The modern supply chain landscape is fraught with challenges, from global disruptions to ever-changing customer expectations. To stay competitive, supply chain leaders must reinvent their supply chain DNA, making their organizations more flexible and responsive. This involves constantly questioning the status quo and understanding the impacts of changes in the supply chain ecosystem on customers and partners.
The expansion of supply chain management to include product lifecycle management is a promising trend. It integrates merchandise financial planning, category management decisions, and core manufacturing planning into a customer-centric view. Supply chain managers must rise to the challenge and understand the complete life cycle of products and categories and their impacts on customer experience and financial performance.
Leveraging Technology for Real-Time Decision Making
Emerging technologies powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are dissolving silos and enabling real-time decision making. With hyperscale data processing and intelligent algorithms, managers can simulate, understand, and implement significant supply chain decisions in near real time.
The role of the senior supply chain planner is evolving into that of a strategic planner. They orchestrate a supply chain “symphony,” taking into account supply and demand, inventory and production, competition, customer demand shifts, sustainability, regulations, and more. Technology simplifies this process, enabling strategic collaboration among retailers, manufacturers, and logistics providers.
Achieving Cross-Functional Excellence in the Supply Chain
The ultimate goal is to develop a supply chain network that communicates seamlessly from end to end. This requires more than just data integration; it requires real-time collaboration among different decision-makers based on a single source of truth. Technology solutions need to provide full upstream and downstream visibility and have business workflows that operate across planning and execution.
The key to investing in significant process and technology change is to ensure success in the end result: putting the right product, at the right time, in the right place while optimizing costs. This success hinges on customer satisfaction, which should be embedded in every aspect of supply chain planning and execution.
Successfully orchestrating a supply chain is both the most significant challenge and the biggest opportunity facing today’s supply chains. It will be achieved by those who successfully create an architecture powered by AI and ML that enables cross-functional excellence and supply chain interoperability.
