Enabling Supply Chain Agility
The world is in the midst of mass disruption due to the global spread of the COVID-19. Entire industries face new challenges as a result of this pandemic. Workers are finding themselves having to perform jobs remotely, suppliers looking for new ways to connect, and logistics solutions are being put to the test. Unfortunately, it is likely that there will be lasting effects into the future. Which is why the importance of supply chain, manufacturing, and labeling has become so critical to the world’s safety and economy.
The supply chain is essential for production, storage, handling and distribution of goods and materials, as well as providing finished products, medicines and medical equipment to consumers and patients. And, with the pandemic still taking hold, it’s more important than ever that businesses maintain a consistent flow of goods, ensuing that the global community has access to safe food, vaccines, and medical products. To ensure supply chain agility and avoid further disruption, many companies are adopting processes to help manage new labeling and supply chain complexities. They also are looking for providers that offer services and support to help them keep pace with these evolving challenges.
As this pandemic continues to impact our global economy, certain geographies and markets are hit hardest. Many companies have experienced bottlenecks due to a disruption in warehousing or distribution or have closed down facilities. Either way, countless companies have found themselves needing to shift production from one location to another. This shift in production also means they must be able to shift labeling to that new site. What’s more, their labeling must be flexible to support new products, languages, regions, formats, shipping routes, and more. This all must be done quickly and in a compliant and consistent manner to ensure continuous operations or at least, to minimize downtime.
This brings many businesses to understand the significance of a multi-site labeling approach designed to ensure continuous operations while realizing the benefits of both centralized and decentralized deployments at the same time. It provides greater control, allowing companies to drive labeling centrally and immediately fail over to any local instance—ensuring uptime and reducing risk. Companies can quickly and easily shift labeling from one location to another if there is a break in continuity or a disruption at any point across their enterprise. This is critical in maintaining business operations in the case of any outages, shutdowns or supply chain disruption.
It’s also important to provide users with immediate access to labeling regardless of location. Traditionally, it would take time to provide access to label templates and data sources for users at a new location—time that companies can no longer afford to waste. This is why many companies look to print and manage labeling remotely. It’s clear that when companies provision their labeling infrastructure through the cloud, they gain the benefit of being able to more quickly add computing resources on an as-needed basis, preventing slowdowns and bottlenecks.
It’s safe to say that the virus has changed the way businesses operate, and one priority is maintaining uptime. As no one could have predicted the COVID-19 pandemic, no one can predict the next major supply chain disruptor. The only thing you can do is prepare for impact so you can meet new demands—whether entering new markets, addressing evolving customer and regulatory requirements, or dealing with unforeseen global changes.