SME's have longer-term opportunities to assist customers with their supply chain strategy, risk mitigation, and advantages over international competition due to:
Tariff avoidance.
Less currency hedging.
No loss of IP.
No slave or forced labor.
Fewer international labor strikes to contend with.
Shorter lead-time helps to increase responsiveness and flexibility and decreases total pipeline inventories.
The improved total cost of ownership.
With partnerships, supply chains become more resilient.
There are several barriers that SMEs are better equipped to manage since they are more agile than larger corporations:
They are in a better position to fill the gaps due to skilled labor shortages.
Larger corporations typically don't have a deep reach back into supply chains. SMEs have better networks with other SMEs to help the new partners fill critical raw material, technical and capacity shortages.
Higher than usual absenteeism is hurting many manufacturing and supply chain functions. Absenteeism is predominantly driven by closing schools, daycare, and eldercare, leaving the associate with no other option but to miss work to care for their loved ones. With less bureaucracy, SMEs potentially can resolve many of these issues with internal care options programs.
SME's technical expertise will help to navigate environmental issues with internal resourcefulness or trade secrets.
Travel restrictions have made it challenging to visit global suppliers to resolve quality issues, new piece inspection, or cost improvement initiatives. Local and regional supplier partners can be easily reached, which creates a perfect opportunity to stress Supplier Quality Engineering expertise and SME's strengths.
Overall, SMEs must articulate how they help the value proposition of total cost of ownership improvements. Remember, the corporate board of directors has two directives that supply chain management can directly impact; the mitigation of risk and the corporate valuation improvement—what better way to achieve these directives than by using the supply chain as a competitive advantage?
If you have any questions or comments on how this article relates to your operations and supply chain business strategy, please contact me by e-mail or at +1 (336) 260-9441.
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