WSDR Trade Solutions – From Source To Marketplace

Giving strategic advice regarding the efficiency of a supply chain of import companies starts with comparing the ‘pre calculated’ margin versus the ‘after calculated’ margin of orders. The ‘pre calculated margin’ is the margin you expect to earn before your quotation becomes an order and the ‘after calculation margin’ is the realised margin after receiving the payment of your invoice by your customer.
Most of the times a correct (pre-)calculation sheet is present, but the ‘after calculation’ of orders is not specifically done. The costs are ‘booked’ in the financial administration in a general way and not specifically ‘tagged’ to a specific order or product. Assigning costs to a specific order or product seems difficult or even impossible for bookkeeping. So the general P&L sheet is the only thing to measure.
In times of prosperity and good P&L, the management does not care about in-efficiencies. But in times we see now (2010/11/12) you can only earn money by innovating your product and improving your supply chain to become as cost efficient as possible.
To know where to cut cost and improve your supply chain you need to be able to compare your ‘pre calculation’ with your ‘after calculation’. It will show specifically where you have miscalculated or who is not performing well.
So beginning with a quick scan of the supply chain, I most of the time end-up by advising ‘how to’ manage the bookkeeping in order to measure the performance of the supply chain. New procedures and processes for the organisation will follow automatically. And implementing of this is the toughest part (like always..)!
And yes, after taking care of this implementation, it is easy to advice about strategical improvements of your supply chain.