Many industries are currently struggling with serious supply difficulties and bottlenecks – be it due to the ongoing Corona pandemic, the Ever Given blockade of the Suez Canal, a lack of container capacities or port closures in China. The shortage of qualified employees at ports, in distribution centres or in the logistics industry itself only add to that.
Home improvement and furniture stores, toy manufacturers, consumer electronics centres, and the automotive industry are currently the worst affected. The consequence: procurement issues no longer concern only companies, but also end customers, who must prepare themselves for unavailable or costlier Christmas gifts. Experts do not expect the situation to ease until spring 2022.
Enough reasons for retailers and manufacturing companies to tackle these challenges efficiently, to ensure more transparency in their own supply chain and thus rely on trustworthy planning processes.
Supply Chain Management – efficient and transparent
In addition to risk minimization, inventory optimization strategies as well as a more intensive cooperation with partner networks, a comprehensive supply chain management is obligatory for trading companies to connect all supply chain participants and give them access to relevant information. Only the transparency created in this way can reduce the pressure on supply chains and create a crisis-proof business in the long term. Important factors for a transparent supply chain management are:
- flexible resource management with regular check-ups and optimization strategies
- analysis and integration of real-time information
- a smooth information exchange for optimal capacity planning and increased customer satisfaction
- efficient and proactive decision-making
A recent survey by Oracle shows how important an optimization of supply chain management as well as an improved planning ability really are. Thus, 84 percent of respondents said they would be more likely to buy from a company if it used artificial intelligence in managing its own supply chain. Another 73 percent would even accept higher prices to ensure smooth and timely delivery of goods. This shows clearly that the expectation towards manufacturing companies and logistics service providers is increasing.
Innovative Technologies are mandatory
Modern technologies that rely on artificial intelligence and big data support supply chain managers with actionable insights and forecasts to stabilize the flow of goods, detect disruptions in the supply chain at an early stage and thus enable agile action.
Synfioo’s solutions combine, evaluate, and analyze specific transport-based data – for example from ERP or TMS systems – as well as location information and external disruption sources. With the help of state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms, precise Estimated-Time-of-Arrival data can be calculated and even refined over time. In this way, Synfioo already provides its users with an all-encompassing and holistic view of the increasingly complex transport processes across all modalities.
The resulting knowledge boost not only creates an integrated and transparent supply chain management, but also means that nothing gets in the way of a successful Christmas season for retail companies and logistics service providers.
Photo: Stengaard, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
