Need for Disruption in Supply Chain Technologies

Today's Supply Chains have been stretched further and stressed more than any time in history. The constant demand for goods and services has continued to grow over the years and today we see more global trade than ever. In the recent years we have also seen a shift in the technology space that is attempting to keep up with demands. But I will pose a question to ponder in this article. Is it enough and are we going in the right direction?

As many manufacturing and operations practitioners know, we are in the middle of the 4th Industrial revolution. Industrie 4.0 is the next step of moving past automation and into more connected services. Many companies have begun to use technology like AGVs, Drone, and other automated technologies to either replace or augment their current work force and make repetitive tasks more efficient and productive. I do believe that this is a great step in the right direction but are we missing something as we think about how Industrie 4.0 should be working in our Supply Chains? Many companies have been using technologies like Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), Yard Management Systems (YMS) and Transportation Management Systems (TMS) for years. These have been at the core of the Technical Supply Chain stack for the better part of 20 years. But these point systems often create gaps in either process or information flow that are vital in today's connect Supply Chain.

Let's give an example. Manufacturing company A has a lot of raw material SKUs used in their production facility. Often times they find themselves with inventory left on trailers in the yard because they feel the need to increase safety stock due to various reasons. In today's world of disconnected ERP, WMS, and YMS systems, once a production schedule is set, the Warehouse team may or may not be able to pull from the warehouse for the upcoming production run. They may need to tap into inventory that is in the yard. But where is this inventory, how do they get it into the building quickly, efficiently and without impact to operations. Most likely the Warehouse operator will realize he is short for the production run and notify the Warehouse Supervisor. This Warehouse Supervisor then quickly thumbs through his clipboard, and realizes that he may have some the required SKUs on a trailer in the yard. So he gets on his Walkie-Talkie and calls a Yard Dog operator to go find a trailer somewhere in the yard and back it up to an open dock. Eventually the operator finds the trailer after a lot of driving around the yard and finds a open dock. Of course he then gets back on his walkie-talkie and notifies the Supervisor, who then has to call out to a Forklift operator to go dig through a trailer and find the required SKUs and receive them. When that was a lot of work just to find a needed SKU for the next production run. Hopefully this did not impact the production run.

Now imagine a new imagine having a platform that could help connect all of this and remove all of the manual processes we just described above. Imagine that entire scenario executed without the clipboard, without human interaction at all other than to unload the truck with the forklift (which could in theory be automated as well). Here is what the new connected scenario could look like. The ERP system outputs the production schedule, this then send the BoM out to the WMS for Pull. The WMS realizes it is short on a SKU for the production run from the warehouse, but it knows that there is needed SKUs in the yard. It knows this because when the truck was delivered, a pre-receipt document was created when the driver brought the trailer into the check-in gate. So the WMS sends a signal to the YMS system that a trailer is needed, the new platform also knows which dock door is open, so the WMS sends this dispatch to an autonomous Yard Dog, with the needed trailer and destination dock. The YMS knows where this trailer is, and goes and picks up the trailer and drops it at the door. At the same time this task is completed, the YMS notifies the receiving team with a task to unload the trailer. All of these tasks were completed without manual processes and more connected information flow between systems.

Now that may seem like a lot of work to pull that off. Arguably it could be, if there is a desire to replace existing system. Alternatively working with solutions that can help close the gaps, and reduce these manual processes are possible. These types of solutions will be the way of the future. Helping to disrupt the way we have looked at Supply Chain and information sharing across the Value Chain is the way of the future.