From the unfolding crisis of US tariffs to the worsening effects of the climate crisis, the supply chain landscape feels like an increasingly unfriendly place. For organisations that rely on global supply chain networks, the pain points and potential for disruption just keep growing. Many supply chain leaders are hopeful that technology may hold the answer to creating the necessary resilience and visibility to weather an uncertain decade.
While technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are showing promise in creating visibility throughout supply chains, Sue Williams, Managing Director at Hexagon Consultants, believes that digital twins will also have a critical role to play in the fight to keep global supply chains from coming apart at the seams.
We caught up with her to talk disruption, digital twins, and the future of supply chains.
1. It feels like the past month has seen the levels of uncertainty in global supply chains continuing to rise. How should supply chain leaders be feeling about the state of the world right now?
Supply chains are critical to business performance, and with increased global market volatility, it’s essential for supply chain leaders to promote robust and agile practices that bolster the business with solutions to withstand challenges.
While it’s likely that many supply chain leaders are currently nervous and risk-averse, challenges also present opportunities to improve efficiencies. Current supply chain issues and opportunities for growth include:
- Lack of visibility: Businesses need a clear, holistic view of their supply chain to assess risks and prepare strategies for potential disruptions.
- Demand volatility: Shifts in consumer demand, driven by trends or global events, make it difficult to forecast and balance inventory.
- Technology adoption: Integrating technologies like AI, IoT, and blockchain into legacy systems can be challenging due to high costs, lack of expertise, and data limitations.
2. What kinds of effects is this uncertain climate having on organisations’ visibility into their supply chains?
In the current economic climate, it’s increasingly crucial for businesses to have a deep understanding of their supply chain. With a lack of visibility and knowledge, it makes it significantly more difficult for businesses to prepare, plan and mitigate supply chain risks. In our experience, failure to do this could impact a businesses profits due to failure to meet customer demand, incurring penalties or cost inefficiencies.
To have clearer visibility of the supply chain- organisations need to ensure that they are mapping their supply chain network and consistently providing updates and communicating with suppliers to avoid any disruptions. This knowledge will also enable them to conduct thorough risk assessments and be prepared with strategies to avoid the most probable scenarios before they become major problems. Increased visibility in this market will bolster the capabilities of business, reduce the likelihood of disruptions, costly mistakes and prepare to alleviate potential issues.
3. How necessary are attributes like resilience and agility to organisations looking to be successful in 2025?
As we become more reliant on tech solutions and data centres, the ability to diminish risk and implement robust strategies to ensure uninterrupted services becomes more and more important.
Many organisations have not completed comprehensive supply chain mapping and risk assessment exercises, meaning they haven’t developed alternative options to lessen risks and problems. Tech solutions host vast opportunities to reduce business risks, from improved supply and demand forecasting to preventing component shortages to improving supply chain agility and minimising the impact of geopolitical disruptions.
In an environment where new technological breakthroughs are frequent, maintaining an agile supply chain is crucial to avoiding disruptions, staying competitive, and ensuring that infrastructure can meet the demands of next-generation workloads. Companies that adopt robust practices and build resilience will be better equipped to navigate market fluctuations, environmental disruptions, tariff changes, technological innovations, and outages, ensuring sustained success. In a rapidly changing business environment, business agility is equally crucial. Agility enables businesses to respond swiftly to new opportunities and challenges, ensuring they stay ahead of the curve. Flexible and agile supply chains will be key to success.
4. What kind of role could digital twins play in not only helping organisations inject resilience into their supply chains, but also create new value?
The effective implementation of data presents flexibility improvement opportunities within supply chains, minimising inventory risk and optimising capabilities. In particular, digital twins offer vast potential in supporting supply chain resilience. By creating a virtual replica of the entire supply chain, businesses can monitor every component in real time—from suppliers to final delivery.
This digital model enables companies to simulate various scenarios, such as disruptions, and assess their potential impact on the supply chain. By implementing digital twin technologies, businesses can enhance risk management, identify potential issues before they arise, and develop proactive strategies. The ability to adapt—whether by adjusting inventory levels, switching suppliers, or rerouting shipments—enables companies to minimise disruptions and maintain resilience, staying ahead of challenges with agility and foresight.
Digital twins also add value by improving operational efficiency through real-time optimisation. They help identify inefficiencies and address bottlenecks in supply chains, leading to more streamlined processes, reduced costs, faster delivery times, and ultimately, better customer satisfaction and profitability.
5. How important is having a strong data foundation to implement digital twin technology successfully?
A well-structured data foundation is essential for enabling seamless integration across various technology systems, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), which helps prevent data silos. By ensuring high quality data, organisations can make faster and more informed decisions, leading to precise, real time insights.
This robust data foundation provides the flexibility needed for a digital twin to adapt as the business grows and as data complexity increases. Reliable data plays a crucial role in enhancing AI models within the digital twin, resulting in improved predictive maintenance, process optimisation, and risk mitigation. When data is consistent and structured, it reduces processing time and minimises the risk of errors during digital twin simulations.
Additionally, a strong data foundation empowers cross team collaboration—such as engineering, operations, and supply chain, to effectively access and utilise digital twin insights. Maintaining data integrity is vital for meeting industry standards and compliance requirements while also reducing cybersecurity risks.
Ultimately, high quality, well-managed data helps prevent costly errors, rework, and inefficiencies in digital twin applications. A structured data approach allows organisations to manage updates, model adjustments, and process changes more efficiently, supporting overall operational success.
6. Where do you see the supply chain’s utilisation of digital twin technology going over the next 12-18 months?
The investment in and implementation of digital twin solutions are expected to increase dramatically over the next 12-18 months, as businesses recognise the growing importance of digital solutions. In today’s increasingly challenging market, companies must embrace tech solutions to succeed and navigate business challenges. Public sector organisations such as rail should be utilising digital twin technology to improve efficiencies and ultimately pass on cost reductions to its customers.
I anticipate that investment in digital twin solutions will grow steadily as industries worldwide acknowledge the potential of knowledge transfer. For industries and sectors that lack the experience, staff, time, or financial resources to test and adapt the right tech solutions for their supply chains, knowledge transfer will offer significant value. By embracing a model with demonstrable results, organisations can expand their capacity, increase their bandwidth for new opportunities, as well as drive continued growth in today’s competitive business landscapes.
Similarly, as businesses face continued pressures to improve energy efficiency and meet Net Zero 2050 targets, it is expected that digital twin solutions will be implemented allowing organisations to design for sustainability, construction and operation through to the end of its life, specifically considering energy optimisation and use of renewable sources.
- Digital Supply Chain
