Distributors coordinate multiple moving parts to fill each customer order. Operational visibility is the key to successfully managing each part of your process, from production to the warehouse to order fulfillment.
Without operational visibility, team leaders in each department are left with outdated information, slow data sharing, and disconnects that interrupt the workflows. Fragmented teams make it harder to fulfill every customer order quickly and accurately. Operations visibility helps you plan and brings your team together into a high-functioning organization.
Unless you have already defined who handles every piece of your workflow, your team may struggle with ownership. When they don’t understand who manages certain processes, documents, and other assets, you end up with data silos and operational bottlenecks.
Unclear ownership means that decision-makers often work with inaccurate or fragmented data and possibly a different understanding of your business. This can lead teams to duplicate efforts or implement business strategies without understanding their potential impact on the company.
For example, if your marketing team is unaware of a supply chain delay, they might promote a product that is on back order. When customers can’t get their orders on time, you start to build a reputation for being unreliable.
Without clear ownership and accountability, mistakes also take longer to fix.
Workflow visibility improves team coordination and customer service quality, but it can also make your team feel micromanaged. Thankfully, you can monitor your operations while encouraging autonomy.
Tracking key performance indicators using dashboards gives you high-level visibility without requiring a detailed examination of the daily workflow. Automate reports with your warehouse or inventory management, customer relationship management, production management, and equipment management systems.
These reports will help you understand sales, stock levels, production times, and other important metrics.
Establish a clear standard for each department by setting specific performance indicators that are measurable and achievable. Arming each team with achievable goals gives everyone a shared standard for success. It also keeps everyone working toward the same goals.
Designate a person or group of people to be responsible for processes and data to encourage accountability.
Eliminating data silos and fragments is crucial for improving your operations. It helps to have the right digital tools in place that enable people across your company to access accurate information.
WorldView’s Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system serves as a single resource for documents from every department.
Our ECM integrates with DMSi's enterprise resource planning platform, Agility. This platform was made specifically for distributors and other manufacturing businesses. It offers real-time inventory data and warehouse management capabilities to guide decision-making.
Team members from every department can access a centralized database with real-time data for everything from accounts receivable to purchase order status.
For example, your production team can quickly identify and address production issues and delays before they impact a customer order. Once the production team understands the delay, they can add a note to the order and have a customer service rep follow up with the customer if needed.
WorldView’s ECM integrates with Agility and enables your team to look up anything they need with keywords. This platform can also pull and bundle purchase orders and attach them to a statement to speed up the accounting process.
Improving visibility through process tracking and connected systems can equip employees. Each team member understands their performance goals and tracks their metrics. They also understand how their department fits into the broader organization.
As employees start tracking their performance, they may become motivated to improve individual processes to work more efficiently.
Using a centralized platform to access and share information eliminates guesswork and the frustration that comes with it. Your customer service team can easily answer questions instead of chasing down order statuses. Your production team doesn’t have to worry about being overworked because the sales team sold too much of a certain item and promised it in a month.
Operations visibility also helps management track employee development and accomplishments. If someone on your team has been performing well without recognition, they may feel taken for granted. Recognizing accomplishments helps boost morale.
When everyone in your company has full visibility into the organization, everyone moves faster. Your teams can communicate and collaborate using the same data.
Operations visibility also reduces wasted time and materials, which lowers your operational costs. Your team can offer exceptional customer service, and your decision-makers can coordinate departmental goals and objectives.
Improved visibility also lets you identify risks faster to minimize their impact. For example, if your production team encounters a supply chain disruption, they can look for a new supplier or come up with another plan to address the delay. They can notify your customer service team, who can give your customers a heads-up before their order is late.
Schedule a demo to improve your visibility with WorldView and DMSi.