Clarity® Part 1: Creating Supply Chain Visibility

Visibility is the foundation of supply chain excellence. Having clarity across the entire supply chain is critical for businesses to optimize operations, manage risks, and deliver value to customers. To achieve this, having real-time insights into every aspect of the supply chain, from suppliers to customers is key in allowing businesses to quickly identify and address issues and minimize errors.

To gain greater transparency and control over their supply chain operations, companies must integrate technology, data, and analytics. According to an MIT study, 65% of companies still lack real-time visibility into their supply chain. Companies need to employ technology and data to gain real-time insights into their supply chain operations and make data-driven decisions to improve performance.

A Strategy for Success

For businesses looking to streamline operations, cut costs, and improve customer satisfaction, having complete control over all aspects of the supply chain is critical. Accurate and real-time inventory tracking based on real-time stock counting is essential for retailers to ensure that they have the right products in the right place at the right time.

A streamlined inbound receiving process can assist businesses in better managing inventory levels and reducing the risk of out-of-stocks or excess inventory while keeping suppliers accountable for accurate shipments. Additionally, automated outbound carton-level auditing and can assist businesses in ensuring that the right products are delivered on time and in good condition to the right customers to avoid chargeback costs and maintain positive vendor relationships.

Returns are also a critical part of a retailer’s supply chain operation. An efficient returns management process can assist businesses in making their reverse supply chain more efficient. SML’s State of Retail research previously found in 2022, retailers claim that 30% of their sold items are eventually returned and 32% of retailers claim that spending too much time manually processing individual returned items is a critical challenge to their current returns process, with 26% of respondents blaming a lack of staff to process returns.

Finally, consistent, and reliable system uptime is critical to ensuring that businesses can effectively access and manage their supply chain data at any time and from any location. To assist businesses in quickly locating and managing their products, reducing the risk of errors, and improving efficiency, an intuitive and simple-to-use inventory management solution is required.

Inventory Management Tech That Delivers

SML’s Clarity® is a cutting-edge software solution that provides end-to-end visibility across the supply chain. The solution employs RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology to collect real-time data on inventory levels, location, and movement throughout the supply chain. This data is then processed and analyzed by Clarity® Supply Chain’s cloud-based platform, which provides businesses with actionable insights into their operations. The ability to audit cartons with closed box inventory scans at inbound, outbound, and quality control processes is a game-changer as businesses can finally operate with a definitive view of inventory.

One of the key advantages of Clarity® Supply Chain is its ability to provide end-to-end visibility across the supply chain. This means that businesses can track their products from point of origin to point of sale, allowing them to identify any issues or bottlenecks in the supply chain. Organizations can improve their supply chain performance, reduce lead times, and improve customer service by identifying and addressing these issues.

In addition to improving inventory management, Clarity® Supply Chain can also help companies to reduce costs and enhance customer service. By providing real-time data on inventory levels and movement, companies can optimize their supply chain operations, reducing the need for manual processes and improving overall efficiency. This can help companies to reduce costs, enhance their bottom line, and improve customer satisfaction. To find out more about what our Clarity® software can do for you, contact us here.

Read our Clarity® RFID software series here:

Part 2: Driving Retail In-Store Performance

Part 3: The Role of Technology in Customer Experiences