What’s really slowing your digital supply chain transformation?

This is an excerpt of the original article. It was written for the March-April 2020 edition of Supply Chain Management Review. The full article is available to current subscribers.

March-April 2020

Are you ready for NextGen technologies? Just the other day, I had the opportunity to tour one of Amazon’s highly automated robotic fulfillment centers. I expected to be dazzled—and I was. But it wasn’t because of the automation. The tour was a reminder that there’s no question that NextGen technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, robotics, 3D printing and 5G are going to be the differentiators in tomorrow’s supply chain. The question is: Are you ready?

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Digital transformation has the potential to deliver staggering improvements in operational performance. Companies clearly understand this. The IDC Spending Guide predicts that global investments in digital transformation will reach $2.3 trillion in 2023. A substantial portion of those investments will be devoted to building digital supply chains.

At this point, most supply chain organizations have evaluated an array of available technologies including advanced robotics, 3D printing, AR/VR and advanced data science. Many have hired top digital talent, crafted ambitious digital supply chain strategies and launched multiple pilots.

Why, then, does real progress remain so elusive? In truth, many supply chain leaders seem dissatisfied with the pace and impact of their digital transformations, as mounting investments are stubbornly slow to yield breakthroughs in supply chain performance.

The problem is not with the technology, which often proves effective in pilots. The big challenge is successfully scaling up. Pilots that succeed in a single location create tremendous initial excitement, then fail to prove out the projected value across the broader enterprise. Such failures breed skepticism and drain precious momentum from the transformation effort.

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