Quick quiz: Where’s a great place to begin if you want to keep a step ahead of your customers — and stay a step ahead of the competition as well?

It’s an often-overlooked starting point: Making sure your business has implemented and is operating the most efficient supply chain function available. In nearly all cases, that means running lean — an ideal supply chain that can turn on a dime and generate optimum performance for all matters involving supply chain and procurement.

Of course, it makes sense to anticipate and react to what your customers need and supply it as they need it, as opposed to creating quantities of product that sit and cost you money while sitting on the shelves waiting for a customer’s order. But in doing that, there’s very little margin for error.

The costs of failing to keep your supply chain lean are painful: It’ll be more difficult to compete with your competitors; it’ll increase your company’s risk exposure; and it will take a bite out of your bottom line, to state it simply. In addition, running a lean supply chain is a great way of saving money when times are tight — like now.

There’s help, though. A recent report from Ventana Research clearly defines the problems that can occur if a supply chain has become out-of-date, and also lays out reasonable solutions to those problems.

By shifting your focus from pushing products through the supply chain to pulling information from your customers the network, you’ll be better equipped to meet their needs in a more efficient fashion. The best way to begin “pulling” the information you need is to make it more visible. Many of the supply chain technologies currently available are focused on the function, whether it’s just-in-time (JIT) production, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) technologies.

Creating what’s known as a visible supply chain allows managers to determine the location and status of all of the pieces from the beginning of the process to finished production. This visible supply chain gives managers the ability to find out whatever they need to know about raw materials or progress at any point in the process. The good news, experts say, is that many of the kinks have been worked out of the technology required to make this happen. That means more companies implementing visible supply chains are able to hit the ground running and more quickly reap the benefits of the improvement.

It doesn’t have to involve major expenditures to improve supply chain visibility. Pull back and look at the process you use now. When was the last time you and your brain trust evaluated it for efficiency? Can you spot any trends in problems or shortfalls? Better yet, are you taking fullest advantage of the software in place now? Many times when software is installed, staffers learn only what they need to know to survive at that point in time. Are there as-yet untapped functions or capabilities? Check your operations manual, ask your own IT people, or even contract the software rep who sold it you (but be careful here, because they’ll probably insist you must have the newest and most up-to-date stuff).

It’s a logical plan for improving supply chain efficiency: By finding ways to run leaner, problem areas and opportunities for improvement will be more visible.