Intelligent supply chains. Intelligent technologies, such as automation, remote fleet management, and cargo tracking, are transforming supply chain technology to provide in-depth, real-time insights into locations and cargo status.

Cloud-based GPS and RFID technology provides instantaneous updates on cargo location, whether in warehouses or in transit, and assessing transportation performance and efficiency.

Digital thread. A digital thread is a communication framework that can share information to data consumers in a continuous feedback loop. A communication framework can ensure the entire supply chain is responsive as shifts in volumes, manufacturing, design, and through-life service occur.

For this to be effective, workflows and people need to be integrated. This marks the evolution from supply chain network to integrated value chain, allowing suppliers and customers to achieve collaboration and efficiency while reducing costs.

Demand-driven supply chain management. In transportation and logistics, decisions need to be made quickly and agility is essential. Demand-driven supply chain management has been part of the industry for some time, but the high volumes of data and deep insights require a step up from traditional methods. In the past, forecasting was based on historical demand, but that may not be enough with the influx of data and current demands.

IoT-embedded sensor technologies enabled with predictive analytics and machine learning can gather, analyze, and report insights from the environment and provide real-time responses to stay agile in the face of increasing demands. Data also offers insights to inform decision-making and build strategies and contingencies to adapt to future obstacles and maintain high levels of customer service, sales, and efficiency.

Cyber threats. Bad actors have more opportunities to exploit vulnerabilities in a digital supply chain, especially with third-party vulnerabilities that grant access to the real target. Conversely, manufacturers can have gaps that provide access to suppliers, destroying brand relationships across the entire ecosystem.

Suppliers and manufacturers need a rigorous protocol and evaluation process to assess risk and create stringent security across organizations and partnerships.

Meeting customer expectations. Customers have become used to fast order processing and deliveries and have little patience for delayed orders. To respond to these demands, some manufacturers are switching to centralized distribution and real-time inventory management.

The increasing demand for hyper-customization is also fueling shifts and linking the customers to the supply chain. Rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing are restructuring supply chains and more manufacturers are choosing on-premises manufacturing capabilities with lower waste.

Digitization holds promise for addressing current challenges in the supply chain environment and creating more opportunities moving forward.

Author: David L. Buss , CEO, DB Schenker

Source: www.inboundlogistics.com

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Q. Enterprises that are transforming their supply chain are slow to change. What roadblocks are impeding their efforts?

A. Our supply chains of today were designed decades ago to achieve data uniformity across the supply chain ecosystems and not to deal with unwarranted supply chain disruptions. All SCM apps are designed for specific business functions with modules to perform “predetermined” operations with known variables and implicit assumptions.

Even exceptions are predetermined with a static outcome. The speed of innovation is curbed by legacy black boxes reliant on reports and ETLs; siloed vendor and custom systems bound by rigid integration layers; and sophisticated systems aimed for functional modules wrapped with APIs and microservices.

Q. What are the practical challenges businesses face while rolling out any new supply chain use cases?

A. Salvaging the real-time data from operational systems is the first step of the hurdle, as we need specialized knowledge to understand each vendor’s system flows and architecture. Consolidating the data, then assuring the quality, accuracy of data, and then finally interpretation of the data remains the major challenge.

Incorporating new business flows within the existing operational systems and bridging data back into upstream and downstream systems is another struggle as the original implementation may not have kept that in scope. It is often classified as change request leads to additional budget and time.

Q. Does building a data lake solve some of the real-world SCM challenges?

A. It does but it won’t solve the core issue. Let’s take a standard supply chain operation: If clearing a glitch with a container from the port, the ripple effect is felt through the entire supply chain.

Deploying alternative business actions that don’t compromise cost or customer satisfaction is the intended outcome. Data lake cannot deliver that as it has limitations around data latency, rigid schema, restricted insights, and bi-directional orchestration.

We need an adaptive unified logical data model augmented with semantics that creates a real-time database with a deep business context. It allows businesses to gain real-time supply chain insights from customers, markets, partners, production, distribution, logistics, and environments.

A unified data model converges the data points across the ecosystems beyond IT standardizations, functional modules, systems, and data types and presents the current state of a customer order, manufacturing schedule, truck stop, inventory positions, etc.

Q. What opportunities abound when there is free interchange of data?

A. Without data insights, no business decision is accurate.

Solutions that address the need for a flexible unified logical data model enable businesses with a 360-degree view of their supply chain ecosystem, the ability to run what-if analysis, and be ready for these unknown factors.

Source: www.marinelinks.com

Image: www.

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Global supply chain executives responding to the survey cite poor data quality, siloed materials data, and legacy software systems as the main causes of poor materials management and supply chain planning. The report reveals:

• 43% of executives say they intentionally inflate their inventories to protect against further disruptions, raising their cost structures
• 90% are focused on cost reduction and 75% are focused on operational risk reduction as their top procurement and sourcing strategies; however, these areas often conflict with one another.
• 65% of businesses’ materials management strategies haven’t changed since the beginning of the pandemic.
• 42% of executives say a one-off data cleanse project is still the leading approach to improving their data.
• 37% say they still use common tools, such as manual spreadsheets, to optimize materials management.
• 65% cite a lack of resources as the greatest barrier to digitizing materials management.
• 81% of respondents incorrectly believe it would take more than one year to implement an artificial intelligence-driven materials management solution.

Source: www.inboundlogistics.com

Image: www.pexels.com

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In investigations of groundings since 2008 in which Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS) were the primary means of navigation, the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) and Danish Maritime Accident Investigation Board (DMAIB) identified a mismatch between the way ECDIS was used and the intention of performance standards and system design. This prompted the MAIB and the DMAIB to study ECDIS use from the perspective of practitioners.

The aim of the study was to generate an understanding of the practical application and usability of ECDIS and support future ECDIS design, training strategies and the development of best practices. The study followed a qualitative methodology, primarily based on semi-structured interviews with 155 ECDIS users and observation data gathered between February and July 2018 during sea voyages in European waters on 31 ships of various types.

In a joint statement, Oessur Hilduberg, Head of the DMAIB and Andrew Moll, Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents, MAIB said:

“Investigation of groundings since 2008 have repeatedly shown that where ECDIS was the primary means of navigation it was not being used to its full potential.  There was a significant mismatch between the intention of the performance standards and system designers, and the way the watchkeepers were using the system. This study set out to understand whether the findings of accident investigations could be extrapolated as representing the wider marine industry and, if so, why.

“Unsurprisingly, the study found a wide spectrum of ECDIS integration and usage, and users were unanimous that the real-time positioning provided by ECDIS was a major contributor to safe navigation.  However, thereafter the picture was bleak. Despite being in service for nearly two decades ECDIS could, at best, be described as being in its implementation phase. Specifically, most of the automated functions designed to alert the watchkeeper to impending dangers were not easy to use and lacked the granularity for navigation in pilotage waters. The consequent high false alarm rate eroded confidence in the automated warning, and most operators disabled the alarms or ignored alerts.

“To be an effective tool for safe navigation, ECDIS needs a high degree of operator input but many watchkeepers appeared to have limited understanding of the systems they were using, and in the main only used them to the extent they felt necessary. Current system shortcomings, compounded by limited bathymetry data, make safe navigation challenging and do not augur well for future automation of the navigation function.

“The study does not make specific recommendations but is intended to act as a catalyst for change. Improvements can be made at every level, from the agile setting of performance standards, through human-centred design to ensure users interface effectively with complex technological systems, down to operator training and the setting of procedures and best practice. Most importantly, if improvements are to be made, digital navigation needs to become the primary means of navigation across the industry.”

Source: www.maritimejournal.com

Image: www.pexels.com

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