Dave Food, Head of Supply Chain at Board
As 2022 saw global conflicts and economic uncertainty, many businesses had to learn the importance of supply chain adaptability. Enterprises that were most likely to survive the trying times were those with an agile mindset and able to protect supply networks against volatility.
However, 2023 is bringing on a whole fresh set of challenges to enforce the need for nimble business practices. Google and Microsoft are in an artificial intelligence arms race, and businesses will be expected to implement AI software where possible. Cybersecurity and fraud are becoming more advanced, increasing external and internal threats alike.
The way to anticipate and mitigate this global storm is to be open to the changes it requires. Where there is increased risk, businesses must allow themselves to automate and plan accordingly.
Automating data for decision-making
Businesses have large amounts of data to sift through about their customers, and the need for efficiency will only grow further. Automating supply chain processes can significantly speed up manual efforts and therefore improve decision-making.
To achieve that, companies should look to artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) algorithms to gain quicker insights about a dataset. However, it’s also important for AI and ML tools to be integrated at every step of the supply chain.
Effective ML software should be able to analyse data from previous circumstances and compare them with real-time events and external factors that might have an impact on a specific industry. This allows for well-informed data processing and gives business leaders greater insights on the industry as it stands.
As well, artificial intelligence is constantly growing in capacity and can go as far as to get customer insights, and essentially make tricky decisions for you. In a time of economic uncertainty, supply chain companies can use AI processing to make more supported qualitative and quantitative decisions about spendings and cost cuts.
AI-based solutions also allow companies to automate forecasting demand, manage inventory levels, and optimize delivery routes. Instead of doing this manually, time and money can be put toward reducing delivery delays and improving customer experience. AI solutions can also help them understand customer preferences – something that massive, at-distance companies haven’t had access to before.
Managing and mitigating risk
Risk management is vital in an unstable economy. But it’s not just about reactive management – it’s about anticipating and planning for risks before they emerge.
Intelligent planning technology is instrumental in evaluating an entire business environment and marketplace momentum, translating these into trends and triggers that are easy to identify.
This technology highlights both the impact of the risk and how alternative scenarios might be explored to mitigate that risk. Then business leaders will then have early access and visibility to respond to hard-hitting costs or industry turmoil.
It creates a watertight feedback loop – the data from the supply chain that these algorithms collect is used to highlight inventory or service levels at risk. This can be done with minimal manual impact.
It’s key for this data collection to be automated, otherwise employees would have to input supply chain views, risk measures, supplier confidence, transportation vulnerabilities and other uncertainties manually, which would be nearly impossible to calculate without intelligent support.
Real-time awareness is key for both leaders and planners. Leaders with a holistic view of risk evaluations across plans will be able to provide insights on existing data and act accordingly to mitigate disruption to the entire supply chain.
The link between the two
Rather than spending valuable time on managing significant risks, teams often spend too many resources on gathering data and processing their findings.
Businesses need to be nimble – and those who are will have an advantage in today’s economy. Supply chain ecosystems are not what they used to be, and businesses trading during a fragile economic environment cannot afford to waste time and money on inefficient decision-making processes.
Planning platforms automate collaboration across teams as everyone can have synchronized access to live plans for assessment. By relying on advanced tools that automate the draining data processing work, supply chain teams can focus on living plans and reduce time spent on intensive manual data processing.
