The Digital Supply Chain Challenge

The Digital Supply Chain Challenge: Breaking Through

control towers, big data, advanced analytics and even AI. Any examination of the role of customer collaboration risks entering into traceability technologies like smart packaging or blockchain-enabled smart contracts and provenance databases. It is impossible to define a business strategy for e-commerce without separating it from the supply chain capabilities needed to execute the strategy. The result for supply chain executives today is a world that is completely different from what it looked like in 2005. It requires an understanding of all aspects of the business, an appreciation of the constraints and expectations of upstream and downstream partners, and sufficient technological savvy to navigate the bewildering array of options presented by Industry 4.0 and SCD. It is not an attempt to systematically explore each of the principal technologies covered under Industry 4.0. This book is meant for supply chain executives who are constantly burdened not only with the classic balancing act between service, cost and working capital but also with more intense cycles of promotions, launches and customizations. And on top of these imperatives, they have been asked to formulate an Industry 4.0 and SCD strategy to transform their organization, which may have to compete with companies that are digitally native, with business models designed for this new era. This book offers a way to separate the signal from the noise, the reality from the hype. The aim is not to provide a detailed exploration of the benefits and downsides of a laundry list of Industry 4.0 technologies. There are many resources for those who wish to find out more about a given technology. Rather, our ambition is to provide some perspective for the supply chain executive looking to understand where to begin on an Industry 4.0 or SCD voyage, how to think about organizing for change, what are the key success factors and why some technologies might be a better fit than others. We hope that this book will serve as a source of inspiration for supply chain executives about to embark on a digitalization adventure. The topics included provide valuable benchmarks to help executives understand where their company stands compared with peers. It isn’t enough to see the best-in-class success stories, it is important to be aware of the preoccupations and progress of other supply chain executives who find themselves in the same situation. It’s hoped that along with inspiration comes a sense of clarity. The focus here is on tangible, concrete issues, free of the hype and noise often associated with consultants, vendors or technologists. THE DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN CHALLENGE This book is for supply chain executives facing this new challenge.

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