Supply Chain Technology

There are many different options to choose when analyzing the latest and greatest in supply chain technology.

The proliferation of cloud services has made functionality, which was once strictly the realm of the Fortune 100, available to even the smallest of companies. Similarly, the never-ending pursuit of both lower costs and new customers has led to global supply chain complexities that add to the growing need for software, services, and equipment.

But the bigger picture issues—the things spearheading the need for change—are more accurately described as supply chain philosophy more so than actual technologies.
The concept dominating the PLAN and SELL functions of supply chain is retail’s evolution from multichannel marketing to a seamless environment.

Although multichannel is still important, more companies are seeking to create in-store experiences that support and augment online and mobile technology. This concept is known as omnichannel.

A separate but correlated philosophy for forward-thinking, world-class organizations is the Demand-Driven Supply Chain (DDSC) model. While the idea of “sell one, make one” is hardly revolutionary, the feasibility of this concept to large, multifaceted, global operations is fairly new.

In addition, it is a byproduct of technology: the practical application of big data to radically reduce inventory in the face of unabated stock keeping unit (SKU) proliferation. A demand-driven supply chain not only alters every component of the supply chain, but it presents the biggest challenge for the BUY and MAKE functions.

The more tactical components of a supply chain, MOVE and STORE, are where many of the advancements in actual supply chain technology are being made. After a deeper discussion of the two larger complementary philosophies that are reinventing supply chains—omnichannel and DDSC—this executive briefing takes a look at the newest products and features in supply chain technology today.