Supply chain transformation involves improving an organization’s abilities to make decisions about which products to keep in stock, where to keep them, when to replenish them, how to improve
service levels for customers, how to liquidate excess stock in the most profitable way and how to quickly respond to changes in customer demand. Supply chain planning transformation can enable real-time tracking and analysis of customer and product data, decision-making based on predictive and prescriptive models, and the use of new capabilities enabled by artificial intelligence, machine learning, social media and the Internet of things. It can also automate daily operational decisions to free up talent to work on higher value activities.
Supply chain planning is complex and a transformation initiative requires getting off to a good start with the support of senior management and a business case that outlines the benefits as well as the impact to the organization. This is a multi-dimensional journey that must ask the four following questions:
- What new process capabilities do you want your future supply chain planning platform to enable?
- What new data sources do you plan to utilize with your future supply chain planning platform?
- What new solution capabilities do you want to adopt to enable your transformed planning process?
- What new people skills will be needed to analyze data, operate new processes and use new solution capabilities?
Agile, data driven, speedy and highly automated supply chain planning operations are becoming increasingly critical in today’s fast-paced, global business world. This e-book provides practical steps and a best practice roadmap to guide you on your transformative journey.
In today’s supply chain business environment, improving insights to critical advanced analytics metrics via data visualization has become a critical element responsible for driving performance for any company.
Improving your organization’s ability to consume data in an intuitive, conventional manner to facilitate understanding can be the difference from taking action at the right time and avoiding potential disruptions due to lack of visibility.
It is becoming increasingly important to automate as much as possible, augment the human team with more insights and more data while incorporating visualization aspects that accelerate the decision making process.
This is done by tapping into new data sources, leveraging artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Then organizing that data and identifying new patterns that a human could not identify in a reasonable amount of time without AI. These insights are gathered from rich data, providing stronger information than from traditional data sets.
A strong visualization of insightful data is important to a business’s success with AI and advanced analytics. Visualizations create an engaging user experience that presents information in a highly intuitive way. Currently, there is a transition in the talent pool, and it is important to keep up with the digital natives entering the workforce and their expectations. How they navigate data and scenarios is different from someone who has been in that role for 20 years and grew up with data presented in a different way. Visualization of data and serving information in a more intuitive way is key.
By automating decisions where we can, and providing the needed analysis to determine the best approach, given what we know, we are able to free up the personnel to implement the work and think about the business more creatively.
Capturing big data for insightful, advanced analytics can be a hefty task, but is equally as important as the presentation of that data. The strong visualization of meaningful data is crucial to a business’s success with artificial intelligence and analytics. It creates an engaging user experience that presents information in a highly intuitive way. This paper explains the importance of visualization of data and what critical metrics can be improved with data visualization.
Supply chain disruptions happen – whether it’s the current COVID-19 situation, or future activities including other pandemics, unforeseen events or weather conditions such as hurricanes and tornadoes.
As a supply chain professional, you are in the power position of being able to learn from this experience and take actions now that can help your company be better prepared to face future supply chain disruptions, regardless of what shape they take.
So, will you be ready?
- Do you have a plan for adopting advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning in your supply chain operations?
- Do you have the ability to run multiple ‘what-if’ scenarios to analyze how your supply chain will be affected by different types of disruptions?
- Can you quickly sense a supply chain disruption, analyze options to mitigate it and execute the best response?
Logility can help. Our Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based digital supply chain platform can help with these things and more. For example, it leverages machine learning forecasts in scenario planning dashboards to let you easily see what’s going on and make the best decisions for your business. When supply chain disruptions happen, you can analyze and compare activities using a digital twin (a virtual mirror of your physical supply chain operations that lets you run multiple, what-if scenarios before you activate any changes) and make any adjustments in real time.
Explore this ebook, A Digital Transformation Guide for Supply Chain Disruptions, for eight tips to consider now to better plan and prepare for the future.
Plan for a resilient enterprise with Logility’s AI-based platform
This quick video shows how to plan for the resilient enterprise with Logility’s artificial intelligence (AI)- based supply chain planning platform and take back control during supply chain disruptions like the ones we are experiencing now with the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as future ones that could come from other pandemics, hazardous weather conditions, or some other unforeseen event.
Logility’s AI-based platform lets you evaluate machine learning forecasts using our scenario planner dashboard. As supply chain disruptions occur, simply compare and analyze actions in a digital twin (a virtual mirror of your physical supply chain operations that lets you run multiple, what-if scenarios before you pull the trigger on any changes) and adjust scenarios in real time to intelligently navigate the situation.
The Logility digital supply chain platform enables continuous planning that forms the foundation of a resilient enterprise. It lets you proactively optimize, sense and respond to actions across your business and proactively meet supply chain disruptions head on, and also supports the never-ending tactical, operational and strategic planning simulations that businesses should always be performing.
Consider Other Ways to Build a Resilient Enterprise
As a supply chain professional, you face a unique opportunity to take proactive action now and build a resilient enterprise for the future. Here are six things to keep in mind to take back control of your supply chain and start the journey to a resilient enterprise – the two go hand-in-hand:
- ERP alone is not the answer
- Deploy an Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform now
- Make Continuous Planning a priority
- Create a Digital Twin
- Revisit data aggregation
- Create a culture of resiliency
If your current planning platform doesn’t address all of these six things and more, or to learn more about these six areas, contact Logility.
Supply chains are moving faster and faster and the complexity of data needed to manage them is growing exponentially. To quickly turn tremendous volumes of data into actionable insight, an increasing number of organizations are now turning to innovative digital supply chain planning platforms that are powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
On its own, supply chain planning (SCP) provides the critical set of business processes that companies rely on for optimizing the delivery of goods, services, and information to their customers. Focused on balancing supply with demand, SCP manages real-time demand commitments, “what-if” scenario analysis, inventory optimization, and sales and operations planning (S&OP), among other functions, according to Gartner.
With increased speed in the supply chain, skilled labor is more difficult to find and retain, and customers are harder to please. Add in trade wars, economic uncertainty, and the risk of supply disruption to the equation, and you wind up with a perfect storm of supply chain challenges that—when combined with other hurdles—require the right mix of software and advanced technology to solve.
When companies incorporate artificial intelligence and machine learning into their supply chain planning activities, everyone wins. Layering advanced technologies like AI and ML into supply chain planning creates new capabilities and propels companies that want to stay ahead of the rapidly changing business landscape. Innovative digital supply chain platforms that are powered by AI and ML, combined with SCP can uncover hidden opportunities, identify potential risks and accelerate decision making – from product concept to customer availability, and all points in between.
In this Making the Case guide, we explore the opportunities that these advanced technologies offer and show how you can get the most out of the potential they offer. AI and machine learning are powerful tools that will continue to propel the supply chain, and in partnership with valuable supply chain practitioners.
Supply chain organizations are still at the early stages of making the most of advances in digital supply chain technology, including the use of a digital twin. In many ways, you could argue the industry is mostly using the astonishing capabilities of computing and internet connectivity to do what they did before – just faster and cheaper. With a more connected world, there is an increased amount of supply chain data available. This increase in data is incredible but also can be daunting. That’s why smart companies focus not just on gathering data, and figuring out how to filter and analyze it, but how to use it to make better, faster, more informed decisions with a digital twin. Since data management is not usually the core business of companies engaged in manufacturing and/or selling goods, most need to rely on a trusted technology partner (such as Logility) to help them make the most of this brave new world.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning can handle more parameters than most are aware. Typically, there’s more than one “right” answer, and the software helps get the best answer for the current strategy. With this artificial intelligence, companies can then employ a digital twin that will assist in analyzing different scenarios. With these scenarios available, companies can explore the impact of changes with little effort and no cost.
Accurate, up-to-date data is vital to achieving these advanced insights. This affects how long it takes to identify something that happened in the supply chain that needs to be addressed – or something that is likely to happen. With readily available insights companies can then use AI, machine learning and advanced analytics to solve problems.
With this increase of information and artificial intelligence, a refined plan is no longer a nice-to-have, but a necessity. Companies are no longer limited to monthly, weekly or daily reports, they can refine their strategy through the entire process, up until the product is headed to the customer.
New Digital Supply Chain Video
The supply chain systems of the past are not enough in today’s fast paced world, and your company needs a digital supply chain platform that supports the speed of business – fast, efficient and transparent.
A single, end-to-end digital supply chain platform is vital for businesses today to thrive and survive. It can help manufacturers, suppliers, retailers and distributors make smarter decisions faster.
How do these platforms work? They start by using digitalization to take advantage of your investments in foundational and advanced supply chain planning and optimization capabilities to help you make better decisions faster. With this in place, you can change your business model to generate new revenue, increase efficiencies and offer greater business confidence.
Digital models reflect the physical network allowing you to leverage Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Collaboration and business scenario analysis to boost customer service, accelerate your time to market and replace inventory with information. Through digital supply chain capabilities your business can help increase revenue, lower costs, reduce risk and boost service as you make better decisions, faster. A digital supply chain enables process augmentation and automation freeing up resources to focus on other value added activities. A digital supply chain also improves your ability to seamlessly collaborate with customers and partners. Digitizing your supply chain allows you to build a “Digital Twin” or an electronic representation of your supply chain increasing visibility and enabling the foundation for advanced analytics including simulations and multiple “what-if” scenarios.
The digital supply chain is the next step in the evolution of modern supply chain management and Logility can provide the visibility and rapid data discovery needed for continuous end-to-end supply chain planning. Watch this quick video to learn more.
One of the key challenges facing organizations today is the supply chain talent shortage of appropriate candidates. Many companies report that finding the right combination of skills for entry level to executive positions is hard to find, yet most companies do not have a talent management strategy to support their future needs.
Entry level roles require a mix of tech-savvy skills with an aptitude to learn, combined with strong decision-making and communications skills. With six job openings for every supply chain candidate, it’s no wonder there is a supply chain talent shortage, and that management and advanced analytics degrees in undergraduate, graduate and master’s degree programs are popular areas of study across many major universities. And it’s more than entry level roles, especially as Baby Boomers retire form mid-management to executive roles. Those candidates must have both strategic/tactical/operational expertise and professional competencies such as analytical and leadership skills.
A brief poll of our webcast registrants revealed:
- 64% of registrants said that they currently find it more difficult to recruit and retain supply chain talent than in the past.
- 36% cited the requirement for both business and analytical skills as a key factor impacting the talent shortage at their organizations.
- 31% rated strategic/critical thinking skills as a the top skill they are seeking for their supply chain staff.
Hear our panel of industry experts discuss the key challenges facing organizations as they compete to attract and retain top talent for supply chain and retail planning roles.
Listen to this webcast now and learn:
- What to do at your company to attract the best candidates despite the supply chain talent shortage
- Why you must consider Millennial and post-Millennial career expectations
- How supply chain career paths are impacted by digital transformation.
Panelists include:
Karen Smith, Vice President, Global Supply Chain Operations, Kontoor Brands
Sean Willems, PhD, Haslam Chair in Supply Chain Analytics, University of Tennessee
Scott Luton, Founder, CEO & Host of Supply Chain Now Radio and Advisor, TalentStream
One of the key challenges facing organizations today is the digital supply chain talent shortage of candidates. Today, the ideal employee has both tactical/operational expertise and professional competencies such as leadership and analytical skills. Current statistics show there is currently one highly qualified supply chain candidate for every six job openings. The demand for talent with these highly sought after skills is high and growing fast. And let’s face it, empty seats on your supply chain team negatively impact your performance.
This eBook, Attracting and Keeping Supply Chain Talent, contains highlights gleaned from industry experts who know a thing or two about finding and hiring good team members.
Karen Smith, Vice President, Global Supply Chain Operations, Kontoor Brands
Sean Willems, PhD, Haslam Chair in Supply Chain Analytics, University of Tennessee
Scott W. Luton, Founder, CEO & Host of Supply Chain Now Radio, former ASCM Atlanta Chapter President
Topics and tidbits covered in the eBook include:
- How to make your company more attractive to the best supply chain talent
- How to approach the career expectations of Millennials and post-Millennials
- The impact of digital transformation on supply chain career paths
It also provides different perspectives on the question: what factors have had the greatest impact on the digital supply chain talent shortage at different organizations, including the requirement for both business and analytical skills, the general lack of availability of qualified resources; the negative perception of supply chain as a profession; and the differing career expectations of the Millennial and non-Millennial generations
Every supply chain team must optimize inventory investments with service level performance. Without proper balance, organizations run the risk of excess inventory and trapped working capital, or too little inventory and lost sales. Finding the right balance is critical to boosting service levels while reducing inventory costs. This research examines the current state of inventory optimization adoption, identifies the top pressures driving inventory optimization initiatives, and provides a breakdown of capabilities by industry.
Through advanced “what-if” scenario evaluations based on the use of Digital Twins, Multi-Echelon Inventory Optimization (MEIO) has shown to reduce inventory investment between 10 – 30% while improving customer service levels.
An overwhelming majority of respondents rely on their ERP system (77%) to manage inventory. This highlights a significant opportunity for companies to further reduce working capital through the use of more advanced solutions.
Inventory Optimization Study Overview
Logility partnered with Elastic Solutions, a leading provider of B2B marketing research services, to conduct a study – Leveraging Inventory for Profitable Growth – and now offering you you the results in this free survey! 100% of survey respondents participated voluntarily.
Over 100 survey respondents, representing more than 10 industries, participated in this study. All are located in North America.
One key takeaway: Multi-Echelon Inventory Optimization – the ability to optimize raw material, WIP, and/or finished good simultaneously across all nodes in the network– is how 48% of the respondents currently optimize inventory. Only 3% stated that they don’t perform any kind of inventory management or optimization.
Download the entire 13-page report to learn more.