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5 Ways Analytics Are Disrupting Supply Chain Management

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5 Ways Analytics Are Disrupting Supply Chain Management

5 Ways Analytics Are Disrupting Supply Chain Management

Harmonizing supply chain management analytics will put organizations on a path to automating their operations.

The evolution of infotech increased customer expectations, economic behavior, and other competitive priorities have caused firms to modify themselves in the current business landscape. Supply chains globally are becoming more complex, thanks to globalization and the consistently changing dynamics of demand and supply. As per a forecast by Gartner, the global supply chain management market was valued at USD 15.85 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach almost USD 31 billion by 2026.

Businesses are channeling the power of big data analytics to disrupt transformations at all levels of supply chain management. Data started as a fundamental component of digital transformation and is now a revolutionary concept. It is the key to achieving breakthroughs in supply chain management systems, and more organizations are integrating data analytics to mine data for proactive insights and accelerate intelligent decision-making.

Big data implementation in supply chain management addresses several issues, from strategic to operational to tactical. It includes everything from building efficient communication between suppliers and manufacturers to boosting delivery times. Decision-makers can utilize analytics reports to increase operational efficiency and boost productivity by closely monitoring the system’s performance at each level.

What is Big Supply Chain Analytics, and How Does it Work?

Integrating big data analytics with the supply chain makes big supply chain analytics enable business executives to compute better growth decisions for all possible maneuvers by combining data and quantitative methodologies. Notably, it adds two features.

First, it broadens the dataset for analysis beyond internal data stored in existing SCM and ERP systems. Second, it uses advanced statistical techniques to analyze the new and existing data. This generates new insights that help make better decisions for improving front-line operations and strategic decisions like implementing the best supply chain models.

Here are five ways big data and analytics are disrupting supply chain management:

1) Improved demand forecasting

Demand forecasting is one of the crucial steps in building a successful supply chain strategy. With data science and analytics in play, businesses experience automated demand forecasting. This assists them in quickly responding to fluctuations in the market and streamlining the optimal stock levels every time.

2) Enhanced production efficiency

Data science and analytics play a significant role in gauging organizational performance. Accurate application of big data analytics can help organizations track, analyze, and share employee performance metrics in real time. You can identify excellent employees who are struggling to maintain a consistent performance. This could be quickly done with IoT-enabled work badges, which exchange information with sensors installed in production line units.

3) Better sourcing and supplier management

Supply chain management systems have empowered organizations to collate data on multiple suppliers. Using data science solutions, you can leverage this data to gain insights into the historical record of any supplier. With this, you can gauge based on crucial metrics such as compliance, location, reviews, feedback, services, etc.

4) Better warehouse management

Warehouses are acquiring modern technology and have started installing sensors to collect data on the inventory flow. This helps you build an extensive database containing information based on the weight and dimensions of the packages. With sensors installed in your warehouse, you can identify bottlenecks that obstruct the flow and can be easily resolved at the earliest with the big data-fueled systems.

5) Improved distribution and logistics

Order fulfillment and traceability are essential for business productivity and customer satisfaction. Logistics have traditionally been cost-focused and effectively look for ways that provide them competitive advantages. Data science solutions enable logistic providers to leverage data analytics to improve their operations. For instance, they use fuel consumption analytics to improve driving efficiency. With GPS technology, they can track real-time routing of deliveries and reduce long waiting times by allocating nearby warehouses.

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Cold chain logistics market to grow by USD 9.48 billion

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Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Cold Chain Logistics Market for Pharmaceuticals Industry by Service and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2020-2024

Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Cold Chain Logistics Market for Pharmaceuticals Industry by Service and Geography – Forecast and Analysis 2020-2024

The cold chain logistics market is expected to grow by USD 9.48 billion during 2020-2024, according to the new report from Technavio. This marks a significant market slow down compared to the 2020 growth estimates due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the first half of 2021. In addition, the report projects the market to accelerate at a CAGR of over 10%.

The cold chain logistics market for the pharmaceutical industry is driven by the increase in global demand for pharmaceuticals. In addition, the growth in demand for reefer containers from the pharmaceutical industry is anticipated to boost the growth of the Cold Chain Logistics Market for the Pharmaceuticals Industry.

The growth in pharmaceutical sales has globally increased the volume of pharmaceuticals trade. Several government initiatives on health insurance schemes contributed to the high growth of pharmaceutical sales. Therefore, for efficient transportation of pharmaceuticals, warehousing, and distribution in large volumes, the end-user companies would require cold chain healthcare logistics services. This will drive the growth of the global cold chain logistics market for the pharmaceutical industry through the forecast period.

Major Five Cold Chain Logistics for Pharmaceuticals Industry Companies:

Agility Public Warehousing Co. K.S.C.P

Agility Public Warehousing Co. K.S.C.P provides storage in multiple temperature zones, cold chain solutions, reverse logistics, and advanced tracking and tracing technologies.

Deutsche Post AG

Deutsche Post AG provides life sciences & healthcare products and solutions transport services in the market such as DHL Air Thermonet – Standard Temperature Controlled Air Freight, DHL Ocean Thermonet – Temperature Controlled Ocean Freight, DHL Freight Cold Chain – Temperature Controlled for life sciences and health care products, DHL Medical Express – Temperature Sensitive Corporation.

FedEx Corp.

FedEx Corp. provides end-to-end temperature control services such as FedEx Temp-Assure, FedEx Deep Frozen shipping solution, Fed Ex Thermal Blanket solutions, FedEx Freight Freezable protection service.

JWD InfoLogistics Public Co. Ltd.

JWD InfoLogistics Public Co. Ltd. provides services of transportation and distribution management, special attention towards dangerous goods port safety, logistics software development, etc services are available.

Kerry Logistics Network Ltd.

Kerry Logistics Network Ltd. provides a complete cold chain integrity solution, warehousing and distribution service, and other value-added services.

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10 Potential Risks in Cold Chain Management

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10 Potential Risks in Cold Chain Management

10 Potential Risks in Cold Chain Management

Socio-political unrest, labor shortages, wars, geological events, to pandemic concerns; these are just a few of the things that could affect changes in shipping patterns and/or logistics strategies.

Seemingly unrelated events halfway around the world can impact a shipment out for delivery, and there’s nothing your production or logistics teams can do about it. That’s the inherent volatility of a supply chain. It’s worse still for temperature-controlled logistics.

Therefore, the best you can do is mitigate the risk.

Shippers are urged to expect the worst and give it their best when handling high-value shipments, ensuring there’s enough care and contingency in place to mitigate unexpected risks.

The problem is, supply chain risk management is a costly affair, and that’s especially true for a cold chain. Nonetheless, it’s a necessary cost to avoid unnecessary loss, especially when you weigh the strategic importance of cold chains to improve, nay, save lives.

10 Things That Could Interrupt or Disrupt Your Cold Chain

Shipping high-value consignments over long distances within their prescribed temperature range — consistently and without excursion — is a collaborative effort.

  1. Pressure to Meet Cost Efficiencies in Cold Chain Management
  2. Lack of Uniform Infrastructure Globally Affecting Cold Chains
  3. Impact of Increased Regulations on Cold Chain Management
  4. Environmental Impact on Your Cold Chain
  5. Supplier Risk in Your Cold Chain
  6. Distribution/Delivery Risk in Cold Chain
  7. The Human Element in Cold Chain Risk Management
  8. Security Risk in Your Cold Chain
  9. Retailer Risk in Your Cold Chain
  10. Customer/Demand Risks to Your Cold Chain Logistics

How to Reduce Risks in Cold Chain Management

It’s no secret that cold chain assurance will cost you, but how can you run a lean cold chain while still mitigating the risks?

The key to dealing with unforeseen challenges is to prepare, plan ahead, and have enough contingencies, as well as a robust risk management strategy in place, supported by stringent processes and technologies.

How can you achieve that when the window to act and prevent losses can be a matter of hours or scant minutes?

You need a real-time cold chain monitoring system which can monitor your temperature-controlled shipments in-transit as well as in a warehouse.

Temperature data loggers only provide you with post-shipment audit trails, but with the number of weak links in your cold chain, you would need more actionable real-time data.

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Reducing logistics costs by enabling a pull-based, vertically integrated supply chain through IoT

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The traditional supply chain model often used in retail distribution is outdated and broken. Customers want more and they want it now but businesses’ inability to step up to the mark can leave customers waiting for product or worse – not waiting and going elsewhere. To match modern customer expectations, business needs to adopt modern methods. Changes of this type are far from easy, however, IoT could hold the key to unlocking the supply chain of the future.

Thanks to the rise in on-demand services and almost anything you want being just a click away, consumers are becoming more and more demanding. In sympathy with this, commerce and industry are responding by doing everything they can to improve the customer experience and get an edge on the competition.

In the best case scenario, the customer will wait for the goods to become available and purchase anyway; in other cases, the customer will shop elsewhere or even give up on the purchase altogether. It’s all too familiar a story and it’s as old as the concept of commerce itself. However, it doesn’t have to be the case. With a combination of IoT (Internet of Things) technology and vertical integration of the order process, businesses can achieve a leaner supply chain and ultimately say goodbye to the phrase, “out of stock”.

The supply chain as we know it

In a traditional supply chain model, the process typically begins with the manufacture of a product. For this to happen, the manufacturer will need to create a bill of materials for the product and order enough raw materials from their suppliers to make enough of the product to meet consumer demand. For this to happen, the raw materials suppliers need to have enough stock themselves to fulfil the order. If this doesn’t happen, production could be delayed which could lead to a lack of stock at the retailers.

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Using Blockchain to Secure the Medical Supply Chain

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Imperial Logistics leverages One Network’s Real Time Value Network cloud solution to manage the entire distribution process and help ensure the delivery of clean drugs to patients using Blockchain.

One Network Enterprises, the global provider of multi-party digital network platform and services, has announced that leading logistics provider Imperial Logistics is using One Network’s cloud platform to provide an end-to-end fulfillment backbone that manages the entire distribution process of essential medical supplies.

The solution includes serialization and authentication of critical drugs such as antimalarial medications.

By establishing One Network’s Real Time Value Network™ (RTVN) and serialization and tracking solutions for country-wide fulfillment, Imperial Logistics is safeguarding the distribution of medication.

The solutions enable Imperial Logistics to increase visibility and security throughout the global pharmaceutical manufacturing and supply chain process.

“Counterfeit or contaminated medication that contains the wrong or no active ingredients has long plagued the global, pharmaceutical supply chain. New regulations are coming into effect around the globe and mandates such as mass serialization and ‘track-and-trace’ are quickly becoming the worldwide standard for regulators,” said Dr. Iain Barton, Healthcare Strategy Executive at Imperial Logistics.

RTVN’s chain-of-custody and serialization authentication capabilities enable Imperial Logistics to track the control, transfer, management, and distribution of antiretroviral and antimalarial medication and supplies in real time, as they flow throughout the supply chain all the way to the individual patient.

The solution will also be used to comply with incoming national regulations in South Africa and other countries.

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The Partnership for Supply Chain Management Implements One Network’s Control Tower Solution

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One Network Enterprises, a global provider of multi-party digital network platform and services, recently announced that The Partnership for Supply Chain Management (PFSCM)—a nonprofit organization providing global procurement and distribution services for low- and middle-income countries—has implemented One Network’s Supply Chain Control Tower solution to advance its end-to-end supply chain visibility.

According to spokesmen, PFSCM has a long history of innovating and driving fundamental improvements in the performance of global health supply chains.

Spokesmen added that it is migrating critical requisition, order, and transportation management functions into its existing One Network Real Time Value Network (RTVN) decision-making supply chain suite.

“Our goal is to strengthen, develop, and manage secure, reliable, cost-effective, and sustainable global supply chains to improve the lives of people in underdeveloped countries,” said Richard Owens, PFSCM Director. “By extending One Network’s Control Tower capabilities on our RTVN, we can provide real-time visibility, digital collaboration, and advanced analytics to move to true data-driven decision-making. Our collaboration with One Network is central to PFSCM’s digital transformation and provides us the foundation we need to drive the next wave of innovation within global supply chains for public health.”

In an interview with SCMR, Owens said that PFSCM first conducted an internal evaluation of its existing systems, plus a landscape analysis of what potential solutions existed before making the deal.

“The evaluation produced six scenarios, consisting of different combination of three systems,” he said. “The first recommendation was to go with One Network, which was accepted first by PFSCM’s management team, and then by PFSCM’s Board, who approved the project budget last September.

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DHL establishes Supply Chain Distribution Centre in Brazil

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DHL Supply Chain, the contract logistics specialist within Deutsche Post DHL Group, consolidated the logistics operations of three Sanofi divisions in Brazil by establishing a new distribution centre in Guarulhos, near São Paulo. The project, initiated by Sanofi in 2014, covers all portfolios of Sanofi, Sanofi Pasteur and Medley Brazil. In addition to the operation of the newly installed logistics centre, Sanofi redesigned its distribution networks for the complete Brazilian market and the corresponding export processes. The development of the new site means investments of 200 million Euros between 2015 and 2020. Already today, it is one of the largest distribution centres of Sanofi worldwide and the largest operated by DHL in Brazil for the healthcare sector.

Guarulhos was chosen as the ideal location due to its proximity to Sanofi’s industrial plants, large consumer centres and main logistical hubs of the country such as the Port of Santos. With 36,000 square meters of fully air-conditioned storage area and almost 50,000 pallet positions, DHL’s Distribution Centre has increased Sanofi’s daily shipping capacity significantly, especially with regards to operations of cold chain processes. Thereby ensuring speed, quality and safety for all steps along the supply chain.

“The objective of this project was to simplify and enhance Sanofi’s storage operations and distribution network in Brazil. Consolidating these operations into a single distribution centre has enabled us to foster synergies and streamline the entire process,” says Javier Bilbao, CEO DHL Supply Chain Brazil.

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New Solutions for Supply Chain Risk Management: A Case Study

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We are entering an era where it is becoming possible to detect supply chain risks much more quickly. A case in point is offered by AGCO. AGCO AGCO +1.96% is a global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of a wide range of agricultural equipment. In a discussion with AGCO’s Jan Theissen, Director of Strategy and Methods, and Jake Stone, Manager of Supply Chain Risk and Contract Management, I learned about this public, Atlanta headquartered corporation’s journey to improve their sourcing and supply base risk management capabilities.

AGCO’s products are marketed under a number of well-known brands, including Challenger, Fendt, GSI, Massey Ferguson and Valtra. The manufacture and assembly of their products occurs at 34 locations worldwide and historically each of these brands was managed as a separate supply chain. Further, because the company had grown by acquisition, these different supply chains used more than 10 different enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for direct sourcing.

Beginning in 2012, Mr. Theissen, a newly appointed procurement leader, led a transformation of the sourcing organization. AGCO moved from a fragmented and decentralized procurement to a centralized commodity management structure in order to better leverage buying synergies and increase the overall maturity level of this organization. Implementation of standardized roles and responsibilities, and global policies and procedures, were supported by an extensive change management program. The company formed a School of Purchasing to further develop the capabilities of the organization.

The risks associated with sourcing became part of each category manager’s job; these managers became responsible for supplier risk management, not just savings. Mr. Stone was brought into establish new, systems, processes and capabilities to manage procurement risk. One thing Mr. Stone put in place was a clear communication and escalation process to deal with risks once detected.

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