**London**: Modern global supply chains require multi-tier supplier collaboration to enhance visibility, planning, and responsiveness. CloudPaths leverages SAP Ariba Supply Chain Collaboration to foster transparency, optimise inventory and capacity, and build trusted partnerships that boost resilience and efficiency.
In today’s increasingly complex global supply chains, robust collaboration with suppliers is proving to be an essential factor for organisations seeking to maintain competitiveness, accelerate innovation, and meet rising customer expectations. Modern supply chains no longer resemble the simpler, more linear frameworks of the past; they now involve intricate multi-tier networks extending through numerous supplier levels worldwide.
Anju Achuthan, Senior Manager of Digital Supply Chain at CloudPaths, highlights this evolving reality by noting the critical role that deep supplier relationships play amid extensive outsourcing and global sourcing. “The network becomes so complex that by the end of the day, the manufacturer might lose visibility within the network,” she explains. This complexity requires collaboration not only between primary manufacturers and first-tier suppliers but also across tiers two, three and beyond, enabling accurate coordination and planning throughout the supply chain.
Challenges, however, remain significant. Achuthan observes that many companies tend to limit collaboration to transactional exchanges, primarily treating suppliers as mere order fulfilment entities rather than strategic partners. “Clients hardly look beyond one point and often fail to treat suppliers as true partners,” she points out, adding that suppliers typically receive purchase orders without insight into their customer’s broader planning processes. This lack of visibility can hinder responsiveness and long-term collaboration.
Technology adoption further complicates the picture. Although various digital tools exist to enhance supplier communication and data sharing, effective onboarding and training of suppliers remain a hurdle. Suppliers, who frequently juggle multiple clients and systems, may resist new tools if the benefits are unclear or if they face steep learning curves.
To address these challenges, CloudPaths employs the SAP Ariba Supply Chain Collaboration suite, a platform that facilitates more advanced and transparent interactions within supply networks, especially for SAP users. Achuthan describes how the solution transcends simple purchase order exchanges by enabling multi-tier or subcontracting collaboration. Core functionalities implemented by CloudPaths include:
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Forecast Collaboration: Sharing future demand plans with contract manufacturers and raw material forecasts with lower-tier suppliers to support proactive supply planning.
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Capacity Collaboration: Requesting and receiving supplier commitments on production capacity to ensure alignment with demand schedules.
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External Manufacturing Visibility & Inventory: Providing insights into supplier inventory levels, in-transit goods, and subcontractor orders, which aids in synchronising supply chain flows.
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Multi-tier Purchase Order Collaboration: Facilitating real-time status updates between contract manufacturers and component suppliers, improving order tracking and communication.
Achuthan emphasises the transformational effect these capabilities have by enhancing visibility and enabling both buyers and suppliers to optimise planning based on real supplier capacities. This collaborative transparency helps reduce inventory costs and smooth supply chain operations.
Beyond just the supply collaboration platform itself, CloudPaths specialises in integrating these solutions within existing SAP landscapes. Achuthan notes many companies still rely on manual or fragmented processes, such as managing supplier information with spreadsheets, which impede digital collaboration efforts. CloudPaths utilises SAP Integration Suite, SAP Business Network capabilities, and the SAP Cloud Integration Gateway (CIG) to ensure seamless data exchange between SAP S/4HANA ERP systems and suppliers’ platforms. They also link SAP Ariba Supply Chain Collaboration with planning tools like SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP), creating connected planning and execution environments even if S/4HANA is not the main ERP solution.
Looking ahead, Achuthan foresees organisations diversifying supplier bases to enhance resilience, favouring multiple sourcing options per product. She reveals that CloudPaths is developing innovative ways to leverage data from collaboration platforms for supplier performance monitoring. “By tracking metrics like On-Time Delivery (OTD), companies can assess supplier credibility and make better sourcing decisions,” she states. This data-driven approach aims to foster stronger, trust-based supplier partnerships grounded in transparency from the outset.
Achuthan’s closing advice for businesses striving to improve supplier relations is clear: “Suppliers are your business partners. Start involving them from the beginning. Be transparent and give them the visibility to build trust that will benefit everyone long-term.”
For SAP users navigating the complexities of modern global supply chains, CloudPaths’ expertise and use of SAP Ariba Supply Chain Collaboration offer practical pathways to deepen supplier relationships beyond the transactional level. By enhancing multi-tier visibility, collaborative forecasting, capacity planning, and supplier inventory insights, organisations can build more resilient, efficient, and adaptive supply networks capable of meeting today’s demanding market conditions.
Source: Noah Wire Services
