It is well understood disconnected planning and execution processes can lead to costly disruptions, missed opportunities, and inefficiencies. Countless companies grapple with the fundamental flaw of disjointed processes, which leaves planning blind to crucial factors such as transportation, warehouse, and labor constraints. Why do some organizations struggle to bridge this critical gap? Before we jump into the how we move forward, let’s explore three underlying causes that contribute to this challenge:
Leveraging technology for comprehensive supply chain insights – i.e. the relevant data, delivered at the right time, with contextual intelligence – is key to keep pace with today’s hyper-accelerated business landscape. It’s crucial to extend visibility beyond transportation, beyond facilities and customer locations to encompass the end-to-end supply chain. This is how you begin to predict disruptions, mitigate their impact, and automate responses with greater speed and efficacy. With the ability to swiftly detect and mitigate risks, adjust plans, and maintain continuous visibility across the extended ecosystem, companies can orchestrate their end-to-end supply chain decisions more effectively than ever before.
Embracing digital supply chain transformation is paramount to overcoming these inherent challenges. This includes technologies like advanced supply chain analytics, AI-driven algorithms and digital supply chain twins, providing a clear pathway for enhanced visibility across the ecosystem, delivering continuous intelligence to support both automated and augmented decision-making. Real-time data along with predictive and prescriptive insights allows organizations to harness automation to optimize resource allocation, improve supply chain operations, and enhance business performance. To be clear – the true value of these technologies lies not solely in their implementation, but rather in their ability to orchestrate business processes, including connecting planning and execution, to facilitate decisions that drive tangible outcomes. It’s about enabling actionable intelligence at scale, to guide faster and more effective decision-making.
Amid rapidly changing market conditions and increasing business complexity, effective decision-making stands as a cornerstone of organizational success. However, many companies encounter obstacles in improving their business processes for decision-making, grappling with inefficiencies, delays, misalignment, and a lack of clear visibility.
When all facets of the supply chain—from planning strategies to execution tactics—are effectively integrated and aligned with organizational objectives, stakeholders gain the clarity and insight needed to act swiftly and decisively.
The question then becomes, why do we create processes and silos that effectively slow decisions? There’s simply no room for complacency. The digital imperative is here, urging companies not to lag behind. Relying solely on outdated philosophies and processes simply because it is the conventional way is no longer sufficient, it’s not even sustainable.
A holistic approach that aligns supply chain planning and execution empowers organizations to transcend the constraints of traditional silos, foster visibility and cross-functional collaboration. Business leaders become empowered to respond decisively to opportunities and threats. It’s a journey that promises to unlock new efficiencies, enhance agility, and propel organizations toward their strategic objectives in supply chain resilience and profitable growth.
In her prior role as a Research Analyst, she advised over 1000 global companies on a range of supply chain strategic and operational topics at the intersection of digital and technology. Before this experience, Alex spent several years at Subway where she was responsible for managing demand planning for promotional, limited time offers, and R&D test products. Alex received her MBA from the University of Miami and her post graduate degree in Data Science from the University of California, Irvine. She lives in the Miami-Ft Lauderdale area with her family.
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