Hope your supply chain is like a rubber band — because it’s about to be stretched even more. You’ll be ahead of the game if you start gearing up now for the pressures that’ll soon be coming your way.

Why’s that? You didn’t really think you’d escape the fallout from these financial mega-disasters, did you? Of course some of it will trickle down to you.

What to expect: You’ll want to find ways to demonstrate supply chain flexibility and agility, for starters.

One way to do this is working to improve supply chain “visibility” and tactical knowledge, to help close the gap between the time you learn about something with significant impact and when you can actually do something about it.

It’s more critical than ever that you explore and consider all options that are open to you as you make supply chain decisions, because you never know when you might be called upon to suddenly shift gears.

You can also expect more pressure than before to keep a lid on expenses. There’s the possibility that less credit will be available for procurement, which means more judicious planning is essential.

Think you’re running lean now? You might be asked to make it a little leaner. The sooner you prepare for that possible request, the better off you’ll be if it comes.

What you can do:

• Make your move now to talk to your CFO (or similar manager) about what you can do to help — and what you might expect, at the same time.
• Increase transparency in your supply chain processes, so it’ll be easier to make those “turn-on-a-dime” decisions.
• Talk to key vendors and find out if any key changes are in the wind that’ll impact you.

This is another one of those critical times when getting ahead of the curve will help keep you in the driver’s seat — before you get run over.

Tags: procurement, supply chain, vendors