Pedigri Technologies Team decided to share our view on the top three supply chain resolutions that every industry leader should consider to maintain the organization’s position in the market.
Supply chain is the essence of every manufacturing business. But managing an efficient global supply chain has become extremely challenging in 2020. With Covid-19 significant disruptions were seen in businesses, forcing most of the supply chain and logistics leaders to rethink their strategies and to become more resilient in the face of global upheaval.
With the past year’s challenges, we believe we better be prepared going forward. Since the beginning of each new year is a time for everyone to make their New Year resolutions, Pedigri Technologies Team decided to share our view on the top three supply chain resolutions that every industry leader should consider to maintain the organization’s position in the market.
Top 3 resolutions for supply chain leaders in 2021
1) Encourage innovation & adopt technologies
There are a few technology trends that the supply chain leaders can’t ignore anymore:
- Unlock the power of Big Data
It’s not enough just to own Big Data in 2021, but to use it effectively to resolve strategic, operational, and tactical issues. Most of the manufacturing companies are still struggling to translate the deep sea of their own data sources and integrated data from partners’ networks to valuable insights. Management Events’ recent Executive Trend Survey shows 64% of supply chain executives recognized data science and analytics as their top investment priority for 2021. Big Data combined with AI, Machine Learning, and Automation can improve efficiency, demand planning, order optimization, inventory forecasting, and ultimately cost optimization.
- Shift from traditional demand planning and decision-making to Artificial Intelligence and Deep Machine Learning platforms
Recent McKinsey research has shown that 61% of executives confirmed decreased costs while 53% noticed increased revenues as a result of implementing AI into their supply chains. Among reported revenue-generating areas were sales and demand, forecasting, spend analytics, and logistics network optimization.
Even though AI is forecasted to contribute more than $15 trillion to the global economy in the next decade, the 2020 MHI Annual Industry Report says that only 12% of supply chain executives currently employ AI in their organizations.
Switching from error-prone manual processes to algorithms powered by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies will make the organization smarter and will drastically improve decision-making and customer satisfaction, mitigate costly interruptions to product delivery, improve inventory accuracy and warehouse efficiency that will result in better market share and increased revenue.
- Capitalize on supply chain digitalization with Robotic Process Automation
Due to increased demand, limited production, and social distancing rules imposed in many countries, 2021 will see the boost in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) adoption in supply chain operations. RPA technologies use dedicated computer tools to standardize and automate repetitive tasks and business processes with rule-based software.
The companies that already adopted Robotic Process Automation report significant reductions in process lead times and consistency across manual data sources within the manufacturing business due to minimized human intervention.
The ultimate goal of each company that is adopting RPA in 2021 is to reach higher levels of production and reduce overhead costs while accelerating the production cycle and reducing time-to-market.
2) Ensure E2E Visibility & Transparency with Next Generation Control Towers
With the complex network of supply chains that exist today, gaining end-to-end visibility on entire supply chain operation, systems, and data sources is more important than ever.
During the past couple of years, control towers were focused mostly on managing and monitoring logistics processes. But now New Generation Control Tower is a centralized hub that focuses on end-to-end supply chain orchestration to ensure transparency and smart decision-making.
Christian Titze, the Research Vice President at Gartner, advises that “A control tower only makes sense when the supply chain organization already has a certain degree of cross-functional integration in place — internally and with business partners. Otherwise, the tower won’t be able to observe enough signals to support accurate decision-making.”
Thus, supply chain leaders need to pay attention to implement control tower solutions in their businesses in 2021, but before doing that, they need to define clear objectives and expectations from this technology.
Pedigri Technologies’ Control Tower Solution takes visibility a step further focusing on end-to-end supply chain traceability across the MEA region and providing a real-time view of stock levels, utilization, value, and ageing of inventory across 50+ forward stocking locations, purchase order creations and sales invoices, monitors field support SLAs, and provides last-mile delivery visibility and proof of delivery. The technology can be integrated with every link in the supply chain and will help to speed up the transactions between business partners.
3) Consider Outsourcing to build a resilient and agile supply chain
As 2020 has proven to all of us, in a world of heightened uncertainty, resilience and agility have never been more important. According to The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the Covid-19 crisis and consequent supply shock are likely to accelerate the move towards regional supply chains.
So, it’s not surprising that leading manufacturers are trying to re-align their supply chains to succeed in this new reality by adopting more flexible sourcing, distribution and import strategies while using the suppliers and outsourced business partners in every region to avoid business interruptions. We believe more organizations will make their shift towards regionalization and painless outsourcing that will improve their working capital.
As the pandemic continues, organizations will need to closely monitor government policies as well as the jurisdictions in countries they operate to avoid import interruptions of their equipment and service parts that will affect the go-to-market speed and customer satisfaction. The continuity of their supply can be achieved by outsourcing to local experts in every market.
At Pedigri Technologies, we created a state-of-the-art AI-based supply chain platform that ensures continuity of supply for 60+ global manufacturers reducing their import time from 2-3 weeks to 1-2 days across 40+ MEA countries. Our customs-bonded warehouse in Dubai acts as a distribution centre for the MEA, allowing manufacturers to strategically store their equipment and service parts without duties and taxes.
When it comes to outsourcing, choosing the right partner can be challenging. The partner needs to have the right organization, processes, data, and technology and be ready to support your digital transformation strategy.
We hope these resolutions will support your supply chain strategy for 2021 Happy New Year!
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