Navigating Supply Chain Issues

Navigating Supply Chain Issues

Starting a business can be like driving at night. Despite our best efforts, unexpected bumps can appear. At my previous job, I didn’t have to deal with too many vendors in order to get my work done. For the most part, the project deliverable was on you and your team to share with the client either on time or early. 
At a food company, that’s simply not the case. My one product has 18 ingredients with 13 different suppliers. There's also a packaging supplier, the manufacturer, and the shipping companies involved. We're all trying to get to our final deliverable - baked and bagged mini muffins - to customers. 
With that many cooks in the kitchen, there’s bound to be at least one thing that goes awry. When we were developing the muffins, there was one ingredient that gave us some trouble. It took weeks for the supplier to ship us the sample we needed. In the back of my head, I wondered if it would be a cause for concern down the line. Regardless, I was hoping to at least get through the launch with it and then see if we could find another supplier. 
 
Unfortunately, we couldn’t even make it that far. I paid for the ingredient and it was supposed to have shipped Monday morning. In the afternoon, I received a note from the supplier saying that they gave my order to a larger customer. They’re now out of stock and won’t receive more until the end of July. Talk about hitting a pothole you didn’t see coming... In the long run, it’s better to avoid working with an unreliable supplier. 
 
Now, we’re trying to figure out if there’s another supplier, or if we need to quickly swap out the ingredient for something else. It’s not ideal, but it’s also not the end of the world. We have a plan A and a plan B that we’re testing and we’ll get through it one way or another. Even with this bump, I’m not (yet) expecting a significant delay in getting to production. 
 
That said, we still need to make sure everything else gets to the manufacturer on time. Until then, I’m driving with my brights on, trying to evade any big bumps down the road. 
Back to blog