Hello ladies and gentlemen!
The future begins today, as COVID has changed our entire lives from the way we live and operate every day. Technologies have not just been a luxury but also a part of our life. Sooner or later they are going to be an inevitable part of our life, and trust me that future will be here much faster than you think.
So what are these technologies we are talking about, they are
- IOT (Internet of Things)
- Cloud computing
- Block chain
- Artificial Intelligence
- VR & AR
- Drones
- Autonomous vehicles
- 3D printing
and much more on the way. These technologies already do exist but what we need to understand is that these are going to be a part of everyone's life very soon. These are the platforms for supply chain to grow and technology will back it up.
The supply chain will be soon called as digital supply chain and the paradigm shift is gonna happen soon because of COVID. This can be successfully adapted if we decide to look past the hurdles and look at it as the future.
The Don't touch philosophy is believed to be what's gonna happen in the upcoming days. It means that the design of supply chain may eliminate touching of any material or goods. Any handling or movement of materials will be analyzed so as to eliminate touching the goods. Techniques such as drop shipping and full case fulfillment and replenishment would be introduced to eliminate several handoffs and touches throughout any supply chain.
A similar aspect appears with data too, such as duplicate data entry occurs between supplier, customers, and logistic carriers. Also cost, price, and forecast data are entered into systems and spreadsheets linked to supply chain. Although some of them are manually entered, the same data is entered into different systems. These duplicates take in a lot of storage which will be a waste and has to be eliminated. In these cases, the supply chain will be streamlined in such a way that there will be no duplication of data.
So in order to have a more efficient and well functional supply chain in the near future, Don't touch will be the best philosophy to adopt.
Adios, Amigo!
-Varadharaju R
The development in supply chain does seem to be benefiting the players involved in it. However implementing these developments in their supply chain is still a big question mark. Countries like India still use manual labor to perform majority of the task and doesn't have the required infrastructure yet. Moreover with a country of 1.3 Billion people, the jobs of people become at stake as robots take over.
ReplyDeleteVery true, it is not entirely possible to go touchless, but this to caution us about the future.
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