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Tag: Supply Chain Resilience

Future for Supply Chains Starts with Partners

Posted on by David Priestman

A new future for supply chains starts with your partners, writes Scott Lehmann VP of Product Management at Sphera.

The last few months have been busy for every CEO of a global business. The launch of increased tariffs by the US has added new complexities to global trade. Firms have been forced to take fast action to shore up their supply chains, ranging from stockpiling in warehouses to rethinking the locations of suppliers and networks around the world. While it’s still early days, the impacts are starting to be felt further down the chain of business’ operations. China’s response with additional export restrictions on rare earth metals even forced some automotive manufacturers to temporarily shutter production.

Disruption is clearly becoming the new norm. It is worth remembering that supply chain resilience is not a new topic for 2025. We have lived through five years that have seen events that have profoundly tested global supply chains, including the once-in-a century COVID-19 pandemic and the Ever Given incident on the Suez Canal – the latter of which obstructed up to $10 billion cargo per day.

Scott Lehmann, Sphera

Building resilience into supply chains is no longer a nice to have, it’s an imperative. Businesses need to prepare for the unprecedented and strategically plan for intelligent, proactive supply chain management.

No more reactive

It is critical for leaders to, as the saying goes, see the wood for the trees. Organisations should resist reacting too quickly to the turmoil the tariffs have created worldwide. It may only exacerbate the issue, kicking off even larger unforeseen supply chain disruptions and vulnerabilities.

There is an alternative path available to them. This strategy is centred around supply chain risk management. Risk is not something to engage with after the fact, or on a case-by-case basis. It should be foundational to every firm’s supply chain strategy. These risks are diverse and should be viewed in holistic terms. The risks do, certainly, involve exposure to large tariffs that risk forcing them to hike up prices for their direct customers. They could also be tied into climate regulation, geopolitics, sanctions, human rights, reputational – the list goes on.

Supply chain risk management is guided by principles that aim to avoid, mitigate, transfer or accept risks in order to effectively manage overall risk exposure.

To start, look at a prioritization of suppliers to better understand the risk, its impact and what mitigation strategies are most appropriate. This is a complex, multi-faceted exercise. Too many corporations engage with this question on a surface level. They might try to map out where their suppliers are operating, who their suppliers, and their suppliers, are buying from so they have a more complete picture of their risk posture. Our research shows that, for the majority of businesses, their intelligence ends at their direct, tier 1 suppliers. Firms are not going deeper in the layers of the supply chain and thus are exposed to risks they may be unaware of.

Factors behind this problem range from outdated and/or new technology promising the world but delivering a lot of noise and confusion to problems in cooperating on supplier data with direct suppliers. Solving it requires a shift towards real-time supplier intelligence, extending beyond immediate partners to include true N-tier visibility, ensuring businesses understand the risks deep within their networks.

Looking ahead

Taking a more proactive, modernised approach to supply chains is critical. Supply chain resilience is a necessity for business survival. Companies can no longer prioritise cost efficiency over resilience. Firms need a holistic view of supplier risk, built around real-time supplier intelligence that goes far beyond immediate partners to achieve full N-tier visibility.

It will help firms to comprehensively ask the biggest questions affecting supply chains today including: Who am I doing business with all the way down the supply chain? Is there a diamond supplier risk? What specific country risk exposure do they have in their sub-tiers? Are there human rights issues in their supply chains? To what extent are they exposed to the new US tariff regime? How are they affected by EU climate regulations? Do they have exposure to sanctions from the war in Ukraine? How will the ongoing Middle East conflicts impact them directly and indirectly?

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Structured Data for Supply Chain Resilience

Posted on by David Priestman

Risk mitigation is imperative to reduce the risks of and damage from cyberattacks and other crises, writes Robert Strange (pictured below), Senior Engineer at Neo4j.

Supply chains have evolved into highly connected networks in recent years, driven by technological advancements that have made them ‘smarter’. While these innovations have positively transformed business operations, they have also opened avenues for new vulnerabilities, leaving supply chains susceptible to disruptions in both the physical and digital realms.

The growing risk of cybersecurity is a prime example of these vulnerabilities. The ransomware attack on Blue Yonder, a supply chain management software specialist, highlighted the severe disruptions such incidents can cause. This attack compromised the company’s managed services environment, leading to delays at several grocery and retail stores across the UK – delays not just in delivering goods but also in paying staff and managing schedules.

Blue Yonder’s attack underscores the need for scenario planning and robust mitigation plans to safeguard against these risks. These incidents can bring production to a standstill and significantly disrupt business revenues if plans to contain potential impacts are not mapped out in advance. Data plays a central role in keeping supply chain operations running efficiently and effectively, but the reality is these supply chains are currently not being safeguarded or optimised to withstand real-world disruption. As a result, many businesses are turning their attention to innovative technologies and strategies to strengthen resilience throughout their supply chains.

Overcoming the challenges of supply chain visibility

Supply chains are inherently complex in nature; a vast network of producers, warehouses, transportation systems, distribution ports, and stores from around the world. A single disruption in any part of this network can send the entire system into disarray, making visibility crucial in preventing a domino effect. Nonetheless, extracting valuable insights from raw supply chain data presents its own set of challenges. Traditional data models, which rely on rigid structures of tables, rows, and columns, struggle to effectively capture the intricate relationships between different data sets. Inflexible in their structure, analysts using these models have limited ability to extract valuable insights that could inform a response to disruption.

Mapping connections for smarter supply chains

This is where graph databases come into play. Traditional data models struggle with complex relationships, while graph databases offer a more dynamic approach. In this model, ‘nodes’ represent entities, like people, products, or locations, while ‘edges’ represent the relationship between two nodes – i.e., how they are connected to one another. The unique structure of graph databases is especially valuable for supply chain professionals wanting to benefit from digitally visualising their supply chain as the interconnected network that it is.

Rob Strange – Neo4j

To optimise transportation, a supply chain organisation could, for instance, create nodes to represent each wholesaler and retailer. These could be connected by edges to show the distances between them. Then, by running the appropriate query or request in the data model, the analyst should be provided with what should be the ‘best’ – fastest and cheapest – supplier from which goods can be transported ready for purchasing.

Understanding the relationship between different entities in advance can also be invaluable when dealing with unexpected disruption. Take the crisis in the Red Sea, for instance, where shipping companies are facing rising costs and delays due to rebel attacks. Graph technology could allow those managing supply chains to identify alternative routes or solutions pre-emptively, ensuring goods reach suppliers more efficiently, enhancing resilience, and minimising disruption.

The power of graph databases lies in their ability to map complex relationships between entities, making them a crucial tool for uncovering insights. Supply chains, which operate as networked structures, are naturally suited to this model, while the rigid format of traditional models makes it much harder to reveal these relationships.

Predicting and preventing disruption with digital twins

Supply chain resilience isn’t just a case of managing physical disruptions, it’s also about preparing better responses to those in the digital realm. Cyberattacks can significantly disrupt digital operations. As such, businesses are exploring digital twin technology as a tool for proactively combatting potential issues before they arise and conducting post-incident analysis.

Organisations are creating virtual replicas of their supply chains called ‘knowledge graphs’ to test different scenarios and predict multiple outcomes of cybersecurity risks. This means a connected, virtual model provides a comprehensive view of the supply chain and allows companies to understand how these systems interact at both a granular and holistic level. This picture encompasses the users and the groups they belong to, and the permissions granted to each member. As recurring or interconnected events are captured over time, the digital twin becomes more accurate. This enables both cybersecurity and supply chain analysts to act swiftly and more effectively while informing how they respond in the future.

Making these connections visible to cybersecurity analysts helps identify the most critical vulnerabilities and the potential attack paths that threaten resources. Analysts can then assess the likelihood of successful attacks by attaching the probabilities to each of those pathways, enabling them to reinforce security measures accordingly.

This insight is valuable because it clearly signposts when organisations need to map out other viable routes, reassess transit times, and evaluate cost implications. By combining cybersecurity modelling with supply chain optimisation, organisations create a powerful strategy that allows them to stay ahead of disruptions and re-prioritise resources in quicker succession.

Getting a grip on future events

As supply chains become more interconnected and worldly disruptions more unpredictable, organisations should aim to make the most of their connected data. By leveraging graph databases, companies can uncover insights into the relationships within their data, allowing them to proactively identify vulnerabilities and navigate uncertainty with confidence.

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Why Fish Logistics Needs to Move Before the Harvest

Posted on by David Priestman

When September arrived in Norway, so did the salmon. The country’s aquaculture sector, led by its globally dominant salmon industry, always have its busiest season of the year starting from September – hauling over 181,000 tonnes of fish from cold coastal waters in just one month. But as harvest volumes peak, a different kind of bottleneck is formed – on roads, in ports, and across Europe’s refrigerated supply chains. In 2024, a perfect storm of seasonal supply, infrastructure strain, and unpredictable disruptions exposed a painful truth: when logistics planning starts in peak season, it’s already too late.

Supply Outpaces Infrastructure

The seasonality of seafood is nothing new. Salmon, cod, and herring harvests in Scandinavia follow biological rhythms that concentrate production in the warmer months, then taper off in winter. What’s changed is how tight the margins for error have become. Last year, Norway’s salmon production dropped to 125,000 tonnes by December, right on schedule. But as fish poured into processing plants in late summer and autumn, the cold-chain network struggled to keep up. Drivers were scarce, reefer trailers were overbooked, and ports – already burdened by global congestion – delayed shipments critical for air freight deadlines.

Too Much Salmon, Not Enough Trucks

In Poland, Norway’s top salmon importer and processor, the pressure was acute. Polish facilities handled NOK 14.6 billion worth of salmon by August 2024, much of it bound for fast-turnaround exports across the EU. Delays of even a few hours translated into missed deliveries, rebooking fees, and, in some cases, product losses.

“By the time producers realized trucks were full, there was very little we could do, despite we have extend our terminal services,” said Bjørn Magne Willumsen, Thermo-Transit fish expert, a leading cold-chain logistics firm specializing in seafood transport. “The companies that book in Q1 were the ones still moving smoothly in Q4.”

Proactive Planning as a Competitive Advantage

What separated successful exporters in 2024 wasn’t harvest yield – it was timing. Those who secured logistics resources early in the year were able to buffer against Q3 and Q4 volatility. Their trucks were rolling when others were still negotiating. Their terminals had space. Their shipments reached airports on time. One strategy that gained traction: reducing reliance on subcontracted carriers during low season to maintain a ready fleet in high season. Others prioritized intermodal transport, combining road, rail, and ferry routes to offset driver shortages and reduce emissions.

According to Thermo-Transit, shifting freight through hubs in Padborg (Denmark) and Oslo provided flexibility. Swapping trailers and drivers at these hubs ensured compliance with EU cabotage rules and the Mobility Package, while keeping sensitive product moving.

Global Pressures, Local Lessons

The challenges faced in Norway were mirrored globally. Port congestion in Asia, container shortages, and fuel price spikes left cold-chain transport vulnerable across markets. In the UK, tightened visa rules and crew shortages compounded seafood import declines. And in Indonesia, cold storage inefficiencies showed just how dramatically logistics costs can balloon without infrastructure investment.

What the Scandinavian experience highlighted, however, was the increasing interdependence of fish producers and logistics operators. As consumer demand grows for traceable, responsibly sourced seafood, producers must now deliver not just quality – but consistency. That consistency begins long before the first fish is caught.

Looking Ahead: The Window Is Now

For fish producers, the first quarter of the year is often quieter. The pens are full, but harvest is months away. It’s easy to put off decisions about capacity, scheduling, or routing. But that lull is deceptive. “Q1 and early Q2 is when the smart planning happens,” said Willumsen. “If you wait until the orders come in, you’re reacting, not leading.”

In 2025, supply chain resilience won’t be built in September. It will be built now – by investing in relationships with carriers, forecasting harvest volumes in advance, and securing access to the infrastructure that will be in shortest supply when the season returns. Because as every fish producer knows: you can’t move product that doesn’t have a truck waiting for it.

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Pioneering the Future: Logistics Insights for 2025

Posted on by David Priestman

The logistics landscape is poised for transformative changes in 2025, writes Mike Colarossi, head of enterprise sustainability at Avery Dennison.

“The rapid evolution of technology, coupled with lessons from recent global disruptions, is driving a new era of innovation and resilience in the sector. For business leaders, understanding these emerging trends is crucial to navigating the complexities of the modern supply chain and maintaining a competitive edge.”

Strengthening Supply Chain Resilience

“The past few years have underscored the importance of supply chain resilience. In 2025, logistics businesses will need to prioritise building robust and adaptable supply chains capable of withstanding disruptions. This will involve diversifying supplier bases, increasing inventory buffers, and leveraging digital twins to simulate and prepare for various scenarios.
Collaborative platforms will enhance supply chain visibility and coordination. By fostering closer relationships with suppliers and partners, businesses can ensure a more agile response to unforeseen events. Additionally, the emphasis on sustainability will drive the adoption of sustainable logistics practices, such as reducing fuel consumption in the ‘last mile’ by eliminating mis-shipments, using electric vehicles and optimising packaging to reduce waste.

“Businesses that scenario plan effectively will stay the course. The integration of advanced analytics and AI can enhance resilience by enabling predictive maintenance and real-time decision-making. AI can analyse data from various sources to predict potential disruptions, such as weather events or geopolitical tensions, allowing businesses to take proactive measures. This predictive capability will be crucial in maintaining operational continuity and minimising downtime.”

Embracing Technological Advancements

“Artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI are set to evolve logistics by providing unprecedented levels of insight and automation. AI-driven predictive analytics will enable businesses to anticipate demand fluctuations, optimise routes, and manage inventory with remarkable accuracy. Internet of Things (IoT) devices will offer real-time tracking and monitoring of goods, ensuring transparency and efficiency throughout the supply chain.

“To capitalise on AI technology, businesses must start with precise data collection. Attaching RFID-enabled labels and automated sensors to physical goods allows organisations to gather detailed item-level data. When combined with AI, this data empowers organisations to monitor and manage the movement of packages and goods in real-time, optimizing supply chain efficiency and anticipating potential supply chain disruptions. This synergy enables optimised delivery routes, minimises sorting and delivery errors, and provides real-time alerts for any disruptions. The outcome is enhanced efficiency, substantial cost savings, and a reduced environmental footprint through streamlined logistics.

“UPS exemplifies this transformation with its Smart Package Smart Facility initiative. By incorporating RFID-enabled labels and automated sensors, UPS has reduced sorting and delivery errors, ensuring parcels are accurately tracked and delivered, optimising routes, and minimising costs. This approach enhances operational efficiency and contributes to environmental sustainability by reducing emissions, setting new standards in the logistics industry.”

Focusing on Consumer-Centric Strategies

“In 2025, the customer will remain at the heart of logistics strategies. Businesses will need to offer personalised and flexible delivery options to meet diverse consumer preferences. Same-day and next-day delivery services will become the norm, necessitating efficient and responsive logistics networks.

“Data-driven insights will enable businesses to better understand customer behaviour and tailor their services accordingly. Enhanced customer experience will be achieved through seamless communication, real-time updates, and proactive issue resolution. For C-suite executives, prioritising customer-centric strategies will be essential for driving growth and maintaining a competitive edge in the dynamic logistics landscape.

“Furthermore, the continued rise of e-commerce will inevitably shape logistics strategies. As online shopping becomes increasingly popular, businesses will need to invest in robust e-commerce logistics solutions. This includes optimising warehouse operations, improving last-mile delivery, and ensuring a seamless returns process. By focusing on these areas, businesses can enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.”

Embracing the Future: Thriving in 2025 and Beyond

“The logistics sector in 2025 will be characterised by technological innovation, resilience, and customer-centricity. UK business leaders who embrace these trends and invest in the necessary technologies and strategies will be well-positioned to thrive.”

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The Critical Role of Technology in Supply Chain Resilience

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Over the past year, global supply chains have faced relentless disruptions across multiple fronts, writes Matt Gregory (pictured), Managing Director Northern Europe, Körber Supply Chain Software. Geopolitical tensions, including the prolonged U.S.-China trade disputes, have intensified pressure on supply networks. Meanwhile, natural disasters like Hurricane Helene and Milton have severely impacted transportation and logistics across the U.S. Compounding these issues, the residual effects of the pandemic and evolving health protocols continue to disrupt global shipping and exports, creating delays and unpredictability.

According to findings from Resilinc, overall disruptions in the first half of 2024 increased 30% over the first half of 2023. These combined challenges have exposed weaknesses in supply chains, demanding a more resilient and adaptive approach moving forward. As operational disruptions become more frequent and severe, integrating advanced technologies such as digital twins, IoT and predictive analytics can help companies anticipate, prepare for and adapt to these challenges. By leveraging these innovative tools, businesses can not only mitigate risks but also secure future growth and stability in an increasingly uncertain environment.

Adapting to Thrive

One key technology driving challenge mitigation is a digital twin. A digital twin is a virtual model that mirrors real-world processes, allowing companies to simulate everything from production schedules to transportation status and inventory levels. By doing so, it enables more informed decision-making, optimizing operations and improving overall efficiency. Digital twins also support predictive maintenance by continuously monitoring equipment performance. This proactive approach helps businesses prevent failures and minimize downtime. Moreover, real-time insights from digital twins allow companies to identify inefficiencies within the supply chain and respond swiftly to emerging issues.

Leading companies like Mars and Michelin have successfully integrated digital twin technology. Mars uses it to oversee production processes, preventing overfilling in factories, while Michelin leveraged 80,000 simulations for strategic sourcing, saving €10 million annually in logistics and boosting profit margins by 5%. By investing in digital twins and other technologies that provide real-time data and predictive capabilities, businesses can shift from reactive to proactive supply chain management. This not only builds resilience against disruptions but also prepares organizations to face future challenges with greater agility.

End-to-End Visibility

Achieving end-to-end visibility across supply chains allows businesses to track and monitor every step of the process in real time. With a clear view of operations, companies can make faster, more informed decisions that not only reduce risk but also lead to greater efficiency. This visibility supports cost management and fosters stronger relationships with partners, all while improving the overall customer experience.

IoT technology has become a critical tool for boosting visibility across supply chains. Through the enablement of real-time tracking, devices provide key insights into the movement and condition of goods, allowing businesses to quickly identify and resolve issues such as delays or quality concerns. This proactive approach ensures smoother operations and keeps the supply chain running seamlessly. In the case of extreme weather causing supply chain disruptions, companies with IoT-enabled tracking systems can re-route shipments in real time, minimising delays and maintaining customer satisfaction.

This level of visibility not only improves operational efficiency, but also enhances the overall resilience of the supply chain by enabling rapid response to unforeseen events. By harnessing IoT, organisations can make smarter, data-driven decisions that optimise not only their performance but also reduce vulnerabilities.

Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics, powered by AI, is revolutionising supply chain management by enabling companies to anticipate demand and potential disruptions more accurately. This provides enhanced visibility and performance monitoring, allowing businesses to make data-driven decisions that align with their goals. By applying these insights, companies can gain a proactive edge, to help make informed decisions that can optimise their entire supply chain. For example, predictive analytics can forecast demand shifts, enabling businesses to adjust their inventory levels, reduce overstocking and avoid shortages. This can also optimise transportation routes or planned maintenance for equipment before failures occur, reducing downtime and inefficiencies.

The benefits of using predictive analytics across supply chains are endless. This can improve operational agility, allowing companies to respond faster to changes in market conditions, customer demand, or unforeseen disruptions. In addition, this helps businesses lower costs by reducing waste and improving resource allocation, which results in enhanced overall performance. Ultimately, this leads to a more resilient supply chain capable of not only managing risks but also capitalising on new opportunities and driving long-term success.

Looking Ahead

In a world increasingly defined by supply chain disruptions, technology integration is essential for building resilience. Digital twins, IoT and predictive analytics are powerful tools to help organisations maintain end-to-end visibility, enhance decision-making and respond proactively to challenges. By investing in these technologies, companies can strengthen their supply chains and achieve better resilience to meet demands and prepare for future uncertainties.

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Supply Chain Resilience from Transparency and Collaboration

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Cost savings used to be at the top of supply chain managers’ agendas. However, in an increasingly volatile world, the design of robust value chains is increasingly becoming the focus of decision-makers. This is likely to remain the case for the future, writes Ralf Duester, Managing Director, Setlog GmbH.

Many ships are currently avoiding the Suez Canal because of the Houthi rebels. In 2023, extreme drought caused ships to jam at the Panama Canal. According to Setlog Managing Director Ralf Duester, companies need to establish robust and transparent supply chains due to supply chain problems like these so that they can react quickly.

A non-maneuverable container ship causes a bridge in Baltimore to collapse, Houthi rebels hijack ships in the Red Sea, storms flood the desert city of Dubai: reports like these give many supply chain managers sleepless nights. Supply chains are interrupted overnight, freight capacities and equipment are missing without warning. Supply chain managers need to find new transport routes, ports or suppliers, plan with longer lead times, produce earlier or faster or select more expensive modes of transportation. Geopolitical, economic, ecological and technical changes put global supply chains under pressure at short intervals – or even interrupt them.

As a result, the topic of supply chain resilience is at the top of the agenda for supply chain managers. Things were different a few years ago. Take Germany, for example: the “Trends in Logistics & SCM” study conducted by the German Logistics Association BVL in 2023 shows that cost pressure was the most important topic for decision-makers in 2016, but in 2023 it only ranks fourth. Cybersecurity is now the top priority, followed by digitalization and the shortage of skilled workers. Many measures in terms of cyber security and digitalization contribute to making supply chains more robust.

Resilience can basically be divided into two components: the operational, reactive component and the strategic, proactive component. The latter requires top managers in companies to fundamentally rethink their decisions. They need to find ways to strengthen the robustness of the supply chain through decisions in sourcing, product design, production, planning and logistics.

Basically, all companies need to think about supply chain resilience. Companies with global operations – such as automotive suppliers, semiconductor manufacturers or consumer goods specialists – are particularly affected by supply chain disruptions. To make matters worse, importers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs), for example, have no choice but to purchase their products in Asia or countries outside Europe for cost reasons. If they were to produce in Germany, they would generally not be competitive.

Storms, disasters, war: although a large number of negative events occur every year, it is frightening to see how slowly companies can react to such disruptions to supply chains – even in highly industrialized countries. Current surveys show that in Germany, for example, on average only one in ten companies is able to respond to a serious disaster within 24 hours. Although there are exceptions – for example in the oil and gas industry – this average value shows the risks that many companies take on a daily basis.

One reason for long response times is the fact that companies still use Excel lists as the basis for managing their supply chains – and there are quite a few of them: More than a third of German companies rely solely on this program, supplemented by emails and frantic phone calls to obtain information, which is then re-entered into the existing Excel lists or merchandise management systems.

In general, statistics show that larger corporations in particular have strengthened their supply chains with the help of various instruments. Smaller companies and SMEs are lagging behind – or are still at the beginning of a transformation phase.

The good news for everyone is that there is a whole range of measures that companies can use to achieve success relatively quickly. Supply chain champions usually start with an analysis, looking at the areas in which risks are suspected and what impact these could have on the company’s performance. Those responsible then define the levers that best address the identified risks. They take a cross-functional approach: This is because the causes are generally not to be found where the consequences of supply chain weaknesses appear.

Companies are well advised to turn a whole series of screws in parallel in order to strengthen their resilience in the areas of supply chain and procurement. These include in the area of supply chain: Segmentation of the supply chain; Strengthening of integrated planning; Inventory management according to risk criteria; Diversification of freight forwarders; Re-evaluation of the network design.

The following applies to purchasing: Multi-sourcing strategies for critical components; Creation of supplier risk profiles; Development of regional suppliers; Closer cooperation with suppliers; Creating transparency in terms of actual supplier capacities.

To accomplish all this, the development and use of centralized, digital cross-company solutions and data exchange between different systems are an important step in enabling collaborative, partnership-based cooperation with business partners globally. Nowadays, this is easily possible with intelligent API interfaces, so that the silo of management or the ERP system can be broken down and easily linked with intelligent solutions and the data flow is optimized.

The issue of skilled labour shortage also shows that these methods are the only way to avoid redundancies in day-to-day work, make better use of skilled employees’ working time and make faster, higher quality decisions.

Incidentally, supply chain champions pay more attention to product design and production, because these areas in particular can lay the foundations for a more robust supply chain. They consistently tackle issues such as modular design, component standardization, raw material composition and supplier origin.

However, in order to make supply chains more robust in the long term, companies need to do more than just implement individual measures. In order to achieve cost efficiency, growth and resilience at the same time, SCM managers should rethink and redefine the decision drivers in the supply chain. As a rule, costs, quality and time or service level are regarded as decision drivers in supply chain management. The configuration of a supply chain takes a position on these drivers, which cannot be improved at the same time. Leading global players consider resilience to be a key decision driver – alongside sustainability and agility.

Some companies mistakenly assume that there is a conflict between the drivers of costs and resilience. The following aspects are important in this context: The aim of resilience is also to avoid costs in the medium and long term. However, this does not necessarily have to involve short-term costs and redundancies. Many initiatives to strengthen supply chains make it possible to increase cost efficiency at the same time, so that resilience levers can certainly be implemented, for example with the secondary condition of cost neutrality.

Many supply chain strategists segment supply chains. Sometimes very successfully. If, for example, higher stock ranges are to apply to critical parts, actual and target stock levels must be analyzed. This is a simple way for companies to achieve inventory savings for less critical parts. Other levers relating to visibility and supplier integration generally achieve more efficient processes, more precise planning and automation options.

Despite the change in many people’s minds, the fact remains that resilience and risk management with a focus on supply chains are still being neglected from an organizational perspective. Competent teams can ensure cross-functional coordination and establish communication channels for faster risk identification. In this context, the best of the best simulate various crises, also known as “war gaming”. Unfortunately, many companies lack the required knowledge of which future scenarios could occur due to negative geopolitical, economic and ecological events. However, knowing which scenarios could happen forms the basis for developing suitable countermeasures and thus strengthening the resilience of the supply chain.

Over the next few years, digitalization and artificial intelligence will make even more tools available that can strengthen the robustness of supply chains. Whatever these solutions look like, they are anything but superfluous. The topic of resilience is not just hype, it will be a constant concern.

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Core System Optimisation Vital Link for Supply Chain

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Core system optimisation is a vital link for manufacturing’s supply chain success, writes David Lees (pictured), CTO of Basis Technologies.

Manufacturing supply chains are growing increasingly complex and difficult to manage. Factors like nature-related risks, geopolitical dynamics and business transformation have decreased the resilience, availability, and viability of managing supply chains effectively. However, one of the key barriers to supply chain success for global manufacturers is the archaic state of their core business systems, such as ERP.

ERPs, such as leading provider SAP, is the beating heart of many logistics organisations yet is often overlooked by CIOs. It’s widely regarded as being a ‘constant’ in and amongst business innovation happening around it – it’s the age-old foundation that has kept the company running for years. However, what CIOs may be unaware of is that these established systems have become ticking time bombs. As the ECC support deadline in 2027 grows ever closer, the race is on to prepare SAP systems for a mandatory transformation toward the cloud-based S/4HANA in time. And since these operations sit at the heart of the tech stack, the collateral damage of falling or ignoring the need for transformation altogether is substantial.

SAP itself recognises that many businesses are pushing their legacy systems to the brink, just in an effort to manage day-to-day operations across their supply chain. There is an industry-wide call for a way to unify, connect, and coordinate their supply chains more effectively and unlock the full potential of data-driven decision-making.

As a result, optimising these core systems is no longer a luxury for manufacturers; it’s non-negotiable.

Don’t shy away from change

The idea of making substantial changes to such a deep-rooted business system has put organisations off for years. Fear of unexpected costs, human error and operational collapse have been reasons enough to warrant holding off making any major alterations to such a central asset like SAP.

However, it’s now reached the stage where doing nothing is equally, if not more, damaging in the long term. It’s time to get rid of the ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ attitude, particularly considering the competitiveness of the manufacturing landscape worldwide.

Untold benefits await those manufacturers that move away from this mindset. If they can transform their legacy systems into platforms for innovation and growth, manufacturers can unlock huge value, including improved efficiency, increased customer retention, reduced overhead and operational costs, and fewer IT issues in general.

However, the way in which these core systems are managed in the manufacturing space currently act as a significant roadblock to these benefits. The problem is methods of change often lack the capabilities to capture the insights needed and match the pace of the organisation. It’s like trying to navigate a storm without a compass – a recipe for disaster in the world of supply chain management, particularly as manufacturers negotiate a consistent stream of CSR mandates when it comes to supply sourcing and manufacturing practices. According to the Business Continuity Institute’s 2023 Supply Chain Resilience survey, concerns about new laws and regulations increased by 40.5%, representing the fifth biggest concern for organisations.

Moving beyond a manual approach

Manufacturers with complex supply chains have large SAP environments, which is all the more reason to move away from archaic ways of managing these core systems. Basis Technologies recently found 59% of enterprises still uses manual Excel spreadsheets for business-critical SAP management. This is at odds with manufacturers’ vision for the future; Deloitte research from 2019 stated 83% of manufacturers believed that smart factory solutions would transform the way products were made in five years. Five years later and little has changed, as the lack of core system optimisation continues to impede progress across the operational funnel.

Spreadsheets are firmly rooted in the years that came before, and no longer meet the demands of modern businesses. Technologies such as automation, machine learning, and AI have enabled businesses to act smarter, leveraging data analytics and efficient technology to manage their operations more thoroughly and with increased ease.

To effectively manage change within SAP systems, organisations require a more robust approach: an automated system where everyone has a clear view, can work together seamlessly, and can take action instantly. This requires real-time visibility, collaboration, and integration. By replacing manual spreadsheets with automation, manufacturers will unlock real-time impact analysis, adaptive governance, automated backout and landscape flexibility, across the entire supply chain. CIOs are aware of the need for innovation, but progress has been hindered by tools ill-suited for the task.

By taking back control of SAP systems, manufacturers can gain a holistic view of their supply chains, acting on data-driven decisions to inform more sustainable practices, eliminate supply chain disruption from human error-driven IT outages and integrate SAP systems with their IT stack. Ultimately, this is the way manufacturers future proof their business.

The time for change is now. By embracing modern technology for core system optimisation, manufacturers can cultivate a more resilient, efficient, and sustainable supply chain. This, in turn, unlocks a domino effect of benefits, from improved customer satisfaction to reduced costs and an edge in a fiercely competitive market. The future of successful manufacturing supply chains lies not just in the new, but in leveraging the full potential of the technology that already exists within the heart of the organisation.

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Improve Supply Chain Resilience in Infrastructure Project Delivery

Posted on by David Priestman

Major infrastructure projects rely on supply chains being resilient in the face of unexpected challenges. A UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) report revealed that around 10% of businesses with ten or more employees experienced disruptions to the global supply chain.

A disrupted supply chain can result in delays and increased costs, so strengthening it is crucial to delivery. Wincanton, a leading logistics partner that provides solutions for the infrastructure sector, offers expert insight into how incorporating emerging technology into processes can help add more resilience and how seamless they can make infrastructure projects.

Visibility of materials: real-time updates and visibility

Many components are involved in the infrastructure industry, especially when it comes to the logistics and availability of materials. Having real-time updates and visibility to track where they are and their estimated time of arrival (ETAs) can help keep projects on track for delivery, which prevents going over budget or delaying timelines.

This technology is one part of a wider digital transport solution for tracking and reporting to boost supply chain resilience. The concept involves using multiple devices within a single network for a greater sense of transparency throughout. Project managers and stakeholders alike can then monitor the locations and conditions of the materials to keep everything on track.

As a result, strategic planning can be done using data-driven decisions, as all the information is collected in one place and is easily accessible. Not only can this mean that reporting, reordering, or returning materials or equipment is made easier, but you can also ensure that the resources being ordered are of the quality you need.

Supplier coordination

Infrastructure projects often involve coordinating with many different suppliers to ensure that everything is delivered in a timely fashion. This means finding ways of fostering more collaboration between these suppliers can help ensure seamless procedures, and the advancements in technology and their accessibility can offer lots to the industry.

Collaborative software and cloud-based tech and platforms offer real-time connection and communication between businesses that can improve synchronicity. These systems also open possibilities through data sharing, so new plans or invoices can be sent, signed, and returned in good time, subsequently reducing delays from admin.

Impacts to the environment: tracking and management

One area that infrastructure as an industry must continue to focus on making improvements is within the tracking of emissions and waste created during projects. Sustainability, consciousness, and accountability surrounding environmental practices are becoming more prevalent, particularly around how responsible they respond to it and the measures taken to improve and manage it.

Utilising technology can simplify measuring and tracking the emissions produced by a project while also enabling the retrieval of relevant data. By introducing sensors and systems to monitor carbon emissions, tech can manage emissions and waste more effectively. These tools can also track how the materials used are contributing to the overall carbon footprint in order to reduce the amount of waste generated. Not only does this help keep projects running on-time, on-budget and within regulatory frameworks, enhancing the reputation of the sector for project delivery.

Much like many other elements of the infrastructure industry, implementing technology into the supply chain is pertinent to improving its resilience. The benefits it provides offer infrastructure projects of all sizes more transparency and connectivity, so no matter how complex they are, the supply chain will be resilient enough to withstand their demands.

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How to Overcome Supply Chain Crises

 

PartnerLink Program for Supply Chain Challenges

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Kinaxis, a global provider of supply chain management solutions, announced a strategic expansion of its PartnerLink program, designed to fortify the supply chain resilience of businesses worldwide.

Launched in 2021, the PartnerLink program has rapidly evolved into a leading network of over 170 partners and 2,500+ certified consultants, offering unparalleled expertise in supply chain transformation. This expansion introduces a suite of enhancements including:

• Partner Relationship Management Portal – this new portal will serve as a dynamic, all-in-one communications hub with customizable dashboards to access valuable sales resources, marketing and deployment support, training and certification information, event news, product materials and more.

• First-Ever Global Partner Roadshow – a series of exclusive, in-person events across APAC, EMEA and North America with industry-specific deep-dive presentations from Kinaxis and industry thought leaders and a first-hand look at key product roadmap innovations.

• New Certifications – expanded list of certifications will ensure highly-skilled consultants remain on the cutting edge of new technological developments and implementation best practices.

• New Tiering System – a comprehensive tiering framework will provide access to various financial and business benefits, from training and tools to market development funds, partner advisory councils, sandbox demo environments and more. Partners will automatically enter the Silver tier and upon meeting revenue, certification and specialization requirements, graduate to higher tiers.

Supply chain orchestration

These initiatives are set to equip Kinaxis‘ partners with advanced tools, resources and knowledge, enabling accelerated deployment and optimization of supply chain solutions.

“With labour disputes, cyber-attacks and the escalation of conflicts in global hotspots like Eastern Europe and the Middle East all threatening the movement of goods globally, businesses have never had a greater need for supply chain solutions that enable them to prepare for and respond to unexpected disruptions,” said Conrad Mandala, senior vice president, global partner organization at Kinaxis. “The investments we are making in our PartnerLink program will strengthen our position to capitalize on this demand and deliver on our global growth objectives by ensuring our partner ecosystem has the tools they need to help customers achieve supply chain resiliency no matter what risks appear on the horizon.”

Read more here:

Kinaxis Drives Digital Transformation for Volvo

 

Interoperable Solutions for Supply Chain Resilience

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Blue Yonder, a leading supply chain solutions provider, today announced the release of its largest product update in the history of the company, launching the first set of interoperable solutions across the entire supply chain – from planning to warehouse, transportation, and commerce – delivered on the company’s Luminate® Cognitive Platform. Leaning into interoperability allows Blue Yonder to provide its customers with increased productivity, reduced waste, and more resilient supply chains.

“Today’s supply chains are operated by a fragmented ecosystem of legacy solutions, with many being stitched together over time with custom configurations and code,” said Duncan Angove, CEO, Blue Yonder. “While many supply chain solution providers claim to offer end-to-end capabilities, it is typically confined to planning or execution spaces where they’ve integrated their own product suites. Blue Yonder is changing that. With this release, we are redefining end-to-end supply chains, and establishing a new category of solutions with interoperable capabilities aligned with our vision to create the supply chain operating system for the world.”

End-to-End Interoperability

As manufacturers, logistics companies, suppliers, and retailers look to build greater resilience and mitigate market volatility in their supply chain, they are often hampered by: siloed business processes and communications breakdowns, lack of visibility, disconnected solutions, and burdensome workflows across planning, transportation, warehouse, e-commerce, and last mile fulfillment. This can lead to inventory waste, high costs, loss of sales, slow responsiveness, lack of resilience and more.

Solving these supply chain challenges requires companies to coordinate and streamline planning and execution management across the end-to-end ecosystem. This includes:
● Orchestrating sourcing, production, logistics and network strategies in a single operating system to shorten lead times, improve service levels, optimise operational efficiencies, maximise demand, and reduce cost.
● Aligning predicted customer demand, network capacity, warehouse capacity, labour capacity, and transportation scheduling prior to sourcing or allocating goods for seamless inventory flow and reduced overhead.
● Building logistics loads that factor in real-time, on-shelf inventory to balance customer demand and waste, generating maximum revenue and margin.

Blue Yonder’s interoperable solutions answer these challenges by:
● Connecting processes, systems, and data seamlessly across Blue Yonder’s Supply Chain Planning and Execution solutions, providing a smarter, more scalable, real-time digital twin to streamline and accelerate enterprise-wide decision-making.
● Offering the end-to-end visibility needed to understand how decisions or actions impact adjacent teams so businesses can work synchronously toward a unified goal.
● Deeply embedding artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) within the systems to drive decisioning, recommendations, and actions to support a future of autonomous supply chains.
● Ensuring all solutions connect through a single source of data, allowing true real-time collaboration across functions.

The result is more agile, coordinated decision-making that reduces costs, increases revenue, and improves customer loyalty.

Interoperability Enabled by Cutting-Edge Technology Innovations

Blue Yonder’s interoperable solutions are made possible as a result of three key strategic investments by the company:
1) Cloud Native Architecture on a Cognitive Platform: Blue Yonder’s Luminate ® Cognitive Platform is the industry’s premiere cloud-native supply chain platform, delivering enterprise-level speed, scale and security with upgrade-safe extensibility across workflows, data models, and functions. The platform offers infinite intelligence with unconstrained computing power, a single source of truth, and a reimagined user experience. Because Blue Yonder’s cloud-native applications all run on this centralised platform, this then allows companies to make faster, higher-quality decisions; eliminate data siloes; uplevel team performance by increasing productivity and accelerated adoption; and unlock capacity by leveraging the power of embedded AI.

2) Composable Microservices: A composable approach enables companies to augment and enhance existing technologies with Blue Yonder’s industry-leading IP and patented solutions — transforming business functions at the speed and scale that’s right for each company’s business. Blue Yonder’s composable microservices are small, deployable components that each offer a discrete set of capabilities, seamlessly integrated on connected workflows to solve specific functional needs, and interoperable with existing Blue Yonder solutions so businesses can innovate without the need to rip and replace existing investments. With Blue Yonder, businesses can start with the application stack they need today knowing they can easily add capabilities they want, when they’re ready. And instead of lengthy monolithic projects, Blue Yonder offers Composable Journeys, which are implementation paths tailored to the specific vision and budget of each customer and rolled out in phases that can provide expedited time to value.

3) Platform Data Cloud, Powered by Snowflake: Blue Yonder is among the first enterprise supply chain solutions companies building applications to natively run on the Snowflake Data Cloud. Blue Yonder’s Platform Data Cloud, Powered by Snowflake, makes it easy to deliver the right data, at the right location, at the right time by bringing together all the required data to run your supply chain in a centralised location. By combining Blue Yonder’s market-leading supply chain technology and IP with the Snowflake Data Cloud’s powerful capabilities, Blue Yonder is changing the game for its customers by reducing the cost, complexity and time required to transform data while enabling interoperability between applications and collaboration across clouds. Learn more here.

“For years, the supply chain industry has had a data problem – there’s too much of it, it’s scattered across disparate solutions, and sharing has become so risky that some organisations have simply come to avoid it. By partnering with Blue Yonder, Snowflake is helping joint customers address these challenges by centralising data into a single source of truth, reducing the latency in decision-making, and making sharing secure, fast and easy,” said Tim Long, Global Head of Manufacturing, Snowflake. “Together, we’re enabling data, system and business process interoperability by connecting Blue Yonder’s entire end-to-end supply chain portfolio to a Blue Yonder’s Platform Data Cloud, Powered by Snowflake. Now, Blue Yonder’s solutions can deliver scale and performance that allow customers to significantly accelerate time to value, unlock team productivity, and drive greater resilience.”

Next Generation Planning

The first set of microservice-based solutions that bring together all of these interoperable features is Blue Yonder’s cognitive planning solutions. This holistic offering natively runs on the Luminate Cognitive Platform to deliver all the cognitive capabilities needed to support supply chain leaders in achieving higher forecast accuracy, accelerating decision making, and building a more resilient supply chain with fewer resources. Cognitive planning solutions are cloud-native and combine the latest data management technology with Blue Yonder’s proven supply chain planning IP.

Blue Yonder’s cognitive planning solutions also leverage the power of Blue Yonder Orchestrator, the company’s generative AI capability that allows businesses to fuel more intelligent decision-making and faster supply chain orchestration. Learn more about this capability here.

“Cognitive planning takes business planning accuracy and speed to the next level by empowering companies to realise their performance objectives. It does this by allowing them to be aware of critical events and prescribing solutions to manage risks and opportunities in both demand and supply, improving planner productivity and supply chain resilience,” said Angove.

Notably, these advanced solutions empower users to apply hundreds of demand-driving variables and patented ML models to provide unique demand projections, while factoring in business impact and risk. This allows planners to map out various scenarios, set boundaries and objectives, then fire-and-forget. The advanced algorithms autonomously reduce the problem scope to a logical set of scenarios that are realistic and most applicable. Embedded predictive AI evaluates this feasible set of scenarios and recommends the top scenarios that optimise pre-set objectives. This AI/ML-powered scenario planning reduces the average time taken from hours or even days down to minutes and allows planners to focus on more strategic decision-making and actions rather than just collating data.

Synchronised Execution

Blue Yonder is revolutionising supply chain execution by enabling seamless, autonomous collaboration across the execution network to drive unprecedented efficiency, resiliency, agility, and better customer experiences. Synchronised Execution strengthens supply chain resiliency with end-to-end execution interoperability and helps businesses manage disruptions in an optimal and automated fashion by synchronising the data and business process workflows across the order, warehouse, transportation, and resource domains. Customers will achieve operational resiliency through real-time situational awareness, real-time decision making, and the ability to predict and prevent disruptions. As an example, business process interoperability allows a business to seamlessly reallocate orders in the case of an inbound supply shortage, or create iterative optimisation loads to handle warehouse disruptions, or determine the optimal way to fulfill an order, even if it is sourced from multiple nodes.

“Retailers, manufacturers, suppliers and logistics service providers will achieve superior performance with intelligent insight and informed decisions to ensure they are ahead of every disruption with complete visibility at every point of execution. With advanced customer insights about buying behaviour and preferences, businesses can make informed decisions about inventory allocation, optimised fulfillment, transportation planning and warehouse operations,” shared Angove.

Solutions launched in this space include:
● Analyst Workbench delivers a new, user-friendly experience to explore data, visualise metrics and generate insights. These new, innovative capabilities deliver end-to-end visibility across the network and the ability to mix, match, and analyse data from any digital touch point driving more informed decisions and actions.
● Unified Commerce Simulator empowers businesses to create, analyse, and refine fulfillment sourcing strategies driving more predictable fulfillment results with less risk to the business. This digital twin environment means businesses can manipulate optimisation levers for various scenarios and run simulations against production data to enable comparisons between actual output versus output using the changed levers.

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