4 tips to start embracing digital supply chain

here is absolutely no doubt that it is time for supply chain to embrace digital technologies to turn it into a digital supply chain. It is simply inevitable. Indeed, production has been fairly traditional in the way it is conducted and very few innovations improved the way we work for the past decades. We are still working with pen and paper across all stakeholders. And we exchange with each other hundreds of daily emails in which we attach huge spreadsheets with TnA calendars to try and figure out the status and progress of production.

It is without a doubt time to embrace digital solutions in our production. But how to do it? Many organization understand the issue is pressing, but they don’t know how to approach the topic. We are giving you 4tips to help you start the transition towards digital supply chain. In this post we present you 4 tips to help you to trigger your digital journey:

1) Identify your supply chain pain points
2) Get your roadmap in order
3) Prioritize resilience building
4) Go simple

Identify your supply chain pain points

We’re not going digital for the sole purpose of going digital. First identify your daily issues and pain points. Everything that slows down your supply chain and makes it weak. Then look for a solution to solve these identified problems. There is absolutely no need to disturb your entire organization with systemic solutions when digitalization is about remaining agile and flexible.

Get your roadmap in order

Shape a cohesive vision you can embark everybody on. Then create a clear roadmap with milestones. Most of us don’t know how to approach it, how to embark people and how to make the best calls. Look at where you want to be and when. Then work backwards.

Prioritize resilience building

Yes, digitalization will help you reduce your costs, yes it will help you be more productive. But keep in mind that the true goal of adopting digital solutions is to make your supply chain more resilient, nurture strong networks of partners that can resist disruptions.

Go simple

The purpose of digitalizing is to remain agile and flexible, so make sure whatever technology you implement, it’s easy to use. In order to make your digital supply chain work, you will have to make sure all your partners, from factories, to agencies, to quality team all play the game and participate in your digital platforms. So don’t choose complex solutions that will create more headaches than problem solving.