Operations
Go to TechnologySupply chain operations are critical to fulfilling demand while efficiently using materials, equipment, and labour.
Digital supply chains enable businesses to access and use data and to integrate this with innovative equipment, sensors, and tracking hardware.
This can help your business improve customer experience and make processes more efficient. This in turn reduces costs.
These new solutions are also important for environmental sustainability to give supply chain visibility and traceability and help reduce your business’s carbon footprint.
In this module, we’ll explain some of the ways that digital supply chains can use data and innovative equipment, sensors, and hardware.
Digital supply chains enable businesses to access and use data and to integrate this with innovative equipment, sensors, and tracking hardware. This enhances business operations, makes processes more efficient and creates customer value.
For example, data analytics can identify machinery maintenance needs before they become critical issues, giving early warning and so avoiding unscheduled machine downtime and failures. A machine learning algorithm can identify an efficient way to manage inventory, improving availability while reducing surplus stock. Equipment like vertical lift machines and autonomous robots can be implemented quickly to reduce warehouse labour and space requirements and improve the speed of order fulfilment. Vehicle scheduling systems combined with tracking and delivery confirmation provide excellent customer information, greatly reducing incoming call volumes.
Businesses with a culture of continuous improvement are able to take advantage of new technologies and use enhanced data and capabilities to solve problems.
Pause and reflect on following questions:
- How could you improve your customers' experience?
- What aspect of your operations prevents this?
- Which parts of your operations have hit a wall in terms of cost or performance?
Why does this matter?
Efficient, accurate, and timely operations are critical for the supply chain to deliver the required service to customers at a competitive cost. Data analysis through AI can lead to an increase in productivity, efficiency, and utilisation of equipment, and can reduce machinery repair time with predictive maintenance. Careful and thorough use of data can add value to customer offerings and find efficiency gains impossible to spot otherwise.
What does good look like?
- Making data visible throughout the business
- Sharing data with customers, suppliers and service providers
- Data used to respond more quickly to problems when they arise
- Improved operational accuracy
- Cost savings
How can we improve?
Supply chains are sometimes referred to as demand chains and demand starts by understanding what the market and your customers need. In responding to market need, you are therefore likely to need to develop new products and services regularly.
Digital supply chains can support rapid prototyping, for example by using additive manufacturing, more commonly known as 3D printing. As customers may increasingly choose products based on their environmental impact, designing for circularity and sustainability is important.
The next key decision in supply chains is where and how to procure products and materials. Digital technologies can enable you to understand and track products throughout a multi-tier supply chain. It's important to have full knowledge of your supply chain, through to Tier 2, Tier 3 suppliers and beyond, including confidence that ethical standards are being followed at every stage.
Predicting and responding to demand is essential to maintain good product availability while avoiding building up excess stock. Modern supply chain planning processes and systems may include monitoring external data such as the weather and using this data as part of forecasting and planning recommendations.
Warehousing and logistics are at the heart of any supply chain, and accurate and efficient order fulfilment is a key driver of performance and customer experience. Some of the components within digital supply chains are warehouse automation, vehicle scheduling, and tracking which can provide close to live data to customers on the status of deliveries.
Handheld devices together with barcodes or more advanced technologies like RFID can enable paperless operations throughout the supply chain, improving both accuracy and productivity. Predictive maintenance can reduce the costs of equipment repairs as well as reducing unscheduled downtime.
Digital technologies can also support adherence to policies, standards, and regulations, and enhance safety. For example, handheld terminals can display checklists to complete to confirm that vehicles are safe to use.
Explore Further
Keeping laser focused on the business need and solution objective can help you avoid cost and time delays, and ensure your chosen solution delivers your targeted improvements.
Read more
Warehouse automation is increasingly within reach of small to medium warehouses, as technology has advanced, and the costs and IT integration requirements lessened.
Read more
Hear from Dyer Engingeering, a group of fabrication and machining businesses that manufacture metal components and structures, about the benefit of collaborating with the DSCH and adopting a new AI-enabled procurement solution.
Read moreYou’ve read about some of the ways to improve your operations using digital technologies, and I hope the case studies have shown some of the new solutions out there.
Now have a look at the exercise, which first asks you to think about those opening questions –
- How could you improve your customers' experience, and where are your operations preventing this?
Consider where on the journey your business is and what the next priorities for improvement are.
Work through the exercise template, ideally with your team, and this will lead you to some actions to continue your journey towards a digital supply chain.
Interactive Exercise
Consider the current supply chain challenges and priorities for improvement in your business. Work through the exercise template, ideally with your team, and this will lead you to some actions to continue your journey towards a digital supply chain.
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