Advances in technology are fundamentally changing the way that businesses operate in virtually every industry. For the supply chain industry, specifically, this means that businesses are looking for fast-paced, streamlined, and real-time solutions to optimize supply chain performance and minimize supply chain risk to better meet their customer’s needs.
Modern supply chains are complex, and optimizing their performance is made all the more challenging by the fact that they are tasked with satisfying an increasingly large and diverse array of demands. For example, today’s hyper-competitive, winner-take-all marketplace demands that supply chains be fast, flexible, and adaptable, poised at the ready to exploit new opportunities as soon as they emerge.
Here are three ways to boost supply chain survival by taking advantage of new digital technologies:
1. Leverage Current Enterprise Data and Real-Time Data
Many companies are already collecting data from enterprise systems, telematics devices, sensors, and real-time data feeds, such as weather and traffic. By incorporating intelligent devices and sensors into operational processes, companies will also receive up-to-the-minute, real-time data.
2. Use Sensors to Collect Operational Data
Intelligent devices and sensors are predicted to be a major source of new data in the future. With this type of data, companies are able to receive end-to-end supply chain visibility as well as insights to anticipate problems, forecast outcomes, prescribe solutions, and prevent costly disruptions.
3. Apply Analytics to Turn Data into Smart, Actionable Intelligence
Analytics solutions will provide all partners in a supply chain several key types of intelligence, such as true visibility and accurate estimated time of arrivals, risk identification and avoidance, predictive modeling to anticipate supply chain changes, and insight into improved operational processes.
To learn more about how to leverage new technologies to thrive in the digital future, download our free, easy-to-read eBook: The Digital Supply Chain: Optimizing Operations with Real-Time Logistics and Enterprise Data.