklist. We advise devising a fair scoring system to compare how each vendor meets your requirements.
• Justify: Collect scores from the previous round and determine whether you want a new system, additional features for an existing platform or to end your search here.
• Prove: Contact vendors and request demos, trial periods, proofs-of-concept (POC) and customer stories. It helps to have a scoring system for each vendor’s demos.
• Rank: Rank vendors based on the requirements and demo scores. By now, you should have two-three potential vendors suitable for your business.
• Negotiate: Review the top vendor’s contract and contact a lawyer or law firm for a second opinion. If you like the terms, sign and implement the solution. Otherwise, repeat this step with your other choices until you agree.
• Sign: Sign the papers and set up a detailed implementation strategy with your vendor.

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Next Steps

We’ve just given you a holistic approach to the top features of supply chain management that can secure, automate and optimize your processes.
But if your business struggles with specific concerns, like a labor shortage or multi-level complexities, zero in on the relevant modules in our free requirements template to resolve them.

Did we miss any popular SCM requirements you’d like to see covered? Comment below!

SME Contributor

Draven McConville, founder of job management software Klipboard, began his entrepreneurial journey with just £200 and an education. His achievements include winning the Chamber of Commerce’s Young Person in Business award, receiving the Freedom of The City of London, and securing more than $3 million in investment to expand his business globally.