Infosys TechCompass #15 - Digital supply chain

November 23, 2022

Supply chains have traditionally focused on efficiency and cost optimization. But now, flexibility and agility are vital to staying relevant amid rising disruptions and uncertainties. Digitization is key for an efficient and transparent supply chain that enhances responsiveness through agility. A self-curating supply chain alerts on critical issues and recommends appropriate actions. And then, organizations sense, react, and act competently to become future-ready with predictive capabilities.

Infosys Knowledge Institute explores key trends in digital supply chain under the following four subdomains:

Supply chain management traditionally emphasizes cost efficiency, faster delivery, and quality. But the post-pandemic era has increased organizations’ focus on resiliency. Manufacturers mitigate the impact of supply chain disruptions by first reengineering their internal systems and processes to achieve resiliency. Enterprises proactively recalibrate factors under control such as business models, IT applications, and workflow processes to tackle supply chain volatilities and uncertainties.2?

Trend 1 – Make-to-order with consolidated procurement helps navigate supply shortages

A leading multinational elevator manufacturer and service provider, in association with Infosys, has designed and implemented a standardized model and purchasing tool. The new model standardized the requisitioning process across countries where the firm operates. Using these techniques, manufacturers leverage consolidated volume requirements at pre-negotiated pricing, resulting in cost savings and faster delivery.

Trend 2 – Increased data sharing for supply chain transparency

Infosys implemented a blockchain-based, industry agnostic distributed application, for an agro supply chain. It has integration adapters to connect with diverse ERP applications, in addition to capturing data feed from IoT devices. A pilot was first implemented for a particular agri commodity in a specific geography. The implementation resulted in a unified, single source of truth for shipment data, optimized reconciliation efforts across stakeholders, reduction in certification costs through digital documents, and integration with existing applications to maintain status quo.

Find more about these trends and their use cases here.

Semiconductor companies have witnessed a massive increase in demand for chips since the pandemic started, causing a global chip shortage that has disrupted supply chains worldwide. To improve yield and the percentage of manufactured products clearing all quality checks the first time around, companies need to focus on the quality of inputs, process discipline, advanced analytics, and piecing together every part of the value chain in perfect synchronization. These aspects can be evaluated and improved through technologies such as AI, ML, IoT, 5G, spatial computing and design, and AR/VR.

Trend 3 – In-factory and supply chain operations reach end-to-end digitization

A leading enterprise networking and security equipment manufacturer built an integrated digital supply chain solution to gain complete visibility into its operations. The manufacturer invested approximately $2 million in this initiative, and improved productivity and optimized order fulfillment by connecting its supply, demand, and inventory management operations.

Trend 4 – AI-based predictive maintenance and smart automation

A leading US-based electronic components distributor wanted to improve efficiencies in its order management processes through automation. Infosys deployed an AI-based automation solution to remove manual interventions from tasks such as prediction of the block removal date for a backlog sale order. It also alerted account managers and triggered ERP systems to remove the block. This significantly reduced staff hours, allowing more time for further process improvements.

Find more about these trends and their use cases here.

Intelligent supply chains are built on three foundational elements — stock visibility across networks, automated decision making, and effective partnerships. These elements manifest themselves through concepts such as inventory control towers, AI-enabled demand forecasting and streamlined inventory information across consumer industries?network. Recent strides forward in AI, ML, blockchain, and other advanced technologies will help build the ability to deliver future-ready resilient supply chains.

Trend 5 – Stockless order fulfillment becomes the norm

Infosys helped a leading US-based sporting goods company ensure that lack of stock doesn’t affect sales. It built a platform for order management across different markets, which helped the company fulfill orders efficiently using the network of affiliates, marketplaces, and its own distribution centers, helping its digital sales grow by 20% in a year.

Trend 6 – AI-powered demand planning gains prominence

A European CPG company built predictive demand forecasting capabilities with the help of Infosys. The company could make weekly forecasts with 92% accuracy overall and 93% at an individual retailer level. It also built a dashboard to simulate forecasts by changing sales drivers such as price, promotion, distribution, and the number of products to accommodate the fluctuations.

Find more about these trends and their use cases here.

Digital technologies help miners optimize operations, streamline supply chain, and boost sustainability. Miners digitize their operations through cloud, AI/ML, AR/VR, digital twins, RPA, and other technologies to visualize their physical operations. This helps them identify areas that need optimization and simulate multiple solutions to finalize the optimal one quickly. However, adopting these technologies requires substantial capital investment and careful tracking of returns on those investments at each step of the digital transformation journey.

Trend 7 – Digital twins adoption grows for existing and new mine sites

Infosys’ portfolio of mining solutions uses AI, IoT, cloud, and extended reality (XR). Infosys digital twin connects physical operations to their digital counterpart. The platform helps miners boost efficiency with IT and OT convergence and provides AI and ML powered business insights. Here, industry 4.0 technologies boost operational efficiency with autonomous hauling, and AR/VR/XR technologies enhance worker safety.

Trend 8 – Miners turn to smart inventory management and logistics for supply chain optimization

A leading miner partnered with Infosys to develop a custom telematics tracking solution to maximize fleet utilization. With features such as near real-time visibility into performance indicators and asset-specific analytics, the solution helped the mining company improve fleet safety, reduce fuel consumption, and rationalize maintenance?costs.

Find more about these trends and their use cases here.

Read our 2022 Digital Supply TechCompass to know more about the key trends.

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