The application of emerging technologies in supply chains can help organisations better fulfill the needs of their customers. Hence, this week, we are going to study on the changing efficiency of the logistics network in our Logistics Week Series. Here is our 1stpart of the series where we try to understand the impact of digitalisation on supply chain.

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LeapAhead In YourRetail Game WithDigitalised
Supply Chain
The application of emerging technologies in supply chains can help organisations better fulfill
the needs of their customers. Hence, this week, we are going to study on the changing efficiency
of the logistics network in our Logistics Week Series. Here is our 1stpart of the series where we
try to understand the impact of digitalisation on supply chain.
Today, the supply chain is a series of largely discrete, siloed steps taken through marketing,
product development, manufacturing, and distribution, and finally into the hands of the customer.
Digitisation connects those dots, and the chain becomes a completely integrated ecosystem that
is fully transparent to all the players involved.
Benefits of Digitally Transformed Supply Chain
Ubiquitous information availability can enable superior collaboration and communication across
digital platforms resulting in improved reliability, agility and effectiveness.
The benefits of a Digital Operating Model are broadly divided into three categories. Process
automation and centralization help organizations make their personnel more efficient. Better
visibility enables companies to manage their own as well as contracted assets in a more cost
effective way and optimize the customer and product portfolio. Process automation typically
results in up to 20% cost saving for the relevant cost base, while centralization, including off-
shoring, helps save up to 50% in cost. Further, with digital management of corporate assets,
companies can improve EBIT margin by 5% and in some cases, even more.

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Overall the supply chain managers see greater transparency and, thus better SCM decisions as
being the foremost benefit that the digital levers can deliver.
The more transparent a supply chain, the greater the number of options that can be explored in
the decision making process.
(Image credit: AT Kearney)
Two tightly interwined trends
Driving the transformation to the smart supply chain are two tightly intertwined trends:
 New technologies like big data analytics, the cloud, and the Internet of Things are
pushing into the market.
 More exacting expectations on the part of consumers, employees, and business partners
are pulling companies to develop more reliable and responsive supply chains.
Core elements and new technologies

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Supply chains operate along the traditional SCOR processes — plan, source, make, deliver,
return, and enable. Every one of these elements is rapidly being revitalized through technological
innovation. The technologies can fall into eight key areas: integrated planning and execution,
logistics visibility, Procurement 4.0, smart warehousing, efficient spare parts management,
autonomous and B2C logistics, prescriptive supply chain analytics, and smart supply chain
enablers. All of these elements are interrelated, and they build on one another. Consequently, a
digital supply chain strategy needs to consider all of them to leverage the full benefits of
digitization.
Integrated planning and execution
The business goal of the digital supply chain is to deliver the right product into the customer’s
hands as quickly as possible, but also to do so responsively and reliably, while increasing
efficiency and cutting costs through automation. This goal cannot be achieved unless the supply
chain is fully integrated, seamlessly connecting suppliers, manufacturing, logistics, warehousing,
and customers, and driven through a central cloud-based command center.
With this level of integration, signals that trigger events in the supply chain can emanate from
anywhere in the network and alert all to issues affecting supply or demand, such as shortages of
raw materials, components, finished goods, or spare parts. In a world in which customized
manufacturing is fast becoming the norm, and customers are becoming ever more demanding,
the fully responsive supply chain is a huge competitive advantage.
Conclusion

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In order to reap maximum benefits from digital supply chain models, it is important that
retailers/companies internalize it as an integral part of the overall business model and
organizational structure. Supply chain leaders should embrace digitization, reconfigure the
supply chain, and overcome traditional geographic or functional silos.