•  Plus

The future of supply chain management is AI and Data

Speeding the information flows and reducing inefficiencies equips supply chains to operate effectively, adapt quickly and evolve to meet competitive threats and exploit opportunities in the environment.

Subscriber: Log Out

Sorry, but your login has failed. Please recheck your login information and resubmit. If your subscription has expired, renew here.

This is an excerpt of the original article. It was written for the March-April 2021 edition of Supply Chain Management Review. The full article is available to current subscribers.

March-April 2021

Last night, my wife and I shared a socially distanced bonfire with a few friends. One was a retired physician who is spearheading the vaccination effort in the small New Hampshire city where I live. New Hampshire has had its challenges getting needles into arms like everywhere else, but it seems as if we’re breaking through the log jam. For example, between week 1 and week 3, they’ve tripled the number of people they can vaccinate in a day, and they’ve expanded from five days a week to seven days a week. At least for now, there has not been a shortage of vaccines. I know there is a long way to go, but you can feel it picking up speed. Call me…
Browse this issue archive.
Already a subscriber? Access full edition now.

Need Help?
Contact customer service
847-559-7581   More options
Not a subscriber? Start your magazine subscription.

Because enterprises are like organisms in an economic ecosystem, the principles that enable a healthy biological ecosystem are, from a physical, chemical and informational perspective, identical to those that enable a healthy business ecosystem and that ensure the survival of members of that business ecosystem. Value is created by solving problems through the application of information and creativity. By speeding the information flows and reducing inefficiencies, we are equipping our part of the bigger picture to operate effectively, adapt quickly and evolve to meet competitive threats and exploit opportunities in the environment.

Supply chains are a crucial and complex part of the information flowing in this ecosystem. They are an intricately structured and variable system that is highly sensitive, with many possible outcomes based on even minor changes in the initial conditions or components. Supply chains feature a large collection of interacting components that are difficult to understand or examine due to their design and operations. And they represent a system in process, changing and developing over time.

It’s critical to think holistically about the information ecosystem as you prepare the digital representation of various stages of product design and development. Even a product designed in isolation from other systems and groups—whether in a specialized department or in a separate contracting organization—is still part of an information ecosystem. Information that may be inconsequential to the group that is creating the product, such as an obscure material specification that has no immediate value, will likely have value either downstream (perhaps to a distributor or engineering group) or upstream (perhaps to a procurement manager or supply chain manager).

Too often, these unseen dependencies and information relationships are neglected, and the impact of this neglect can be significant. If a piece of data that will be needed when assembling or distributing a future product is not captured, is lost or is incorrectly represented, the cost of remediation is orders of magnitude larger than that of addressing the data need at the source.

This complete article is available to subscribers only. Log in now for full access or start your PLUS+ subscription for instant access.

SC
MR

Sorry, but your login has failed. Please recheck your login information and resubmit. If your subscription has expired, renew here.

From the March-April 2021 edition of Supply Chain Management Review.

March-April 2021

Last night, my wife and I shared a socially distanced bonfire with a few friends. One was a retired physician who is spearheading the vaccination effort in the small New Hampshire city where I live. New Hampshire has…
Browse this issue archive.
Access your online digital edition.
Download a PDF file of the March-April 2021 issue.

Download Article PDF

Because enterprises are like organisms in an economic ecosystem, the principles that enable a healthy biological ecosystem are, from a physical, chemical and informational perspective, identical to those that enable a healthy business ecosystem and that ensure the survival of members of that business ecosystem. Value is created by solving problems through the application of information and creativity. By speeding the information flows and reducing inefficiencies, we are equipping our part of the bigger picture to operate effectively, adapt quickly and evolve to meet competitive threats and exploit opportunities in the environment.

Supply chains are a crucial and complex part of the information flowing in this ecosystem. They are an intricately structured and variable system that is highly sensitive, with many possible outcomes based on even minor changes in the initial conditions or components. Supply chains feature a large collection of interacting components that are difficult to understand or examine due to their design and operations. And they represent a system in process, changing and developing over time.

It’s critical to think holistically about the information ecosystem as you prepare the digital representation of various stages of product design and development. Even a product designed in isolation from other systems and groups—whether in a specialized department or in a separate contracting organization—is still part of an information ecosystem. Information that may be inconsequential to the group that is creating the product, such as an obscure material specification that has no immediate value, will likely have value either downstream (perhaps to a distributor or engineering group) or upstream (perhaps to a procurement manager or supply chain manager).

Too often, these unseen dependencies and information relationships are neglected, and the impact of this neglect can be significant. If a piece of data that will be needed when assembling or distributing a future product is not captured, is lost or is incorrectly represented, the cost of remediation is orders of magnitude larger than that of addressing the data need at the source.

SUBSCRIBERS: Click here to download PDF of the full article.

SC
MR

Latest Podcast
Talking Supply Chain: Visibility and external manufacturing
Gartner Supply Chain’s Sam New joined the Talking Supply Chain podcast to talk about how business can overcome the challenges of achieving…
Listen in

Subscribe

Supply Chain Management Review delivers the best industry content.
Subscribe today and get full access to all of Supply Chain Management Review’s exclusive content, email newsletters, premium resources and in-depth, comprehensive feature articles written by the industry's top experts on the subjects that matter most to supply chain professionals.
×

Search

Search

Sourcing & Procurement

Inventory Management Risk Management Global Trade Ports & Shipping

Business Management

Supply Chain TMS WMS 3PL Government & Regulation Sustainability Finance

Software & Technology

Artificial Intelligence Automation Cloud IoT Robotics Software

The Academy

Executive Education Associations Institutions Universities & Colleges

Resources

Podcasts Webcasts Companies Visionaries White Papers Special Reports Premiums Magazine Archive

Subscribe

SCMR Magazine Newsletters Magazine Archives Customer Service

Press Releases

Press Releases Submit Press Release