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Digitization and Trends in Supply Chain

Published on: Published in: Blog

“It’s a wonderful time for supply chain professionals to stand up and become part of the corporate strategic agenda,” — Laurel Junk, chief supply chain and procurement officer at Kaiser Permanente.

“Everything moves faster in digital economy” – CIO of a manufacturing company.

The days are gone when the supply chain is just being involved in the production and distribution of a commodity, in the digital age business model is developed on the supply chain.

In a recent report by Forbes “Digital Supply Chain — Are You Leading the Pack? Lessons From Companies That Derive the Most Value From Their Supply Chains,” explore how supply chain digitization is going to happen in coming years and the key trends in supply chain.

The report is based on primary research with a sample size of 490 top supply chain executives, it has also covered as in-depth conversations with half a dozen executives.

What are the top trends in Supply chain?

  1. The next two years will see the inflection point in how the digitized supply chain drives competitive advantage and growth. A small number of companies (9%), the progressives—that is, companies with the highest levels of supply chain digitization maturity—are already moving ahead of the pack in terms of supply chain digitization and reaping tangible rewards. Others need to catch up or risk falling further behind.
  2. Only two-thirds of the progressive companies have a comprehensive digital strategy or unified technology approach, these companies have integrated the supply chain with other functional units such as finance, procurement, marketing.
  3. Investment in supply chain digitization will continue for achieving optimal results. The progressives have recognized this: They have had the highest levels of investment over the past two years and plan to continue over the next two years.
  4. More than 70% of executives, mostly those whose companies are behind in digitization, are not fully satisfied with the pace of digitization of the supply chain
  5. Manufacturers are more likely to adopt a comprehensive technology approach to their supply chain digitization, invest more in it and, as a result, reap higher revenue and margins from the digitization of the supply
  6. Retailers have been upstaged by e-tailers such as Amazon, and need to tackle the complexities of omni-channel shopping and the challenges of the last mile of the supply chain.

Recommendation

Have a comprehensive and long-term approach while digitizing your supply chain. Make sure all the links are connected via unified technology. That means integrating all relevant stakeholders both internal as well as external.

Move from operation focused to customer focus –  The next generation of supply chain should be customer focused.  It requires agility, visibility, data, and analytics. While planning, we have to make sure that all nuts and bolts of supply chain digitization have been taken care.

Build a foundation for supply chain – Get the most value from the supply chain. While efficiency and cost savings are key, make sure to also build the supply chain as a foundation for new business models. Start your digitization with the desired business outcome— and build your supply chain accordingly.

Agility – In the age of e-commerce and service environment, the supply chain should be responsive, flexible and fast. Supplychian process should be highly flexible to quickly adapt to changing situations. Know more about Agile supplychain and transfromation towards it.

Mobility – Mobility be an integral  element to make supply chain a business focused and customer centric

At Propel Apps, we have built many enterprise mobile apps which will make the supply chain more responsive and customer focused. Some of them are –

  1. Smart Approval AP invoice – AP Accountants/approvers can see the AP Invoices on their mobile device, can also take the required decisions
  2. Smart Approval Expenses– Employees want to get reimbursed for their travel and other expense as fast as possible. With smart approval app managers can see all expenses to be approved on their mobile phone, can take a required decision.
  3. Smart PO Approval – Managers can see their Purchase Orders on their mobile apps, can take required action
  4. Smart PR Approval – Managers can see their Purchase requisitions on their mobile apps, can take required action
  5. Smart Goods receipt – Material handlers can see the order details such as order number, Storage location, etc. on their mobile device, can also manually adjust the values.

About Propel Apps Previously Algarytm –

Propel Appsis an award winning mobile solutions provider trusted by companies like ABB, Medtronic, Tennant Co, Kraft (Mondelez), Hallmark, and Hunter Douglas, with simple yet transformational solutions that people love to use. By combining ORACLE ERP software and mobile solutions with over 100 plus mobile app project implementation experience, Propel Apps helps organizations redefine and reinvent business processes across the wholesale, retail, manufacturing, finance, transportation and logistics industries.