Looking beyond disruption to build agile and resilient supply chains for the future

Abstract

The events of recent years, ranging from geopolitical tensions and global health events to labour shortages and economic crises, have highlighted significant vulnerabilities within global supply chains and emphasised the need for agility and resilience. Recent studies referenced in this paper, including the ‘Global Business Optimism Insights’ report, underscore that while large businesses tend to prioritise strengthening their supply chains, smaller businesses are often more focused on customer base expansion, potentially risking operational robustness. This approach could jeopardise customer satisfaction due to failures in meeting on-time, in-full (OTIF) delivery metrics, leading to potential financial penalties and customer dissatisfaction. With that in mind, this paper aims to help supply chain organisations understand how they can obtain the agility and resilience needed to weather ongoing disruption and futureproof their operations. It provides recommendations on how this can be achieved, pointing to access to trusted, real-time data across the supply chain network as a critical component. The paper also identifies, however, that many supply chain businesses struggle to obtain this access to data for rapid and informed decision making. Research from InterSystems finds that this data challenge is further complicated by a lack of end-to-end supply chain visibility, which is often exacerbated by data silos created by disparate systems and manual processes. These visibility challenges negatively affect key performance indicators such as OTIF metrics and restrict an organisation’s ability to adapt to disruptions swiftly. The paper explores how supply chain organisations can overcome these difficulties, identifying investment in digital supply chain technologies such as decision intelligence platforms as a way in which they can bridge the real-time execution gap and enable supply chain leaders to optimise processes. These platforms integrate real-time data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to enhance visibility, decision making and operational efficiency. The paper draws the conclusion that building resilient, future-proof supply chains is crucial for organisations to manage disruptions and capitalise on opportunities effectively. In the wake of ongoing disruption, the paper aims to demonstrate that by adopting the right technological solutions and embracing a cultural shift to data-driven operations, supply chains can transform to better withstand future challenges and move their organisation forward, thus ensuring sustained growth and enhanced customer loyalty.