If your company has a supply chain, it's important to plan and prepare for different disruptions of your workflow. These disruptions need to consider the probability of stoppages and the severity of each stoppage. It doesn't matter what size that your company may be, all business-to-business supply chains work as cogs in a well greased machine.

Here are some tips to help your company's supply chain from disruptions:

1. Emergency preparedness plans

It's important to understand that disruptions do happen, so you need to have emergency preparedness plans in place. Having an emergency plan involves thinking through the process that your supply chain uses, including:

Emergency budgets

Having set aside a budget in case of emergencies is vital especially if your supply chain involves a conveyor belt-style business. This budget allocates costs to cover things from overtures, product loss, labour wages and insurance which are important for an effective emergency plan.

Directionality of flow

The flow of the goods and services, including the different distributors and manufactures of parts and services, need to be considered in an emergency plan. This flow involves the speed of recovery when a disruption happens. If there is a backup in the line, this will cause delays in future productions. Ensure that your production line is moving in the direction it is intended to by including contacts, inventories and supports to avoid disruptions and product loss.

Employee safety

You employees need to rest assured that their safety is prioritized for different types of disruptions. Whether its assembly lines or machine parts breaking, your emergency plan should consider the safety and security of all people within the production line.

2. Employee safeguards

No matter the industry that you are in, you must ensure that the workforce of your company is maintaining a high level of care with your workers. Disruptions can be caused by malfunctioning parts causing dangerous working conditions. Outside of an emergency plan, having preventative measures in place is essential. These human aspects of the supply chain need to be cared for the protection of your supply chain.

3. Delivery services

Protecting your supply chain requires having dedicated delivery services that include their own safeguards to supply chain disruptions. Having a delivery service for your business to operate in peak condition is vital to stay competitive. Additionally, a crating service company that also includes shipping logistics and packaging solutions is important to help protect your supply chain flow.

4. Optimize technology

From software to technology, keeping up to date with your software and optimizing the conditions of your technology help protect the flow of production. This doesn't just include up to date operating systems, but also ensuring that suppliers and potential factory environments have up to date machinery and technologies. These innovative and creative technologies are important to ensure that you stay competitive in your industry and your supply chain is protected from failures.

It is important to protect your supply chain of other types of invasive disruptions like hacks or outside hazards that can disrupt your supply chain.

5. Maintenance of equipment

Your business has machine parts that need to be upkept safely for the smooth running of your supply chain. From manufacturing to product placement, you need to have scheduled maintenance of all the working parts to ensure proper workflow. Especially if your business has a production flow that requires heavy machinery or expert technicians. Over time parts wear and tear and in order to protect the production line, your company needs to invest the resources to appropriately upkeep all moving parts.

6. Diversify the supply base

An aspect of protecting your company's supply chain can involve investing your resources and diversifying the suppliers. While there may be more moving parts, ensuring that the logistical aspect of the supplier's workflow helps alleviate the stress of disruptions if and when they occur. By diversifying suppliers, you can import different logistical experts, maintain clear and distinct inventories of production, and have the supports of these other suppliers in case of production loss.

7. Transparency and communication

The protection of your production line from disruptions needs management that stays transparent with all aspects of the production line. Whether it's with clients and honouring the agreed upon deadlines for products or communicating with suppliers bringing in pieces, effective communication is vital. You need people to manage every process or step of the production line with transparency.