When you produce basically anything, strong supply chain management is imperative. When a supply chain works well, the customer experiences better product quality and distribution. When it doesn't, productivity, revenue and customer satisfaction plunge.
Fortunately, business innovation in the supply chain management space has flourished over the last few years, mainly due to digital advances. Here's a look at 10 business innovations that are positively impacting the space.
1. Data Analytics
Big Data analytics improves in sophistication every year, allowing supply chain managers to derive knowledge and insights from huge amounts of both structured and unstructured data coming in via a variety of sources. Solutions powered by machine learning algorithms analyze data to predict machine malfunctions and transportation delays and help managers make more cost-effective decisions up and down the supply chain.
2. Transport Management Software
Known as TMS, these programs are a critical underpinning of supply chain management. They provide a logistics platform allowing supply chain managers to optimize fleet operations and efficiently execute the physical movement of goods. This business innovation is increasingly important as shipping costs and customer demand for faster delivery continue to rise. Using TMS, supply chain managers can better track inventory and materials across the supply chain in real time.
3. Radio Frequency Identification
RFID has been around for a few years now, but its integration into supply chain management has experienced stops and starts. This business innovation uses electronic fields to automatically identify, follow and track data like the temperature of objects that have attached RFID tags. The tags look like barcodes, and their implementation has recently become less cumbersome and expensive due to smart advances in sensor technology and increases in data processing speeds.
4. Geolocation
RFID isn't the only business innovation improving the tracking aspect of supply chain management. New geolocation solutions leverage low-power wide-area (LPWA) networks and are decreasing both the cost and the energy consumption associated with more traditional tracking. By securely connecting trackers and sensors to the cloud via the Internet of Things, supply chain managers can view and transmit data globally.
For the rest of the trends, head over to the AMEX Business site.
Comments