Four Supply Chain Management hints to be cost-effective without sacrificing service as SME

As it is well-known and long-established that logistics need to be managed effectively to keep the supply chain cost at a minimum point whilst maintaining the level of service delivery to keep your costumers loyal to your organization.

I encompass the following directions to be cost-effective without forfeiting services.

Provide awareness to everyone in the organization that any savings in the supply chain costs are the right steps in the right direction.

To do that, managers should take a step to frequently and consistently deliver this message to employees with the purpose to keep all employees mindful of the need to avoid waste and to act in ways as if every money spent is coming from their pocket

Service improvement options that can reduce costs should be considered

To achieve that, I recommend the implementation of any process improvement to reduce errors and reworks which can help to save money for the organization and also lead to the quality of service delivery.

Service levels should be lowered since it inflates prices unnecessarily

In this case, the practicality of this solution to most SMEs is to change the offering of 24hrs customer delivery to 48hrs lead time via communicating to customers and seeking their collaboration as many would be prepared to change their expectations.

Reduce unpredictability in business operations.

To fix this for your SME, I would suggest that you arrive at an understanding of your business history to foresee seasonal peaks and troughs which can support lowering the hikes in inventory and transport costs.

Since we're in the digital world, the use of resourceful forecasting software can also help to reduce any unpredictability.