Product Information Management for Supply Chain

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By: Sagar Sharma

Product Information Management for Supply Chain Empowers Suppliers

Product Information Management (PIM) has become a part of an integrated business process. It helps the product data become of higher quality by eliminating redundant factors. Product information management for the supply chain is a part of managing customer operations. It allows the company to offer better services to the customers and makes the customers feel satisfied by getting their orders delivered to the doorstep on time.

Purpose of Product Information Management

Product information management services are value-added services that provide well-defined procedures that not only help in storing the data but also organize it according to the quality of the data by offering accuracy and higher consistency. Accurate data helps in planning many business operations to be conducted error-free.

It helps in avoiding the slightest mistakes while providing correct information. PIM and its perfectly used methods definitely have a direct impact on the sales and marketing of the business. PIM offers better supply chain services, and it makes the customer happy by having the order delivered right to their doorstep, on time.

The main purpose of Product Information Management is to make use of available information and to offer the best services to customers by avoiding business issues and problems.

To explore the potential of product information management, must visit What is PIM? Additionally, read Product Information Management – An Exclusive Guide it helps you get insights into all the essential aspects of Product Information Management that helps business to attain significant business growth and success.

PIM not only strengthens the supply chain policy of the company but also manages a robust inventory management system. It also improves the ability to forecast the business and offer the best supply chain services to the customers.

Product Information Management for Supply Chain

The data is available in huge volumes today, but the main problem that most organizations face is the proliferation of data, which is available through various resources and applications.

To run every business operation successfully, the business requires data that is full of facts and factors. The data has to be accurate by providing exact information that can help the business run properly.

Product Information Management can bring innovation and commercialization to the available data. It can offer better communication between the suppliers and their selling partners, as well as with the customers with whom the business is dealt.

Modern supply chain operations are well supported by innovative and highly business-oriented processes and activities that can be a part of data management.

According to a recent study, organizations that make use of product information management procedures can reap several benefits. These benefits can be listed below for a better understanding of product information management services.

The new products can be offered at a 4.6% discount by enhancing the quality and volume of the product in a given time.

  • The data delivery can be done efficiently at 1.6%
  • In terms of operating margin, performance can be increased by 45%
  • PIM offers sustainable results at a faster rate when compared with its competitors
  • The improvements can be a part of the business process, which takes place year by year

It also includes:

  • Output production can be increased by 4.7 times
  • The launching rate of products can be around 55%
  • Inventory accuracy can be increased by 75%
  • And customer satisfaction will go up by 45%

The biggest advantage that Product Information Management offers the business is supply chain maturity. The entire system offers better business techniques by integrating digital transformation systems, and two offer advanced techniques while managing supply chain operations.

It can make use of data available from business operations and also from manual processes. The data can be integrated from spreadsheets and flat files and also embedded in social media as well as on mobile devices. The data can be integrated, analyzed, and rectified to be used in supply chain operations.

Product information management for the supply chain can definitely help in enhancing business collaboration through efficient data management. It will not only identify the problems in various activities but the problems can be solved or eliminated to increase the speed of supply chain operations.

Product Information Management transforms the entire process into a modern supply chain process using advanced technology and offers satisfaction to the customers.

Visit PIM for Suppliers – How PIM Manages Supplier Data? to explore more about the importance of product information management for suppliers in managing the critical supplier data in a centralized repository.

Critical Components of Modern Supply Chains

Modern supply chain operations will bring a positive change in the business. The most important factors of the new generation supply chain can be discussed below.

1. A highly modern system

A supply chain system has to be in place while managing the business environment. It should be highly flexible while using various business procedures. The system should be adaptable and can easily work according to the changing requirements and advanced features.

The system should be highly agile and be able to manage the processes across several functional domains while managing complex operations. It should integrate the procedures to complete the process within the given time.

2. Use of artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence should be embedded in the support system that can manage supply chain applications.

Analytical tools can help in managing complex supply procedures. Artificial intelligence can help in integrating various supply chain factors and helping to provide effective supply chain services.

3. Resilient and responsive

Artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques help in planning every process and offer immediate responses to every factor involved in the supply chain. It will have a huge impact on the supply chain operation, and it can be carried across various sectors.

4. Supply chain services are based on well-defined principles of business operations.

The supply chain operation needs to be managed with higher flexibility and core capabilities. The entire business landscape needs to be planned, organized and maintained according to the business’s needs and customer requirements.

It requires a new paradigm that can easily control digital supply chain systems using advanced digital transformation methods. Product Information Management not only helps in forecasting the changes in the future but also offers dynamic changes according to business growth and customer demands.

These are some of the useful components of a modern supply chain system. And they will bring a positive change to the supply chain management system.

How Can Product Information Management Help the Modern Supply Chain?

In today’s business world, product information management for the supply chain becomes more important than ever. Better quality product information, as well as a perfectly managed timeline, is required for a successful supply chain. Product Information Management offers both and plays a vital role in improving the efficiency of the supply chain.

This section covers in detail all the ways Product Information Management strengthens the supply chain strategy of an organization.

1. PIM reduces your team’s workload and allows them to spend more time strategizing

For better management, one should come up with a better strategy. A team must devote significant time to analysis to develop better strategies. However, if the team is drowning in a large volume of product information, they won’t have a significant amount of time.

For managing a large volume of product information, they need to update, manage, and organize the product data manually regularly. By doing so, they can’t spend enough time creating a better strategy. This is where Product Information Management comes into play.

Product Information Management acts as a collaborative tool that allows employees to work faster and more efficiently on managing data. With the help of the PIM tool, workers can complete their data management work more quickly and have more time to focus on other things.

In addition, Product Information Management ensures quality product information reaches manufacturers, vendors, and distributors more quicker. This ensures customers get up-to-date, high-quality product information at the right time.

2. PIM Builds a Strong Inventory Management System

Inventory management systems play a crucial role in building resilient strategies. For creating a better supply chain strategy, business stakeholders must have a clear and full 360-degree view of the product stock details.

By having such accurate information, they can create an efficient plan. For a better view of the product stock details, you need to ensure perfect management of your inventory system. Without it, you may end up with overstocking or out-of-stock products.

For a better inventory management system, you need to follow these factors.

  • Setting minimum stock levels for refilling the products before they run out
  • A better understanding of the supply chain links. This will keep you abreast of all issues
  • Identifying the stocks that are not moving and placing them on offer will free up space

With the inclusion of PIM in the inventory management software, managing bulk products will be easier. Furthermore, PIM automates the majority of the inventory processes and allows leaders to do regular updates, track changes, and fix errors. These steps will help to forecast the business’s status efficiently.

3. Brings More Transparency in Supply Chain

Businesses are facing a lot of disruption and uncertainty in the market. To tackle those, having a supply chain process with more transparency and being on the same page is important.

A supply chain process with poor communication and no transparency will cause severe loss, particularly by delaying delivery schedules. Experts have predicted that poor communication and a disrupted supply chain will cause significant financial losses to businesses, around $1 million per year.

Implementing the PIM tool will act as a single source of truth for data. PIM provides a centralized database where business leaders can easily store all data and share content across all supply chain entities.

This brings more transparency to the entire supply chain operation. With such high transparency, business stakeholders can avoid further disruptions in the supply chain. Also, it enables them to predict upcoming issues and act proactively to solve them to avoid damage.

4. PIM assists business leaders in better forecasting business status

The process of forecasting product demand involves a lot of risks. At the same time, better forecasting will help businesses achieve better growth in product sales. Also, accurate predictions of product demands will avoid unnecessary costs for businesses. To predict product demands, an organization must have accurate, updated, and dynamic data.

The PIM system will assist businesses in many ways by providing high-quality product data. With the presence of up-to-date and accurate data, forecasting the supply chain process becomes easier.

Having a next-generation PIM system helps businesses avoid these common forecasting errors.

  • Product information is not available.
  • Listing products that don’t exist on the shelf
  • Incorrect product information

By eliminating these errors, PIM ensures better forecasting.

Product Information Management for Supply Chain: Effective Strategy to Consider

A product information management strategy for the supply chain system can be defined and will make use of various factors. The strategy should be based on five main principles that are defined as follows:

1. Products should be designed as per customer needs

To run the business successfully, every organization has to look after the customer’s requirements in a very concerned manner. Customer requirements keep changing as the market changes.

PIM implementation can be best based on the critical factors related to customer demands and interactions. It helps in analyzing customer demands and managing product data accordingly.

It is also required to have a better understanding of customer change operations, and the executive should be customer-centric while understanding the customer’s demands and dealing with the customers.

Everyone involved in the operation, from suppliers to vendors to manufacturers, should make use of the data correctly and consistently. Personalized information also plays a vital role in managing the supply chain management system.

2. Optimize the products with data accuracy

Logistics is an important factor that is best based on product information. The target audience and customer groups should be divided according to the product specifications and requirements.

The entire process of the supply chain can be based on the diverse requirements of the products and the prioritized supply operations. The priority of a supply chain operation is based on the urgency of the products to be supplied to the customers.

It also requires accurate information about the products, which is required to be updated from time to time. The products available in stock and the information available in the catalog should always match when dealing with customers.

It should also be taken into account that deadlines for delivery should be met according to the schedule. The timeline should be maintained for the delivery of the products to the customers during supply chain activity.

3. Use classification standards for cost controls

When product data is supplied to customers across multiple platforms, one has to be cautious while delivering the products. The major and minor product elements should follow every rule defined in the book of law by the government.

The government’s guidelines should be followed. Any smaller glitch in the processes can lead to unwanted circumstances. The products defined in the catalog do not have the same look or flavor, so delivery is delayed.

The difference in the prices quoted in the catalog can lead to confusion and rejection. Classified standards are always useful in defining the cost of the products and they also help in saving the products at a lower cost.

Product information management for the supply chain offers standards of consistency and uniformity that help to make supply chain operations effective.

This strategy will help the supply chain’s consistency and allow the customers to feel good about the product.

4. Follow the global regulatory conditions

The PIM system offers a 360-degree view of the product data that can help in understanding the entire product structure. Product data offers complete information about the products and also about the customer requirements in the market.

PIM offers higher flexibility to data management, and with the help of enhanced tracking ability, the managers can get a complete understanding of the data holistically.

It certainly helps in managing customers and having a better understanding of their requirements. Every transaction should be based on the defined guidelines, rules, and regulations offered by the government and also on the approach to data management.

While taking care of every aspect and having a 360-degree view of the data, will allow supply chain management at the global level.

5. Product data management helps in decision-making

The business is run on various factors that are interconnected. Making decisions is an important skill that every businessman has to master to succeed in the business. PIM system is outstanding in terms of data management quality and its ability to enhance the quality of the data by eliminating redundant and wasteful factors.

The meaningful product information, when arranged in a systematic product catalog, will help in taking the right decisions at the right time in the right way. The consolidated product information process remains a significant one that helps manage every business operation and understand customer requirements.

It certainly helps in deciding according to the data available in a systematic format at your fingertips. The process not only harmonizes the complex process of decision-making but also makes the supply chain operation highly effective and efficient. The customers will enjoy the quality of the products as well as the timely services offered.

They are the main five strategies that can be used by Product Information Management to manage the business and also keep track of every business operation. And it certainly helps in understanding the customers better and also in offering better services to the customers while dealing with supply chain management services.

Conclusion

Product information management for the supply chain makes sure that the data used in the business remains accurate and consistent. PIM not only optimizes the logistics of the business requirements along with the services offered according to the customer’s requirements.

But it also takes care of supply chain management logistics with complete care and concern. It makes customers happy by offering the required products at their doorstep as per the timeline.

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