- One of the questions supply chain folks
ask all the time is - where's my stuff?
With the disruptions that we've faced in the past few years,
a lot of companies are trying to improve
the track and trace processes for their inbound components
and for their outbound products.
In other words, they want to end-to-end visibility
but there just isn't a one size fits all solution
to that problem.
Instead, we need to choose
the right combination of technologies
and then integrate them together into a solution.
In my experience, figuring out the right combination
of technologies is one of the hardest things
for companies to do.
So, here are three suggestions that can help us determine
which technologies we need to implement
and how to make them work well together.
The first is to benchmark against other companies
in our industry.
In addition to giving us new ideas,
this approach is a useful way
to learn from other company's mistakes
and to make sure we aren't falling behind
on more innovative competitor.
The second is to engage in innovation partnerships
with our customers and suppliers.
These can be formal or informal.
For example - many university based
supply chain research centers
act as informal innovation partners
for companies that do business with one another.
And a third way to identify relevant technology innovations
is by working with analysts,
consultants and technology integrators.
Digital transformation is about integrating
the right combination of technologies to solve problems.
It's not enough to study the features of a technology.
We also need to use business acumen
to understand how to create meaningful benefits
for our supply chain.