Logistics and supply chain
Supply chain and logistics organizations are facing challenges driven by market uncertainties, labor shortage, and supply chain disruptions. The industry is on a journey towards digital transformation to enhance resiliency and productivity at a global scale.
Learn more about our work in passenger transportation and mobility.
An industry in digital transformation
Increasing complexity and volatility in the logistics and supply chain industries are forcing organizations to invest in new digital solutions that bring resiliency and certainty in operations.
Digitizing workflows is a high priority in the sector as it allows automated decision making and proactive supply chain risk management in strategic and real-time horizons.
According to Gartner® “Only 1% of supply chain organizations say they have no plans to invest in emerging technologies over the next five years while the vast majority of companies cite multiple reasons for doing so.”
Gartner, Predicts 2023: Supply Chain Technology (Nov 28 2022). GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved
The main challenges driving technology investments in this market are:
Labor constraints driving automation of processes and increase of unit productivity.
Poor speed and quality of planning and decision-making, which is pushing enhancements in network intelligence.
Network complexity driving improvements in agility and flexible planning (e.g., multimodal networks).
End-to-end supply chain uncertainty, which is pushing for network resiliency and risk mitigation.
Due to the regional and global disruptions in supply chain suffered in the last few years, many companies are looking to build more resiliency into their supply chain networks. This is essential to protect them against the impacts of foreseen or ongoing disruptions. However, the existing approach is still based on demand forecast models, which in turn drive planning for inventory, capacity and logistics chains. This makes current global supply chains rigid and fragile. True End-to-End resilient networks are needed, involving flexibility and adaptability of the entire supply chain.
With the business need for faster adaptability, composability and modularity in supply chain planning applications and providers is key. The paradigm is moving towards platform-based digital supply chain models that seek exchangeability and flexibility in provider selection and resource allocation.
According to Gartner® “By 2026, 95% of companies will have failed to enable end-to-end (E2E) resiliency in their supply chains.”
Gartner, Predicts 2023: Supply Chain Technology (Nov 28 2022). GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved
Solutions for supply chain resilience
In this paradigm change, digital supply chain initiatives are being launched throughout the industry, focusing on creating accurate representations of the End-to-End supply chain with all its correlations, attributes and uncertainties. This trend is moving towards the creation of digital twins for components of the supply chain system and multimodal interactions, which in turn enable advanced planning applications, intelligent data platforms, and resilient scenario forecasting models powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Learn more about our AI solutions.
On the other side, geospatial information tools are being developed not only for planning storage hubs and network capacity, but also for finding alternative transport solutions to scenarios with disruption. The introduction of geospatial-based route cost models is crucial to make quantitative assessments of demand or supply driven alternative recommendations. Learn more about Skymantics Advanced Routing Engine.
New transportation models are also being developed for multimodal logistics distribution, considering frictions between providers and transportation modes. This includes emerging drone cargo delivery, which in the near future will position as a solution for fast distribution of high-value supplies in remote locations. The integration of drones and vertiports in the End-to-End supply chain network poses new challenges that need to be addressed. Learn more about our work in Air Traffic Management and Advanced Air Mobility.
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