The future of supply chains:

In an age of supply chain volatility and complexity, intelligence-enabled  decisions are essential. The convergence of digital and physical  infrastructures has changed the landscape of supply chain management  through embedded intelligence, creating a dialogue of actionable insights. Solutions will not only be used to instantaneously respond to fluctuations but also predict future conditions; transforming the supply chain process into a proactive, rather than a reactive function.

Manufacturing, trading industries and service sectors alike are increasingly investing in disruptive technologies to enhance their operational efficiencies and improve customer experiences. Such data obtained in the format of big data, can be used by analysts to detect and predict changes and help decision makers act more effectively and be ahead of competition.

At the customer level, technology is used by companies to analyse, monitor and predict customer purchasing behaviours and optimise  inventory levels to avoid stock-outs and improve customer service. These solutions are not only convenient for customers, but it is also cost effective for the store as it minimises human interference and provides customised datasets of  customers and their shopping preferences for more accurate demand planning.

New advances are made in the demand planning sphere, where traditional challenges such as determining the quantities to be ordered, the type of SKU to be stocked at each outlet are met with advanced real-time demand planning techniques. 

Challenges in the transportation has been addressed via linking the transportation vehicles via GPS, RFID, and other required sensors to increase transit visibility by identifying location, cargo, and other trackin information of vehicles. The data gathered will also help analysts determine changing parameters such as the time of arrival and factors that can affect the quality of products during transportation.

 

How can KPMG’s Management Consulting Practice help you, during your journey of transformation?

KPMG's Supply Chain Advisory Practice, assist clients to transform its supply chain to reduce costs, increase service levels, efficiency and become big - data enabled in supply chain management. KPMG leverages its own in-house professionals, tools and technologies to make the supply chain become agile, efficient and forward thinking. KPMG believes that supply chains of the future will find the role of data and analytics increasingly crucial in achieving agility, data integrity, high levels of responsiveness and resilience.