Digital Supply Chain

The Digital Thread for Industry 4.0 does not end once a product leaves the factory. Now, our supply chain network must store, transport and deliver a quality product to the end consumer quickly and securely, while ensuring full traceability and complying with supply chain regulations at the same time. Today’s global marketplace is increasingly being driven by consumers that are demanding more flexibility, more customized products, easier access to information about product availability and faster delivery times. In order to fulfill their demands, a strong Supply Chain Management (SCM) strategy is fundamental. The Supply Chain Management process handles the entire production flow of a good or service, starting from raw components all the way to delivering the final product to the consumer. Successful SCM strategies are comprehensive, collaborative and connected, creating a seamless workflow from sales and planning, to procurement, to manufacturing, to delivery and logistics. Effective SCM strategies minimize costs, waste and time in the production cycle.

While traditional Supply Chain Management strategies are important for business success, they mainly focus on planning, production and provision. Digital Supply Chain methodologies, on the other hand, focus on the needs of the consumers rather than merely its distribution. Successful Digital Supply Chain approaches aim to improve the product delivered to the customer and ensure that the product complies with all regulatory and quality standards. Modern Digital Supply Chains also focus on enabling and building partnerships, alliances and collaborations, allowing data to be shared and utilized along each node of a company’s value chain and in both directions for increased visibility and efficiencies. The application of Digital Supply Chain solutions makes traditional Supply Chain Management approaches even more effective.

1. Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP)

The primary target of the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process is to determine what, how much and when your customers are going to buy, and balance that against your capability to meet this demand in terms of production, distribution and purchasing. A second target of S&OP is to align sales and operations with the overall financial goals of the company in order to determine the optimal production plan for your business. S&OP solutions can cover and synchronize a number of different processes, including Demand Forecasting, Demand Planning, Resource & Supply Planning, Replenishment Planning, Inventory Management, Finite Production Capacity Planning and Detailed Production Scheduling. Inadequate management of this crucial business process, together with a lack of visibility across the value chain, leads to an undesirable increase in inventory, manufacturing and logistical costs, as well as much lower customer service levels.

2. Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)

A Warehouse Management System (WMS) is software that enables manufacturing organizations to optimize the control and administration of all warehouse operations, from the moment a good or material enters a warehouse until the moment it is moved out. The system tracks the movement of every raw material, in-process item and finished good throughout its lifetime, covering receiving, picking, packing and shipping. A successful Warehouse Management System automates and optimizes inventory receiving and put-away, picking and shipping of orders, and stock replenishment. A WMS can be a standalone application, a Cloud-based solution, or part of a greater Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Supply Chain Execution (SCE) platform.

3. Serialized Manufacturing & Logistics

Product serialization is more important now than ever before. Around the world and across industries, consumers are demanding more visibility into the lifecycle of the products they buy. At the same time, governments are implementing higher compliance standards for product traceability to ensure the safety of their populations. Counterfeiting continues to plague global supply chains, causing huge losses for manufacturers. As a result, industrial organizations are investing in advanced solutions for Serialized Manufacturing & Logistics are a critical piece to achieving end-to-end supply chain traceability and regulatory compliance. Our solutions for Serialized Manufacturing & Logistics enable industrial enterprises to access product information in real time for supply chain excellence and business transformation.

4. Supply Chain Tracking & Tracing

As supply chains become increasingly interconnected and complex, industrial organizations are seeking to deploy technology applications and services that satisfy many parallel goals. Compliance, product integrity, product visibility, anti-counterfeiting protection and risk reduction are areas companies need to consider while running their supply chain at full speed and low cost. To stay competitive, businesses must invest in solutions that provide a trusted chain of uninterrupted information from product origin through delivery, as well as where and how these goods are transported, that provide connected insights from planning to the real world. The right Track & Trace solutions, including serialization applications, are becoming key to helping manufacturers achieve real-time supply chain visibility while maintaining compliance across products and networks.