Supply Chain needs to be more ‘Intelligent’ now

It is loud and clear about the increasing global supply chains, it’s one crisis after another. Continued roadblocks of raw materials is upending manufacturing. Supply chain managers are quitting in droves. The pandemic lingers, and inflation is up, including soaring costs for industrial energy in Europe due to Russia’s war on Ukraine. A possible recession looms. And geopolitical risk has surged to its highest level in many years.

As per PWC, Today’s turbulence and volatility might be here to stay. As companies look to develop resilient responses to a continual series of shocks on both the supply and demand sides, many find the old approaches less and less effective. That’s because most global supply chains were engineered decades ago to manage stable, high-volume production by capitalizing on labor-arbitrage opportunities in low-cost countries such as China, India, and Vietnam. Speed, cost efficiency, and performance comprised the “magic triangle” of supply chain management.

There’s no escaping the fact that we are about to enter a difficult trading period with inflation likely to remain high for some time. Given the new reality, New research from Capgemini reveals that three-quarters of organizations have been impacted by closing facilities, supply chain disruptions, employee absence, and remote work in the past three years, and less than 20% of organizations feel equipped to handle the impacts of these changes.

Greater focus on sustainability, global socio-economic changes, and shifting consumer demands has meant that organizations are facing considerable disruption to their supply chains. In this context, leaders’ most pressing concerns are reducing CO2 emissions across all tiers of the supply chain (95%) and growing e-commerce volumes (90%). Around 92% of organizations surveyed said that the ongoing relocation of the global supply chain will impact them but only 15% are equipped to deal with this.

Highlights of the India Data on the Customer Experience Trends :

# 81% of organisations agree that faster order fulfilment time, such as the advent of quick commerce has high business impact.

# According to 83% respondants moving from product to services or connected products: repair, maintenance, remote monitoring, field services, customer support, and services has a high business impact.

# As per 76% of respondants agree that ensuring seamless customer experience through omnichannel while developing direct-to-the-customer, last mile, dynamic pricing, and returns has high business impact.

# 68% of organisations agree that offering a hyper-personalized customer experience to gain market share and develop customer loyalty has high business impact.

Finally, investing in supply chains now is critical for organizations to be prepared to meet future demands, cites the report. On average over the next three years, organizations plan to increase their investment in supply chain transformation by 17% and expect to double their business outcomes in terms of growth, profitability and sustainability.

Dr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, President & CEO, VARINDIA