What Does The Supply Chain of The Future Look Like, and How Do We Get There?

Supply Chain of the future and Materials Supplier Compliance

The unprecedented and widespread disruption caused by economic and geopolitical issues—such as the recent pandemic, recession, and the increasing issues surrounding the labor shortage—has exposed vulnerabilities in supply chains across the globe.   These pressures have forced companies to address their supply chains, in particular, to transform them, to become more agile, flexible, and resilient….

The unprecedented and widespread disruption caused by economic and geopolitical issues—such as the recent pandemic, recession, and the increasing issues surrounding the labor shortage—has exposed vulnerabilities in supply chains across the globe.  

These pressures have forced companies to address their supply chains, in particular, to transform them, to become more agile, flexible, and resilient. To mitigate the impact of future disruptions and enable businesses to recover quickly, organizations must continue to adapt their supply chain. 

The Supply Chain of the Future: Agile, Flexible, and Resilient

In order to achieve a resilient, sustainable supply chain, it is crucial that organizations integrate new processes and technologies both horizontally and vertically throughout the organization, without this they are, at best, advanced stop-gap solutions, fixing one silo at a time, rather than realizing the impact across the entire value network. 

Digitalization is at the core of supply chain transformation. By leveraging emerging technologies such as virtual twin experiences, organizations can visualize, analyze, and optimize the people, processes, and technologies within their supply chain and perform ‘what-if’ scenarios. This creates an integrated business strategy that incorporates emerging technologies, improves human decision-making, streamlines asset and inventory management, and accelerates competitive advantage. 

With real-time visibility across the supply chain, stakeholders are empowered to make well-informed decisions and respond quickly to mitigate disruption. This creates a sustainable foundation for an agile and resilient Supply Chain of the Future. 

Learn more about Virtual Twin Technology powered by the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform

  

Five Key Areas that need transforming for the Supply Chain of the future

  1. Sales & Operations Planning 

Companies that still rely heavily on legacy Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) systems are often bogged down by departmental silos across their organization. Fragmented information limits a planner’s ability to forecast demand and supply, preventing an organization from delivering optimal results. 

  1. Production Scheduling 

Many moving parts must be taken into consideration when planning an optimized schedule. A manual scheduling process can be overwhelming and prone to human error—leading to task duplication, bottlenecks, late deliveries, as well as material and operational waste that can quickly rack up unwanted costs. 

  1. Transportation & Logistics Planning 

Inefficient logistics plans—both within the supply chain as well as in last-mile delivery—can translate to missed cost-saving opportunities. Organizations need an agile and responsive planning solution that can quickly generate optimized transportation plans within various constraints in order to overcome unforeseen disruption. 

  1. Workforce Planning 

Relying on manual workforce planning processes makes it difficult to create the most efficient plans and can lead to oversight of safety regulations in some cases. Organizations need a digital planning solution that can consider all constraints and create optimal work schedules to empower their workforce to perform better. 

  1. Operations Execution 

Failing to embrace digital transformation in shop floor operations is what limits many manufacturers from achieving their true potential. The usage of IIoT technology feeds crucial real-time data that can help organizations optimize operational performance and respond to unplanned events with agility. 

Explore how the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform can support organizations with addressing these areas. 

  

Plan for Supply Chain Success with the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform 

Leveraging the capabilities of the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform is allowing organizations to bring this vision to life by consolidating all information on a digital platform that serves as a single source of truth. This provides organizations with orchestrated decision support for integrated business planning and operations.  

In addition to creating and leveraging virtual twin technology, driving a single source of truth, and enabling seamless collaboration, the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform offers dedicated solutions to support the five core focus areas for supply chain transformation.  

If you would like to take a deeper look into the role of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform in the supply chain of the future, take a look at our recent article