Tackling Operational Inefficiency for Business Growth

While figures on failed businesses show that over 80% fail due to cash flow issues, another major contributing factor to business failure is operational inefficiency.

You see, business doesn’t slow down or stop because one big thing fails. It’s always something small. A product that sells out faster than expected. A supplier hesitates on a delivery date. A warehouse that can’t shift stock quickly enough. The operations teams sitting behind all this work spend most of their time stopping those little gaps from turning into real problems. That’s the part that people outside logistics rarely see — the core tasks that keep products moving without drama. Let’s take a look.

Demand Forecasting

Everything starts with predicting what customers will want and when they’ll want it. Not with crystal-ball certainty — just enough accuracy to stop teams from guessing. This is where operations teams need to dig into what is supply chain planning, because forecasting isn’t a single report; it’s a continuous adjustment. 

Teams need to review last year’s patterns, current sales behaviors, seasonal swings, supplier lead times, and any early signs that a product might run hotter or colder than expected. When forecasting is even slightly off, the whole operation levels it.

Order Planning

Once teams know roughly what demand looks like, they turn those predictions into practical orders. This is the point where timing matters almost as much as quantity. Order too early, and storage becomes a problem; order too late, and everyone ends up firefighting. Order planning sits between these two pressures.

Teams need to match production timelines, supplier availability, transport schedules, and warehouse capacity. It’s not glamorous, but it’s the part that lets the business avoid last-minute “emergency” fixes that cost more than the goods themselves.

Inventory Control

Even the smartest forecasting and clearest order plans fall apart if the inventory numbers don’t match what’s physically in the building. Teams need to ensure the system reflects reality — not what should be there, but what actually is. Units shift, get mislabelled, get counted twice, or disappear into the wrong zone. A small mistake in inventory accuracy has a way of rippling through the entire chain.

Inventory control teams need to run regular counts, flag discrepancies early, and move stock before it becomes a bottleneck. They also need to keep an eye on slow-moving items and shift them to locations where demand is picking up. When inventory is tight and up to date, production stays steady, order planning stays calm, and customers aren’t impacted by issues that started long before they clicked “buy.”

Supplier Coordination

This is the part of the operations that rarely gets the spotlight but carries most of the load. Suppliers operate on their own schedules and under their own constraints. Lead times slip. Deliveries run long, and raw materials arrive early or late with almost no warning. Teams need to stay on top of all these moving parts.

Supplier coordination means checking timelines, confirming quantities, chasing updates when something falls off, and keeping communication open so that one delay doesn’t knock every other department out of balance. A well-managed supplier relationship gives the business room to breathe — materials arrive when they’re actually needed, production doesn’t stall, and transport windows stay open instead of collapsing under last-minute changes.