5 ways supply chain partnerships can benefit your farm

By taking full advantage of the functionalities and services of a supply chain partnership, British farmers are well-placed to enhance their own businesses – all it takes is a shift in perspective and seeing supply chain partners as more than simple providers.
Here are 5 top benefits that supply chain partnerships can bring to your farming business:

1. Greater Potential – Individual businesses can achieve great outcomes but are always ultimately limited due to their size or outreach. Partnerships offer more resources but, more importantly, a foundation from which to achieve growth in new and previously impossible directions.
2. Better deals on commodities – Instead of negotiating each purchase ad hoc, partnership can result in a significant cut to costs. A Deloitte survey * of roughly 1,000 supply chain executives concluded that businesses which engaged with their suppliers were 38% more likely to achieve or surpass their expectations in cost reductions.
3. Insight into markets and trends for better decision-making – Uncertainty and risk will always exist in agriculture due to the nature of markets and trends. Supply chain partnerships can leverage shared data to work for you, identifying key threats and opportunities to ensure a more lucrative business strategy.
4. Maximised speed and efficiency – To arrange and negotiate with all suppliers is simply not possible for one individual business. Furthermore, although it may be possible to negotiate the odd deal, this doesn’t take into account the costs in time and resources – why dedicate energy on this when it can be better spent elsewhere?
5. Simpler and intuitive administration and invoicing – Many farm businesses still rely on paper or locally stored data. This is time-consuming, prone to human error, and easily lost for a number of reasons. Electronic invoicing in a supply chain partnership makes this less stressful and more reliable – all located in one centralised location, accessed instantly.

*2012 survey by Deloitte, in conjunction with ASQ, Institute for Supply Management, and Corporate Responsibility Officer Association: https://deloitte.wsj.com/cfo/files/2013/07/supplier_collaboration.pdf