SCM In Times Of Trouble

During times of economic turbulence, supply chain management can play a pivotal role in
helping companies to diagnose problems early and offer solutions to its clients…

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With uncertainty looming large in the wake of the pandemic, companies are looking for ways to be more flexible in storing and distribution strategies, including identifying suppliers close to their location of operations. This trend known as “regionalization” is likely to stay for some time now. So in order to thrive in this new reality, companies will need to realign their operations and supply chains. They will need to assist remote workers, and learn to engage with customers in new – often, virtual platforms. Emerging technologies will play a key role in the new era of resiliency. And new technologies like blockchain can connect people across supply networks, locking in the trust companies require to negotiate risk-laden trading environments.

Planning

The current situation warrants businesses to rethink how they do sales and operational planning. While designing or aligning plans keeping with customer demand will make sense for the organization, they will also have to be flexible in the rapid changing scenario and leverage on technology to a large extent. Companies now have the ability to continuously plan, forecast, close the books, with unprecedented speed and precision – thanks to technologies like cloud which can store and execute huge amount of data in
minutes. Planners are harnessing new technologies to meet potential disruptions head-on. With AI, machine learning, and predictive intelligence, companies can intelligently anticipate and plan for the future.

Innovate

Amid a global disruption, companies need to make sure that they bring new products to the market floor at a breakneck speed. For instance: car manufacturers have shifted their focus to building ventilators; pharmaceutical companies are focusing their research on finding COVID-19 vaccines; and retailers are finding ways to virtually engage and sell to customers. In order to accelerate innovation, companies require an integrated view of the product lifecycle – right from ideation to commercialization. Companies that ran product development and supply-chain planning as separate functions are coming to an end.

Visibility

Swift decision making is important to gain opportunity and grow in any given market condition. And this requires quick access to all the information and insights, so as to empower decision makers to make the right choice in the most complex and sensitive operating environments. Access to critical data helps immensely in this effort, providing planners with the multi-tiered visibility that’s key to deciding where to source materials, make products, and deliver goods. New blockchain-based applications like Oracle Intelligent Track and Trace takes visibility a step further allowing companies to monitor the flow of goods and services between companies down to individuals or items. The technology can be imbedded with every link in the supply chain to affix trust and speed transactions between business partners as well as consumers who increasingly demand full traceability of the products they buy.

Sustainability

Supply chain also comes with some social and environmental issues. From the carbon emissions related to transportation, to the industrial waste from factories, all these issues surrounding sustainability do not vanish during times of global disruption. In fact sustainable supply chain practices become more relevant where resources may be harder to come by.

The best strategy is to incorporate your supply chain with principles of sustainability, using them to guide decisions ranging from product design and factory floor configuration to sourcing and logistics. This is the new survival mantra which more and more companies have discovered, implying that sustainability and a healthy bottom line are perfectly compatible – even in the toughest of times. And this is a proposition that QuaTrain is offering its customers to rise above the economic and social turbulence.

With QuaTrain, companies can transform their entire supply chain process into intelligent workflows to reach a new level of responsiveness and innovation. By identifying siloed and inefficient processes down-the-line and training people to rise up to challenges and integrating new-age technologies like AI and blockchain, QuaTrain is helping companies unlock new opportunities at every step of the product value chain, evolving them for the future.