By Ken Jaroenchisakon
The supply chain has always been important, but it was the pandemic that seared its importance into the experience of people’s everyday lives. Just take a look at the websites following supply chain news and you’ll see how much brain power and technology are pouring into efforts to build resilient supply chains. With articles like Preparing Supply Chains for the Holiday Season With AI-powered Automation and videos touting the benefits of robots in the warehouse, it’s clear supply chains will remain front and center for all B2C and B2B companies for a long time to come.
That’s why Boomi has launched a three-part webinar series: “Digital Supply Chain — Resilience Starts with Connectivity.” The premise underlying all three webinars is that without connectivity, it’s impossible to create and maintain a high-performing, resilient supply chain.
All three episodes are now available on-demand, and linked below.
What, Why, and How
With Boomi subject matter experts Jessica Kinman, principal technologist, manufacturing and Katherine Buckland, principal technologist, retail and CPG, leading the discussion, episode one in the series answers three questions:
- Why does supply chain resilience matter?
- What can you do about it to drive value?
- How can start building resilience?
Why Does Supply Chain Resilience Matter?
Regardless of industry, three factors put constant pressure on the supply chain:
- Rising material and freight costs
- The need to add or diversify suppliers as a cushion against supplier failure
- Trade and policy initiatives that favor local suppliers
To respond to these pressures, businesses need greater supplier transparency, automated inventory management, and improved supply chain visibility and traceability. For example, automated inventory management allows you to connect product sales and inventory levels with your demand or replenishment planners, gaining improved visibility of high and low velocity goods.
What Can You Do To Drive Value?
The simple answer is go digital. All the way. No more paper. Of course, this is easier said than done. The first step in developing a digital supply chain is knowing where your organization is on the supply chain technology maturity model.
“The first step is to get rid of paper processes and digitize everything,” explains Kinman. “Once you digitize, you can take advantage of technologies to easily share data and create automated workflows, making supply chain processes more efficient.”
In the webinar, Kinman goes on to describe how a digital supply chain becomes an intelligent supply chain.
Four Technology Steps to Build a Resilient Supply Chain
The “resilient supply chain” is not just a marketing catchphrase; it’s an absolute competitive necessity for any business. Kinman and Buckland also discuss the four technology steps a business needs to take to build a resilient supply chain.
- Connection—Integrate data across systems of your own and suppliers.
- Organization—Organize, find, provision, master, protect data across systems.
- Orchestration—Automate manual business workflows and engage anyone with easy-to-use mobile or web apps.
- Predictive Intelligence—Extend AI and ML capabilities to provide predictive suggestions.
Watch the Webinar Series: Digital Supply Chain — Resilience Starts with Connectivity
Episode 1: “Connecting Supplier to Dock”
Episode 2: “Connecting Dock to Manufacturer”
Episode 3: “Connecting Manufacturer to Consumer“