Four Characteristics of Successful Supply Chain Partnerships

In the supply chain game, collaboration with a partner can help organizations cut waste and create long-term sustainability. Supply Chain Management Review sings the praises of these partnerships, suggesting the benefits “extend beyond improved efficiency and effectiveness to include helping all the supply chain members meet customer demands, grow markets, and increase competitive market share.”

What are the characteristics of a good supply chain vendor partnership? How can a team effort create tailored operational improvements that lead to the overall success of the enterprise?

4 tips for your supply chain vendor relationships

At LynnCo, we built our reputation by assessing, re-engineering, and optimizing complex solutions to improve your supply chain margins. In our effort to improve your competitive advantage, we’ve created four key metrics that govern our success. These governing principles can fit many more situations, and can help you improve your own supply chain relationships.

1. The three P’s: Be patiently and politely persistent
   In increasingly competitive and complex markets, change is the only constant you can expect. As the demands of supply chain accelerate, your chosen partners must embrace the spirit of the troubleshooter. Look for partners with a track record of expert problem solving that begins with the patience to identify the root cause of the problem before creating solutions to ever-evolving challenges.
2. The power of 3
   Today’s customers want price, velocity, and quality simultaneously. Historically, the adage was you could pick two of these three qualities. But that’s not the case anymore — especially if you want to maintain a competitive advantage. Focusing on all three tenets help forward-thinking organizations create a well-balanced supply chain that serves the needs of consumers and the companies alike.
3. Constantly innovate
   Your supply chain and the relationships you build within it drive innovation. Without constantly looking for ways to improve, your organization risks falling behind in an evolving marketplace. Supply chains need to solve concrete problems by leveraging the latest technologies and best partnerships to create cost benefits for customers. Wendy Buxton, the President of LynnCo, said, “In order to compete in the future market, organizations today must create time and space within their organizations to ideate and innovate around supply chain.”
4. Go digital
   The marriage between supply chain management and digital technology has moved beyond the honeymoon phase and into the hard work of a long-term partnership. Today your digital transformation should carry across the supply chain, creating end-to-end transparency for every vendor and the customers you serve. Technology can increase collaboration between all vendor partnerships, increasing the success and satisfaction in these relationships and higher margins for your enterprise.

These tenets have helped LynnCo create more meaningful supply chain partnerships while improving the bottom line for our clients. Look for partnerships with organizations that embody these four principles to create a win-win with a long-lasting positive impact on your business and the customers you serve.