Supply chain digitalization isn’t a new concept. In fact, the ‘smart supply chain’ or Supply Chain 4.0 is one that has become increasingly important in the last few years – and yet many companies still fall behind in the digital sphere.
Digitalization has the potential to save money and optimize productivity. So, how do we ensure that all businesses can reap the benefits of the digital supply chain?
What’s holding us back?
Digitalization is ultimately held back by three things: time, cost, and business disruption.
If your company data processes are ‘okay’, you might not want to risk the disruption of implementing new business processes and upturning existing ones. Digitalized supply chains are valuable, yet they can often affect company processes in a way that, in the short term, costs time and money that many companies can’t afford to lose.
Logistic systems are versatile and complex. This means that, ultimately, there may not be a fix-all solution for every supply chain, and some may not benefit from traditional technological innovation.
Digital supply chains are fundamentally data-driven ones: they automate, consume and analyse data. Traditional chains are often paper-based or utilising traditional systems. Data is not automated, and often requires human intervention to analyse. This is difficult when there is so much data to analyse.
Essentially: for some companies, especially smaller ones, digitalization is not worth the short-term risk. However, the long-term benefits provide so much value that the risk will eventuate into valuable time and cost saving, as well as reducing the necessity of human intervention in the digital supply chain.
The solution to the supply chain stagnation
There isn’t a secret to solve the prevalent corporate fear of digitalization. Unfortunately, this is something that companies must resolve at a corporate level. There are, however, smaller ways that technology can be integrated into the supply chain.
For example: automation is a major player in Supply Chain 4.0. Automation is a great stepping-stone for businesses to digitalize their supply chains. Artificial intelligence and blockchain are also valuable for forecasting, analytics, security and traceability. Companies can start with one technology and integrate that into their logistics.
Supply chains don’t need to become fully automated and self-sufficient in a day.
Our technology, STAMP Supply™, solves the issue of disruption in digitalization. It easily integrates with your pre-existing supply chain management solution, consumes and automates data, including historical. This means that you can reduce the time and cost of forecasting and analysing data.
STAMP Supply™ is also blockchain-enabled, ensuring that your data is secure, permanent and tamper-proof.
To find out more about STAMP Supply™, click here. To contact us about a demo, head over here.