Communication: the key to overcoming supply chain challenges 

In the face of—apparently never-ending—challenges posed by supply chains since the beginning of the pandemic, Latin-American women in the AV sector highlight that communication is essential to overcome this problem.

The supply chain crisis is ubiquitous in business spaces, in logistics and transportation company meetings, and in the minds of manufacturers, distributors, integrators, and users of our AV industry. It certainly is a global matter for which a short-term solution is not yet clear. Nevertheless, like all crises, it is also an opportunity to think outside the box, let creativity run free, and leverage experience.

One of these opportunities was seen in the recent AVIXA Latin-American Women’s Meeting held on August 16, 2022, where the way audiovisual professionals are generating solutions to best navigate the sea of uncertainty created by supply chains was discussed. 

The general consensus was the value of good communication when addressing matters related to supply chains. All participants deemed it fundamental to both find solutions and implement them with the stakeholders—people and companies—involved in an audiovisual project. 

Out of these people and companies, clients are the most important and thus communication efforts should be focused on them. As always, even in times of pandemic, the first step must be guiding them to identify their needs and define the type of solution they really need. The following step would be to provide complete clarity and honest information regarding delivery times, product availability, the possibility of changes in the original project, model substitutions, and delays due to force majeure. And finally, maintain a constant flow of information, with updates on the status of the project, next steps, and information on possible complications. 

For this to work, the same level of communication and transparency should be shown to and demanded from suppliers.

Furthermore, these Latin-American experts suggest boosting collaboration and liaison with peers, business partners, and professional contacts. This is through formal communication networks where the latest information regarding the state of the sector is provided, where ideas, solutions, and experiences are exchanged, in addition to having support mechanisms through which access to a product or service from another city or country of the region is possible.

Besides communication, women in the sector also agreed on the following: 

• Increased workloads are seen due to constant changes in project designs, extra implementation time, and even higher transportation costs. These additional tasks can have an impact not only on project costs but also on price margins. The common suggestion is to review each case individually (client relationship, payment history, future projects) in order to make the best business decision.

• Mixing planning and creativity is a good formula to get ahead in a supply chain crisis. Having sufficient stock that can also provide flexibility to substitute products or models is a task that demands a broad vision and a great sense of anticipation. As for creativity, it can be applied in innovative negotiations, for example in the event of a product being out of stock. In this case, possibilities would be explored such as temporarily renting equipment or offering a more complete product portfolio instead of closed solutions.  

• For manufacturers to meet demand, solutions can be found in strengthening production lines while reducing the number of models in the same product line. Strategic alliances with other manufacturers or component suppliers are also an option to ensure supply. And finally, trying to keep price stability for as long as possible to provide greater security to distributors and integrators when quoting projects. 

Members of the AVIXA Latin-American Women’s Council celebrated the empathetic atmosphere in which the meeting took place, agreed on the importance of sharing both the ideas and the “pains” that afflict everyone, and invited women from the AV industry to follow the conversation on the different AVIXA channels. Be it in Women’s Council meetings, the Monthly Forum for Members, this AVIXA Xchange space, or the WhatsApp group for women only available here. 

We at AVIXA would like to thank the more than 60 women who participated in this meeting, particularly the leaders of the AVIXA Latin-American Women’s Council Berenice Gutiérrez, Lina Villa, Soraya González and Verónica Zorrilla, as well as Diana Quintero, Co-chair of the AVIXA Women’s International Group for heading this meeting.   

Photo: Sikai Gu courtesy of Unsplash