Where To Start With Technology In Your Supply Chain

The current situation has led us to the use of technology amongst supply chain professionals and specialists with terms like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Blockchain, defining the supply chains of future.

Technology ensures to better synchronise the supplies; decision making is automated and companies can quickly respond with more efficiency. A few years from now some of these cutting-edge technologies will become a part of the supply chain fabric for large companies, helping improve their supply chain competitiveness.

Many mid-sized brands, manufacturers, retailers and distributors are still migrating from MS Excel to Google Sheets as their most innovative move. Hence, the transition from spreadsheets to AI will not be easy and might further increase the gap in supply chain competitiveness between mid-size and large players.

However, successful adoption of modern technologies in future by any company will depend on getting the basics right today. The foundation to build digital supply chain of future depends on a) Data centralization; b) Quality transaction platform and c) Integrations. Without the strong foundation, an organization’s ability to optimize, automate and collaborate using AI, ML or blockchain will remain limited.

Data Centralization: Ability to quickly retrieve data particularly the masters (SKU, vendor & customer) and transaction data (inbound as well as outbound) allow companies to seamlessly exchange information not only internally but also with external stakeholders like customers (

Transaction Platform: Depending on business requirements, supply chain transaction platform can be a combination of an order management system, warehouse management system and a freight management system to allow digital mirroring of all physical transactions across the value chain. Key requirements from a high-quality transaction platform include:

· Ability to record and assign accountability for all transactions

· High quality dashboards to monitor the performance issues

· Use cases relevant to business are covered to provide management with an accurate view

Integrations: As a company grows, the transition from basic accouting tools to new IT products like CRM, WMS, etc. is inevitable. Without having a strategy on data exchange across systems and partners any technology implementation will only yield sub-optimal results and will unlikely be able to take advantage of emerging technologies

Traditionally, when supply chain can’t handle a company’s growth, management looks at ERP as a solution to address the problem. However, for most mid-size companies’ ERP deployment comes with huge risks and deployment typically fails to address all challenges. The situation is further complicated by multiple channels, integrations, need to respond quickly, thus, ERP deployment is rarely a complete solution in itself.

Technology in supply chain is no longer a disruptor but a hygiene factor. If you are not innovating and investing in future you are simply not preparing well for days to come. At Warp & Weft International (WWI), a Delhi-based global supply chain company, we are continuously working on this transition of creating transparency and implementing traceability.