Driving global supply chain innovation and resilience
A fast and resilient global supply chain is vital for businesses to meet customer demands and ensure operational efficiency. However, achieving this requires more than just logistical expertise; it demands innovative solutions and digital tools to navigate today’s complex business landscape.
To deliver a great customer experience and empower employees to work safely and efficiently, companies are looking for repeatable, agile, and reliable solutions. They are increasingly turning to AI, connected devices, and other digital tools to enhance insights from supply chain data. While each industry has its specific needs, there is so much to be gained by sharing knowledge across sectors to build the most resilient supply chain possible.
Monitoring the global supply chain with AI
In industries like pharmaceuticals, where timely and accurate deliveries are critical, data-driven insights are indispensable. Reacting to in-progress supply chain issues isn’t enough; a transformative improvement is avoiding them altogether. That’s where data—along with the AI tools that can analyze it—is critical.
Better connectivity helps companies make faster decisions, monitor the entire supply chain from anywhere, and understand the global effects of an issue immediately. Allen Jacques, Industry Thought Leader at Kinaxis, remembers a time when shipping problems took an entire week to solve through meetings and phone calls with potentially dozens of people. “Today, with the digital supply chain, I could’ve gotten that answer in minutes,” says Jacques.
With flexible tools and repeatable solutions, companies are making the pharmaceutical supply chain more resilient. Businesses are also gaining insights from AI that improve their ability to navigate the complexities of the global pharmaceutical supply chain.
Innovating faster using the metaverse
Innovation is critical in all industries, and the industrial metaverse is becoming an essential tool to accelerate development and boost resilience, training, and cost efficiency.
Using the industrial metaverse, businesses can do repeatable experiments with lower costs and higher speeds than they can with real materials. Engineers and designers can collaborate in digital environments in real time to create prototypes of products and quickly explore many options. They can also simulate supply chain scenarios to practice responding to potential issues, such as equipment failures or transportation delays. Furthermore, digitalization gives workers the option to control machinery remotely to avoid the risk of injuries from hazardous locations. And they can train in the digital metaverse to gain more experience faster.
Because failure is a key part of innovation, failing fast is important—it leads to faster development. “One of the biggest advantages of the metaverse is that you can make mistakes without lasting results,” says Kevin L. Jackson, Founder of the Cloud Musings blog.
Increasing connectivity with an omnichannel mindset
How can an organization use all its assets—from supply chain to transportation—to deliver complete customer service? Retail business leaders need to adopt an omnichannel mindset and repeatable digital solutions that improve connectivity and operational efficiency.
Jennifer McKeehan, Senior Vice President of End-to-End Delivery at Walmart, explains how Walmart is investing billions of dollars into automation to create capacity and increase fulfillment speed and accuracy. “One of the things we’re focused on is helping customers shop when they want, where they want, and how they want,” says McKeehan. “Doing that requires mass transformation and innovation.”
Connectivity is the key to this transformation. A connected supply chain helps get products to shelves faster and improves how associates do their jobs. “With increased connectivity, we’re making really good end-to-end decisions that then unlock cost and value for the customer,” says McKeehan.
Avoiding supply chain disruptions on multiple fronts
A stable supply chain must be resilient enough to withstand potential disruptions from natural disasters, geopolitical developments, economic trends, and more. For example, droughts in canals can affect both the distribution of products and energy, which has rippling effects for everything from transportation to the AI being used in the supply chain that requires energy.
Companies can take friction out of the global supply chain by using AI to automate and optimize critical aspects of distribution and transportation. “We’ve got a lot of trucks that are half empty. The more we can concentrate on that and get better load optimization, the better,” says Greg Buzek, President and Chief AI Officer at IHL Group. AI could also be the key to protecting shipments at sea. AI-powered autonomous vehicles protecting container ships can help lower the cost of shipping and reduce the risk of lost cargo.
Benefiting workers and customers with digital solutions
Keeping up with supply chain trends is important for businesses looking to make order fulfillment fast and accurate. A trusted partner can help businesses adopt innovative technologies and repeatable, reliable solutions to build resiliency into every point of their supply chains. “You need folks who have been tried and true,” says McKeehan. “You need folks who are going to help you think differently about where to go tomorrow.”
Learn more by checking out the full interviews with these industry experts, or talk to a Microsoft representative to discover more about Microsoft supply chain management solutions.
