Supply chain secrets unveiled – where Australia is currently positioned

Wouldn’t it be a sweet world if you could predict the future and be spot on?

Especially in a market where customer demands shift in the blink of an eye, new tech is constantly emerging and your entire operating model is under combat.

Predictive analytics is on the horizon for the total supply chain and the after-sales service landscape in an industry projected to be worth more than $9 billion by 2020.

Leveraging emerging tech and predictive, real-time analytics and digitising your supply chain to gain end to end and real-time visibility has been on the radar for a while, but it is finally beginning to take hold.  Leveraging predictive analytics to plan for inventory demands minimise waste and building on legacy systems and improving accuracy seems to be the next big step for supply chain professionals. But building this into your strategy and operations is no easy feat. Then there’s IoT and the Cloud to harness.

While analytics and efficiency is one thing, how can you create a proper, cutting-edge supply chain without focusing everything around the customer? After all, they really have become the centre of attention in every industry.

Discovering the best way to rejig your supply chain to better serve your customer, while still increasing profit and performance, seems to be the key in achieving a successful and efficient operation. Some of the major transformations that have seen this come to fruition centre around:

- Embedding a transformative omni-channel operating model to improve customer-centricity

- Segmenting your supply chain around your customers to remain competitive

- Leveraging SC technology and CX methodologies for effective and seamless global market

expansion

- Ensuring your operation is at full capacity and customer-centric with minimal expenses 

- Redesigning your process and operations to achieve greater customer centricity

- Improving the quality of your global SC and developing a strategic roadmap to improve CX

It’s the more ‘futuristic’ side of supply chain; drones, autonomous vehicles, co-bots, 3D printing…

I bet you’re wondering are any actually a priority and worth the investment of time and attention right now?

It’s potentially the most exciting thing of all, talking about all the future possibilities.

But it’s not worth a dime if you can’t draw it back to the present to be able to develop a practical strategic roadmap and understand the best direction for you….

Front of mind for supply chain professionals is the future of last mile delivery; assessing the options and selecting the right fit technology to best deliver their strategic goals.

Once that’s been determined, developing the business case and roadmap to introduce this tech and operating model into your daily activities is key in gaining the necessary support internally to make the initiative a success.

Drones may seem a far off futuristic concept, but plans for their introduction into a number of leading organsiations’ last mile operations, are progressing quite rapidly. The biggest barrier to overcome though will be legislative barriers and understanding the future regulations around drones to prepare an effective strategy.

Then of course there is the disruption to the supply chain that will be created through the introduction of with autonomous vehicles and understanding how far off they are and how to prepare. Despite what tech you are attracted to, there will always be the same age old puzzle of how best to seamlessly deploy and integrate it into your operations to cause minimal disruption to business and the most ROI.

Still interested? Stay tuned for information on upcoming conferences and summits by following us on Facebook @ Akolade Aust 

Written by: Gracie Fea

Originally from NZ, Gracie worked as a Broadcast Journalist for a few years before moving to London, and then to Sydney, where she fatefully came across conference production and quickly realised it was her dream role. Getting to speak with such passionate and successful people and create an agenda so that people can see themselves in other’s experiences, really spins her wheels.

She has a hunger to hear everyone’s unique story and really thrives from creating a platform for them to share these and help move their industry forward through collaboration.

Follow me on LinkedIn for information regarding future Akolade events as well as future blogs posts @ Gracie Fea