End to End Supply chain Diagram

Tips and action plans:

Exponentially improve your supply chain:

Track two sets of data and use the correct numbers depending on your season. See how it works in
practice with my simple spreadsheet.

Create a flexible supply chain

Single source = you select one supplier out of many to provide you the goods.

Sole source = only a single supplier is able to provide the product or service because it's unique to
them.

The best option for most small businesses is to have multiple single sources. This works if the
product you are ordering is not a custom-molded product. If it’s a rebranded private label product, it’s
easy to switch suppliers.

But it’s the negative relationships that you should prepare for.

How?

 Analyze bill of material in detail

 Find ways to lower cost
 Substitute components or materials where you can
 Always look for ways to use common materials instead of unique materials if quality or function
does not depend on it

Create a redundant Amazon supply chain:

Something always happens in supply chain industries and Amazon’s supply chain management is no
different.

Just in the last couple of years:

 virus halted the entire world

 factories shut down
 containers couldn’t be booked
 tariffs have increased costs
 taxes have increased
 weather froze ports and roads
 containers fell off freightliners into the ocean
 and more that I can’t remember

Diversify suppliers around the world:

If you manufacture 100% in your home country, you need to find suppliers in other countries.

Diversify products:

In a roaring economy, you can get away with making $100M with 2 or 3 products. But covid showed that
it could wipe out such businesses overnight. That could mean creating more products or expanding the
product line if the niche is too tight.

Diversify freight forwarders:

Logistics is huge. It’s a competitive industry so don’t feel like you need to stick with one company. I went
through 3 or 4 before I found a partner that really wants our business and helps us in many situations.
You can use your previous logistics company as the backup should something happen with your main.

Redundancy in many areas

These are the common examples, there is always room for more.

 Different packaging companies

 Different types of shipping supplies in case you can’t get a certain kind
 Marketing, sales
 Even people – if one person leaves or goes on vacation a backup is needed to set up and fill the
hole

Know every piece of the Amazon SCM puzzle:

The more difficult part of the whole Amazon supply chain puzzle is forecasting and managing inventory.
If you have thousands of SKUs and sell in 100 different locations and channels, a custom EDI or ERP
software is your best bet.
But if you are like 9 out of 10 businesses that are not at this level of complexity, you can easily get by
with simple inventory management solutions, or even a well-crafted inventory management
spreadsheet.