There are many opportunities to increase supply chain efficiency. There are also many challenges that impact the ability to run efficiently. By working through some of the challenges with some practical methods that have a big impact on supply chain management, any organization can increase their supply chain efficiency, regardless of industry.

Let’s start by exploring a few of the challenges to supply chain efficiency that impact most industries.

ISO 9001:2015 certification is a positive achievement for an organization.  This achievement is very important for a company as well as the customers it services.

For Radwell International, there were certain key points that we recognized as major external benefits to our customers upon achieving ISO 9001: 2015 certification.

• Improved Quality and Service—By adhering to the ISO 9001: 2015 standard we enhance all aspects of the products and services we provide for our customers, from the level of repairs we offer, testing capabilities we provide, and the effective turnaround of new, surplus, and repairs we offer. This allows us to provide a higher level of customer service throughout our organization.

Recently our Engineering Department completed a new project. They repaired a Zebra 140 XiIII Plus printer from a non-functioning state to fully operational by utilizing existing parts and in-house materials. Not only has this given us some functionality for labeling our own inventory and repair bins, but it has also given us additional repair skills so we can help our clients repair their printers.

Internally we use the Zebra printer to create barcodes which help us accurately track and manage our repairs and inventory bins through our operating system. In working through repairing this machine, our engineering department was able to address three areas that have been helpful in operating this printer: changing the printer ribbon, changing the print head and printing using an existing template.

We've recently added a Markem Hot Melt Ink Printer to our engineering department and its an interesting addition. 

How does this printer actually work?

Markem ink jet systems use Markem Touch Dry inks. These inks are instantly drying, non-toxic solid inks that contain no solvents and require no special handling. The printer produces prints that are crisp and do not smudge. It is also suitable for printing on a wide variety of packaging materials.  Code changes and real time updates can be completed without any downtime too. The printer has a user-friendly control panel and easy-to-use screen graphics that allow operators to program the entire day's code changes only once. 

“There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.” -Audre Lorde

Being successful in business is a challenging experience. The pace is fast, you can be hit from all angles, and anything can happen on any given day. In almost every instance you are surrounded by competitors. All you want to do is continue to move forward and provide the service or product that your business offers in a productive and profitable way. What is it that differentiates your business from every other company out in the world offering a similar product or service? Maybe your branding is more skillful. Perhaps you use technology in a more impactful way. It’s possible you even execute better than competitors. But in almost every business, the differentiating factor truly is the customer service you provide to your clients. If your business operates with customer service as a priority, it is most likely standing out and hopefully moving forward in a positive way.

Of course everyone preaches that they are customer driven. It would be foolish for a business not to say such a thing if they hope to continue to operate successfully. But what does customer driven really translate to? What does it mean?