The Covid-19 epidemic has highlighted the vulnerabilities of the traditional physically offices and ways of working together with external partners and suppliers. It introduces many companies to start working remotely in supply chain. How will that influence the way we work together? What are the benefits and how would Supply Chain management have to ensure adoption of a new culture and new technology? Read this text and learn about working remotely in supply chain.

Higher productivity and job satisfaction
Statistics are indicating that nearly twice as many are working from home full time. That is nearly twice as many as ten years ago. Why so? People feel a higher satisfaction, productivity and organizational commitment as well as decreased stress levels and exhaustion. This could also be the case when working remotely in supply chain.

Hire the best people
Some companies have gone all the way and are no longer maintaining an office. They have people working all around the globe and are trying to exploit new technology to the fullest. The “all remote model” allows companies to hire the best people wherever they are. For some companies it would mean reducing cost because they would not have to pay high rent and perhaps also high salaries.

Effective culture
The company named GitLab has over 1000 people located in 60 countries around the world. They have no physical offices. They have not only experienced a financial impact but are also reporting a cultural impact. Normally offices breed politics. Intrigues, backstabbing, toadying and other forms of power brokering behavior thrive behind closed doors. Removing the walls fundamentally changes organizational culture. The assumption is, that a dispersed company committed to open discourse, with no political manoeuvring, will work more cohesively than a standard co-located company.

Harness and grow supplier innovation
Supply Chain innovation is a way to create new competitive advantages. Suppliers and partners play a key role. Best-in-class companies work closely with suppliers and partners long after a deal has been signed.

In most circles today, this is called “supplier relationship management.” But that translates to one-way communication (telling the supplier how to do it). Two-way communication, which requires both buyer and seller to jointly manage the relationship, is more effective. A more appropriate term for this best practice could be “alliance management,” with representatives from both parties collaboratingr to enhance the buyer/supplier relationship.

Doing this in a remote setting could mean building a “collaboration platform”. In this platform the supplier/partner could be onboarded/offboarded, it could be a way of working with problem resolution ensuring that the relationship stays healthy and vibrant. It could be a way of sharing progress on key targets. Not to forget to mention that it is a brilliant way of working towards Supply Chain innovation.

The potential is big. According to a recent survey done by State of Flux, 64% of the questioned companies use portals for handling contracts with suppliers. Only 21% use portals to manage the relationships with the suppliers and only 6% use technology to manage supplier Innovation.

Improve Joint Planning
Besides working remotely in Supply Chain towards innovation, a collaboration platform is also a great way to engage suppliers and partners in the planning, both on a strategic and operational level. Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) processes and Supply Chain Risk Management have become increasingly important, when developing a shared view of how to run a company. A collaboration platform, that builds on real-time data, can support lowering business risk, improving visibility and communication so the decisions that are made are as effective as possible.

The Supply Chain of yesterday, where stable conditions, standardized products, low cost production and very inventory-based operations will most likely not come back. Instead we will have a Supply Chain of tomorrow, characterized by increased uncertainty, more customized products, a very conscious consumer. By applying technologies that will be part of the future industry you can support your Supply Chain organization in meeting these demands. You can learn more about this at Optilon SCC2020.

Are you wondering why you should implement AI to your Supply Chain? Supply Chain is more and more recognized as a key source of competitive advantage and differentiation. Companies strive to build Supply Chains that support company growth, increase transparency, streamline operations, and increases customer satisfaction. Implementing AI to your Supply Chain could become a source for creating competitive advantages. In this blog post, we will look into why Supply Chain AI creates competitive advantages.

The Supply Chain has a great influence on all cost drivers in a company. Optimizing how Supply Chains are operated opens for possibilities to win new market shares, boost sales and establish new business models. Focusing on the Supply Chain can improve the bottom line with 5-20% within 24 months (1). Supply chain AI, is still the “stuff of the future” for some organizations. Some of the world’s most significant leaders and thinkers are even suggesting that artificial intelligence is history’s biggest paradigm shift. Yet, we are still only at the beginning of the AI (r)evolution. Next we will look into why Supply Chain AI supports the company in gaining competitive advantages.

Why Supply Chain AI can support differentiation and lower cost
The Supply Chain is a network of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers that act together to control, manage and improve the overall Supply Chain performance. Evaluating the performance of the entire Supply Chain can be a complex task, due to the complexity inherent in the structure and the operations.

No matter how the performance evaluation is done, the company must be able to differentiate against its competitors. Hence, the company must be able to offer value propositions that create an advantage over its competitors. Secondly, the company must operate at a lower cost than its competitors. This is where AI could become a competitive advantage in the Supply Chain, simply because the use of AI in the Supply Chain can both support differentiation but also lower cost.

Why Supply Chain AI can support the new Supply Chain model
The traditional model of the Supply Chain is fundamentally changing. We are shifting towards consumer-led, data driven, highly complex supply networks. The consumer increasingly drives innovation from the heart of the supply network, rather than being on the receiving end of the supply chain. Companies have to act in a more globalized world and balance the global with the local.

Companies have to be agile and willing to change by involving the whole organization. Companies have to put up a sustainable agenda internally as well as externally. They have to build a flexible and resilient culture that makes the organization robust toward big changes and chocs around the world. They have to provide visibility and transparency. Surrounded by an explosion of data, many Supply Chains are also struggling to leverage or take advantage of their data.

Why Supply Chain AI can solve real Supply Chain problems
These shifts in the Supply Chain demand more accurate supply chain planning and synchronization, and faster multichannel responsiveness that go far beyond the abilities of the typical workforce and infrastructure. It requires instant visibility, quick decision making and increased flexibility across the whole network. Also here Supply Chain AI can become a competitive advantage as it is possible, with the use of the right kind of supply Chain AI technologies to solve some of these real Supply Chain challenges.

Would you like to learn more about how you can create competitive advantages with AI then we encourage you to explore some of our content from Optilon Academy right here. 

Alis Sindbjerg Hemmingsen is a Thought Leader at Optilon. She has more than 25 years of experience within the Supply Chain field. Optilon has a long track record helping companies achieve competitive advantages by improving Supply Chain performance. Learn more about Optilon here. 

References:
(1) Arlbjørn et al;  “Supply Chain Management, sources for competitive advantages, 2018 edition.

 

Some of the world’s most significant leaders and thinkers are claiming, that Artificial Intelligence is history’s biggest paradigm shift. Yet, we are still only at the beginning of the AI (r)evolution. The question you might be looking for an answer to is perhaps: How will my company get started with AI in Supply Chain?

How to get started with AI in Supply Chain is a typical question that we hear from our clients.  The reason being, that to some Supply Chain Executives implementing AI, can seem as complicated as landing a space shuttle on the moon. But it does not have to be complicated. It is all about thinking big and taking a step by step approach. Even though some of the world’s most significant leaders are suggesting that artificial intelligence is history’s biggest paradigm shift, we are still only at the beginning of the AI (r)evolution.

It may be difficult to imagine a world in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) creates production drawings, controls robotics to perform industrial operations or improves Supply Chain performance. However, it was once unfathomable that a computer could beat a human at chess or drive a car autonomously.

To get started with AI in Supply Chain there are some basic questions you could ask:

  • Which Supply Chain problems are we looking to solve with AI?
  • How transformational are we looking to be, i.e., how big a step are we looking to take?
  • How automated or autonomous are we looking to become?

Make sure to solve real Supply Chain problems and take a step by step approach

Given the broad scope of AI and variations of use cases, it is vital to start by identifying what problems to solve (key objective) and what opportunities to pursue and learn through piloting.

o be honest, what we are also trying to say here is that the most important thing is to start with something rather than starting with the right thing. Embarking on the AI journey is a true learning process.

As Walmart’s CEO says, “AI is less like a project and more like an ongoing effort. As an ongoing effort, you want to figure out how AI can impact every aspect of your business. You want to understand how it affects your businesses’ core decisions, how it changes your overall strategy and business model, how you can get it into the hands of your frontline employees so they can better do their jobs, how it automates processes that don’t need human interaction and how roles in your organization need to change to best complement what AI can do for you”.

5 Steps to get Started with AI in Supply Chain

Hire new skills ahead of the curve – or train existing talent

Success depends very much on the trust and capabilities that the employees are able and willing to put into adopting new technology. When designed with people at the center, AI can extend companies’ capabilities, free up creative and strategic endeavors and help achieve more.

Start by using historical data

A technology partner can guide you through your journey, establishing a solid foundational baseline model on which to layer more and different types of data. A phased approach will help ensure a sustainable solution that meets your business objectives today and as your needs change. Data volume, data granularity, data quality, and data variety play a vital role.

Choose self-adapting models

To achieve the stability and adaptability required for operational use, it’s crucial to use self-adaptive models. These models will require less rework as time passes. Though model evaluation and tuning will always be necessary to a certain degree.

Ensure a digital culture that allows for experimentation

From a leadership perspective, it is essential to foster a culture that allows for experimentation and failure. Not all hypotheses will work or give the desired outcome.

Partner with a company which has practical experience with AI

In this approach, you are working with a partner firm that can help you with your AI journey. This partner can work with you to come up with the right AI strategies and projects, help you build out and test new ideas, and help you grow your internal capabilities. Not all firms can help you with this.

To make this work, you need to find the right partner. You should look for the following characteristics:

  1. A partner that can help you generate AI hypotheses that will work or have a chance to change your Supply Chain. This comes with experience in the area and a mix of business and technical skills. This can be difficult when growing an internal team simply because of its small size.
  2. A partner with a wide range of business and technical experience. As you develop your AI competences, you’re likely to need a diverse range of skills to help you come up with innovative solutions.
  3. A partner with a willingness to be transparent and share. You need to learn how AI works, and you need to own the overall solution moving forward. The AI journey will not be static.

How automated or autonomous are you looking to become?

Your decision on how autonomous the process should be as an impact on how the AI technology should be designed to work. Below you will find a description of the different levels:

Predictive

What if you could predict how your suppliers will perform? You can. The technologies available can interpret massive amounts of data from your Supply Chain and make educated scenarios on future performance based on past deliverables. It is a prediction, so it might not be 100% correct. It is all about using real-time and past data to create likely or ideal scenarios for a given situation. The ability for AI algorithms to learn from historic data sets transforms decision-making. It allows executives to work alongside AI to make more efficient, informed decisions.

Prescriptive

Imagine if you could automate the selection of suppliers or the route optimizations for your vehicles? This can be done with the technologies available. By inferring and producing simple predictive and transparent “if-then logic rules”, you can enable the automation of many of the decisions currently being made.

Autonomous

Imagine if you could predict product demand so that you could order the right amount of materials from your suppliers before you need them? With AI, you can. Low-power, low-cost IoT edge devices cannot process conventional, math-based predictive models. They must send data, often lots of data, over the network to a large prediction server and await a response. Logic-based models can be processed by virtually any computing device and used in real-time to respond to events as they happen. They can make informed decisions based on automated alerts.

We hope we have inspired you to bring AI into your Supply Chain and sincerely hopes it can improve your Supply Chain performance.

It may be difficult to imagine a world in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) improves Supply Chain Performance. But it was also once unfathomable that a machine could beat a human at chess. In this white paper, we will share with you how you can create your own approach to Supply Chain AI and how to implement it.

It may be difficult to imagine a world in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) improves Supply Chain Performance. But it was also once unfathomable that a machine could beat a human at chess. Since the Supply Chain has a great influence on all cost drivers in a company, optimizing the Supply Chain through Supply Chain AI opens for possibilities to win new market shares, boost sales and establish new business models. Supply Chain Executives from various industries are turning their heads towards AI. AI is still the “stuff of the future” and some are even suggesting that AI is history’s biggest paradigm shift. No matter what, the Supply Chain landscape is changing.

Supply Chain AI can solve real Supply Chain problems

The changing landscape of the Supply Chain demand more accurate supply chain planning and synchronization, and faster multichannel responsiveness that go far beyond the abilities of the typical workforce and infrastructure. It requires instant visibility, quick decision making and increased flexibility across the whole network. Also here Supply Chain AI can become a competitive advantage as it is possible, with the use of the right kind of supply Chain AI technologies, to solve some of these real Supply Chain challenges.

This whitepaper will give you the following:

  1. You will learn how and why you should turn Supply Chain into a competitive advantage with AI
  2. You will learn how Optilon helped a Swedish manufacturer save 22% on their logistics cost – by automatically correcting addresses
  3. You will learn how you can create your own approach to AI in the Supply Chain and implement it in your own organization

Download your own copy of the whitepaper right HERE.

Download now

Complexity, one of the most used and ambiguous terms in business, is increasingly present in several layers of businesses today.
Due to its nature of being cognitively challenging to understand, complexity has a bad reputation in business. For instance, complexity in Supply Chain offers many challenges. However, complexity is not inherently bad as it can offer many benefits for businesses. Recently, Harvard Business Review wrote a striking piece about the strengths and costs of complexity in a business environment. Not the least, the paper offers methods for embracing complexity while eliminating costs and escalating benefits.

The many sides of complexity

Complexity comes in many colors and forms offering both strengths and costs. Harvard Business Review summarizes the most significant strengths and costs caused by complexity in a business context:

Strengths:

  • Increased resilience – due to an enhanced ability to be responsive when faced with unforeseen opportunities and threats. Complexity also gives increased buffering capacity and more fallback options.
  • A bigger diversity leads to increased adaptability. As it is easier to try out new ways of serving the customer by recombining existing elements in a new way. This will help companies sustain business performance.
  • Better coordination – since smaller groups/entities have a high interconnectivity making them easier to steer and manage.
  • Complexity often results to inimitability, since companies’ complex interrelationships among multiple elements are hard to copy.

Costs:

  • Managing a variety of elements in a complex company setup can lead to increased costs as efficiency is reduced.
  • The understandability decreases, as it can be a struggle for a business leader to identify the root cause of certain problems.
  • Unmanageability increase as it is harder to identify values and functions of every individual element and know when to intervene to manage performance – The organization becomes less like a machine and more like a complex natural system with a life of its own
  • The former leads to increased unpredictability as spontaneous and unexpected events can emerge. With lacking insights, interventions based on gut feeling can have undesired effects.
  • Leaders lose the grasp of how all elements are intertwined making it hard to predict what effects business decisions can have on the entire company

Solution for Taming Complexity in Supply Chain – Optimize Globally

As removing elements to reduce complexity is uncommon, leaders tend to move forward with new elements that add value on a more obvious and immediate level. Therefore, finding methods to retain the benefits of complexity and diminish the costs is of high priority. At Optilon we strongly believe in embracing the complexity and utilizing technology to gain competitive advantages – especially when handling high complexity in Supply Chain.

The evaluation of new processes, and structures should not only be based on how it will impact a certain group or entity of a company, but more importantly how they impact the company on a holistic level. This will help companies balance the trade-offs of a business decision. For instance, when evaluating future supply chain network models it is important to realize that the benefits of any single location may be concentrated in a smaller area, whereas the complexity costs may be distributed across the organization. By utilizing modern technology to create simplified overviews indulging the entire complexity in supply chain, companies can truly assess all potential costs and benefits following any operational, tactical or strategic supply chain decision.

 

Link to the HBR article

With a combination of front edge supply chain consulting and market superior supply chain applications, Optilon creates sustainable business value through supply chain optimization. By optimizing the flow of products throughout the entire supply chain we help companies increase revenue by reducing lost sales and expenditure of resources.. Learn more about Optilon here.

The retail industry is transforming through a period of unprecedented change. Emerging technologies such as Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technologies have vastly altered every stage of the retail journey, from inventory management to customer service. Retailers are also integrating data analytics into every touchpoint of their business, including sales predictions, store optimization and product recommendations.

The ability of actors in retail to effectively use AI, data analytics and other emerging technologies to meet changing customer expectations will be a key determinant of becoming a winner in the new decade. These technologies will also dramatically impact operational activities, such as workforce management, inventory and sustainability efforts.

Robert Hetu, a research vice president with the Gartner retail industry services team, has gathered his thoughts around how emerging technologies will shape the future of retail. Optilon has summarized the most important trends from Hetu’s thoughts.

By 2024, Tier 1 retailers will reduce inventory carrying costs by 30%, dramatically freeing up working capital for digital investment, while revamping balance sheets.

Combining AI with a modern approach for demand forecasting, creating tailored market assortments and optimizing safety stocks will affect how much capital companies are tying in safety stock. A potential inventory reduction of 20% was already displayed in a recent report from Optilon.

By 2025, at least four of the top 10 global nonfood retail actors will establish a recommerce program as part of their global targets for zero carbon and sustainability.

While Gen Z and Millennials are more prone to sustainable practices, all generations are now a priority for sustainable consumption. Recommerce, meaning selling of previously owned products, is quickly growing in popularity. The secondhand apparel global market value reached $24 billion in 2018, with projections to achieve $51 billion by 2023.

By 2025, the top 10 retailers globally will leverage AI to facilitate prescriptive product recommendations, transactions and forward deployment of inventory for immediate delivery to consumers.

“Generation AI”, born after 2010 and that has always been influenced by AI, will start spending their money in the next decade. This generation will rely on technology to preselect the best offerings for them taking prices, ratings and product specifications into account. Retailers that will not be able to leverage prescriptive product recommendations will lose existing customers and won’t be able to attract new customers. This is due to lacking ability to stay relevant and influence their customers.

Link to article

Would you like to learn more about Optilon’s work within retail?

Please contact Area Manager Daniel Göransson on +46 70 937 92 88 or daniel.goransson@optilon.se

All things supply chain.

Join 3000+ subscribers who read the Optilon monthly newsletter and be the first to hear about the latest insights, articles, events and more.

Subscribe

Contact us to book a meeting

By clicking “Submit”, I agree to Optilons privacy policy.