WHAT INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY HAVE YOU SEEN IMPLEMENTED AS A RESULT OF DIGITALISATION WITHIN SUPPLY CHAINS ?
WHAT IS THE BEST STRATEGY FOR ADOPTING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY WITHIN SUPPLY CHAINS ?
DIGITAL STRATEGY
74 transportation is the advent of socalled supply chain management-as-a-service . Supply chain management capability can be bought on the basis of need , as provided by specialised external vendors , rather than having such functionality in-house . The whole concept of outsourcing business functions , which began more than half a century ago with outsourcing of IT departments , might be adopted to the outsourcing of supply chain management functionality . Here , completely new business models can emerge that will specialise as per lead-time constraint , mode-ofdelivery-constraint , and / or factor allocation constraint . Another trend is the ‘ uberisation ’ of transportation capacities . Here , flexible transportation networks will ensure the delivery of resources to factories , and / or products to customers .
WHAT INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY HAVE YOU SEEN IMPLEMENTED AS A RESULT OF DIGITALISATION WITHIN SUPPLY CHAINS ?
Dr . Frank Himpel : As companies around the globe aim to capitalise on the benefits of digitalisation , artificial intelligence ( AI ), Big Data , machine learning ( ML ), and blockchain have become highly prominent . In particular , blockchain technology is having inroads into innovative supply chain concepts in the food and healthcare sectors . In general , AI aims to support a company ’ s desire for greater supply chain automation . Advanced analytics and the internet of things ( IoT ) sources help better forecasting of demand patterns and supply potentials , for example . IoT in particular is considered suitable for supply chains where higher uptime and higher asset utilisation are key .
WHAT IS THE BEST STRATEGY FOR ADOPTING DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY WITHIN SUPPLY CHAINS ?
Dr . Frank Himpel : Hybrid supply chain strategies , where paper-based and IT-based approaches are mixed ,
JUNE 2020