7 Powerful Supply Chain Trends You Should Not Ignore

Old industries are dying and new ones are rising. We have seen Amazon destroy the book stores, Uber transform the transport industry and Netflix make a video store a fond memory.

Today’s technological disruption is fast and ruthless and it is transforming most of the industries. But I think we are behind supply chain if you compare the disruption happening in other functions like marketing and finance and it is time to focus on key supply chain trends.

Then you are maybe not up with the latest fad. But fads are one thing and trends are another. Fads come and go but trends have the potential to become a powerful influence for long term change.

So what are the 7 big supply chain trends that you need to be aware of so that you don’t become a dinosaur in your own lifetime as a supply chain professional? I call them “Supply Chain 7.0”

7 Supply Chain Trends to Watch

So what are 7 big supply chain trends that you need to be aware of as a supply chain professional?

#1. Big Data will be big force you can’t ignore

Although “Big Data” has become a contemporary buzzword, it has significant implications supply chain, and presents an opportunity and a challenge to most industries. What makes Big Data unique is its:

• Velocity: in real time
• Variety: the data varies in time and in context, and is not a fixed data model to real time
• Volume: the volumes are significant and require unique approaches

Volume can occur in many ways. There is more data because, among other reasons, the data is captured in more detail via current ERP & other software packages. For instance, instead of just recording that a unit sold at a particular location, the time it was sold and the amount of inventory at the time of the sale is also captured. Moreover, long global supply chains necessitate data capture at multiple points in the supply chain. In addition, there is now a proliferation of consumer sentiment data resulting from Tweets, Likes, and product reviews on websites. Such data must be analyzed and quantified.

The rise of the Big Data is a hot supply chain trend as revealed by Google Trends. In fact the rate of interest in this term I would classify as “breakout”.

Do supply chain folks have strategy for big data analytics?

The examples of potential applications of big data within logistics and supply chain would be:

• Manufacturers can advise customers about improved notification of delivery time, and availability; based on historic and current manufacturing data.
• Freight carriers can reliably advise time of delivery, factoring in weather, driver characteristics, and time of day and date of arrival.
• Retailers can forecast and understand customer sentiment data and use of mobile devices in stores

#2. 3D Printing is now needed to support product life cycle

Where does 3D printing fit in today’s supply chain trends? And what is your company doing to fully leverage this powerful and surprisingly versatile innovation?

3D Printing has been around for 3 decades and generally using additive manufacturing, however, commercialization at mass level still has to take off. It involves fabrication of products through the use of printers which either place layer upon layer of materials or employee lasers to burn material, resulting in a finished design.

Today 3D Printing is used within several industries such as used for making medical implants, jewellry, customized football boots, lampshades, racing-car parts, solid state batteries and customized mobile phones

While much has been said and written about the impact of 3D Printing, it is only now it is being used as a term in its own right as its interest is continuing to increase in trending as we can see in Google Trends:

What are the potential applications which impact supply chain?

• Manufacturing the inventory of long tail “C Class” items to support customers at the end of product life cycle.
• Providing vendor managed 3D Printer at customer site by providing the software designs for products which customer can on demand as a licence or pay-per-print basis.
• By providing design data to customer encourage customer to print using online its like shapeways or sculpteo so they can print as and when needed.

The key benefits for supply chain

• Drastically reduce lead time and increase on-time delivery performance by closer provision of parts by installing printers on customer site
• Simplify supply chain network
• Reducing space requirement in warehouse
• Reduce Excess & Obsolete for high variety and low volume items.
• Faster prototyping and samples
• Agile and response supply chain to shorter product life cycles.
• Possibly cheaper products to make and purchase for low volume items
• Supply chain can support greater customization
• And many more!!

Continue to read the full article here for remaining 5 Supply Chain Trends