Supply Chain in 2023: Beyond What You’ve Already Heard

ThroughPut currently assists improving supply chain performance from farms to semiconductor fabs to military operations. We are privileged to work around some of the world’s most well-known supply chain bottlenecks and headline making problems.

For 2023, we would like to provide an exclusive outlook into what we are seeing across some of the world’s most prestigious boardrooms & war rooms.?

Here are the 7 trends we are facing in the market and adjusting our platform access towards.?

#1: C-Suite & Operations want to see the results of digital transformation NOW!

When we talk to our customers, many have invested into digital transformation projects for years, but they have yet to see the value or a true ROI. This is the first year we are seeing a real push from owners and CFOs to CIOs and CTOs around true value, something ThroughPut has been advocating since its inception as a much needed shift for enterprise technology.

2023 is the year where more leaders are catching on to this. With budgets tightening for end-to-end integrated business planning roll outs, leaders are asking for status checks or faster tactical value demonstrations to endorse further digitization.

#2: Supply Chain Risk Management will make it to the top of everyone's priority list.

Supply Chain Risk Management providers are the heroes that Chief Supply Chain Officers at industrial companies need, but not the providers they deserve.

Due to the seemingly uninterrupted frequency of disruptions, other board members are asking for assurances for Tier-N supply chain planning.?

It is important to map supply chains and understand the risk, but it is also important to not restrict supply chain flow. We are observing that SCRM solutions are slowing down material flow, more than speeding it up.?

Risk management is important, and scenarios must be planned, but not at the cost of impeding flow or building up working capital piles. This is going to be a problem in 2023.

The misuse of SCRM systems to protect jobs in the supply chain function rather than increase flow.?

#3: Visibility will not be enough. Actionability will differentiate platforms

For organizations that have worked towards building supply chain visibility in the last few years, the pertinent question that will be asked more of now is, what next?

A common operating picture between both supplier performance and customer demand must be consolidated.?

Furthermore, organizations will want recommendations on how to “speed up”, “slow down”, or “change up” certain material flow across the value chain.

#4: Holistic problems will be solved by looking at the bigger picture and then plugging the gaps.

The American market is currently focused on defining a single-point problem and finding a functional solution to it. And more often than not, this solution is also lauded as the bigger picture solution, which is not the case.?

To solve holistic problems, you’ll have to work the other way around. You’ll have to look at the bigger picture first and that means, your working capital, maturity of digitization, and more. And then go plug the gaps.

We believe that analytics can impact the Earnings Per Share of the company. Holistic Visualizations can make this sort of impact a reality.?

#5: Technology will push industrial policy changes.

Technology is a rapidly evolving field with tremendous potential to drive change and improve our lives. However, it is not without its challenges overcoming bureaucracy and the status quo. In particular, technology may sometimes encounter limitations imposed by existing policies.?

It may take another 5 to 10 years to update these policies to harness the capabilities of the new technological landscape. We are entering an era where AI will be also leveraged to rewrite policies too (enter ChatGPT).?

#6: Continued demand for What-if Scenario Planning, but not yet at a global level scale.?

Supply chain management can be so complex and multifaceted that it is often easier to focus on specific, granular areas of a supply chain than the larger picture itself. While the true impact can be immense at the global level, What-if scenarios tools will still be applied at factory level settings due to sponsors, budgets, and risk aversion in 2023.

#7: Consolidation of Supply Chain Tech companies to come together to solve customer problems

With the increasing complexities of the supply chain and the growing demand for efficient and effective solutions, supply chain technology companies are realizing the need to work together to solve customer problems.

We have always been big advocates of this at ThroughPut, and will dedicate 2023 to building out integrations into existing solutions providers who need to deliver tactical financial value to their end customers.

This approach will be a departure from the earlier business model, where companies focused on being one-stop shops for all supply chain needs.?

The new model will be focused on collaboration and enabling customers to get the best possible solutions to their problems. Additionally, this approach will be more customer-centric, as it will focus on solving customer problems, rather than simply selling products.

The seven supply chain trends above were first discussed by Ali H. Raza , CEO at ThroughPut.ai during a collaborative webinar with Florian Güldner , Managing Director, Advisory Group. You can watch the full webinar here and listen to the trends from 29:30 minutes onwards.