Logistics in Transition: Evolutionary Shifts in Distribution Across Industries
Envision a reality where vital everyday goods fail to reach shelves in stores and supermarkets—a scenario that becomes all too real when the global supply chain faces disruption, as witnessed during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The outcome? Consumer shortages and a plethora of shuttered businesses, especially poignant in sectors such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), where the seamless, rapid flow of supplies is paramount.
This is the reason businesses need to be agile and adaptable, so they can adjust to evolving needs and changing distribution dynamics—and, ultimately, keep thriving now and in the years to come.
But that adjustment just got harder now due to the shift in distribution patterns across various sectors—including in the industries of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and fast-moving goods. This shift, in turn, has resulted in these challenges:
- Complex Global Supply Chains. Today’s businesses operate within intricate global supply chains characterised by increasing interdependence among nations, suppliers, retailers, and manufacturers. This complexity offers advantages, like cost efficiencies and access to a broader consumer base, but also challenges in terms of coordination, communication, and risk management.
- Supply Chain Disruptions. Unforeseen events, such as natural disasters, geopolitical tensions, and global health crises, can adversely impact the supply chain, and the ramifications of this include shortages, production delays, and increased logistics costs.
- Statutory Compliance and Industry-Specific Regulations. Each industry is subject to specific laws, standards, and certifications that govern production, transportation, and distribution processes. Organisations in the chemical industry, for instance, must fill out material safety data sheets for all chemicals transported, while pharmaceutical companies have to comply with stringent regulations set by the Food and Drug Administration—or its equivalent agencies—in the countries they operate in. Failure to comply with these regulations can result in legal repercussions, financial penalties, and damage to the brand’s reputation.
The foregoing underscores the pressing for companies to leverage the best available technologies to adapt to these seismic shifts in distribution by:
- Streamlining the supply chain.
- Optimising inventory.
- Reducing lead times.
- Enabling compliance monitoring.
- Responding to market changes.
Azentio ONEERP’s Distribution Cloud fits the bill to a T. It is a cloud-based platform that enables companies to competitively manage industry operations, from product life cycle management to B2B and B2C management to automated workflows.
Even better, it specifically caters to businesses across different verticals, including the chemical, pharmaceutical, and FMCG sectors:
- Chemical. The Azentio Distribution Cloud provides a fully integrated business software solution designed to manage and improve chemical distributors’ complete business operations.
- Pharmaceutical. The Azentio Distribution Cloud helps streamline businesses by adding agility to its operations with competence and expertise specific to the global pharmaceutical trading industry.
- FMCG. The Azentio Distribution Cloud serves as a one-stop solution for the FMCG sector enabling supply chain visibility, complete control over inventory, and more.
In other words, Azentio ONEERP Distribution Cloud lets businesses run operations more efficiently, so their teams can focus on the needs of customers instead of worrying about distribution and inventory. That means reductions in stockouts, improved lead order times, increased on-time fulfilment, and greater customer experience.
It also means a bigger bottom line—and a business that gets things right every time, all the time.
Click HERE to learn more about Azentio ONEERP Distribution Cloud.
