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.

The largest global supply chain and logistics technology event in the world. 

Manifest Vegas brings together the most comprehensive ecosystem of those innovating and transforming end-to-end supply chain and logistics. Now in its fourth edition, the 2025 offering was its biggest yet. And it did not disappoint. With over 6,000 attendees coming from more than 50 countries, Manifest Vegas 2025 certainly made some noise.

Bringing the supply chain back to Vegas

Pam Simon is the Conference Chair and EVP of Programming at Manifest. Speaking exclusively to SupplyChain Strategy at the end of this year’s conference, Simon is full of praise for the event her team created. “It’s been an incredible experience,” explains Simon. “Watching the growth of the show and how it is scaling every year has been amazing. From the last time I checked, over 120,000 connections have been made at the show. That’s a lot of new business, investments and partners or potential customers. I feel like anyone who is here is going to walk away with something that they can take back to their business financially and otherwise. It’s been really exciting to see.”

Held for the first time at The Venetian in Las Vegas, having made the move from Caesar’s Forum, one of the biggest advantages was having everything across one large floor. “I am so unbelievably happy to be here at the Venetian. While we had an amazing time at Caesars Forum and the space is great, we’ve been growing and we truly had maxed out every square inch of that building,” she reveals. “From a running around perspective, there are so many different events and activities that are happening and it’s so easy to bump into other speakers and attendees and even by walking around you’re connecting and meeting people. To be able to be at The Venetian and have everything in this vicinity has been a game changer.”

Introducing mentorship

A new exciting element that Manifest introduced this year was mentorship. As part of the invitation to the Manifest Women’s Lunch, conference organisers asked C-suite level attendees whether they would like to be a mentor or mentee. Anyone who showed interest was added to the event networking app for matchmaking before being paired up. Reflecting on the launch, Simon was pleased with its response. “It was received unbelievably well,” she affirms. “When we first sent the email out, we were inundated with people of all different ages, and sizes of companies wanting to be both mentors and mentees. We have so many leaders in this industry who are looking to give back and foster the next generation. It was a natural progression to have it at the show.”

Unique approach

Manifest Vegas is truly unique. Manifest is designed for innovators at the forefront of changing the entire supply chain landscape. The event offers complete visibility over the end-to-end supply chain, which is not typically the case within industry tradeshows. “I believe there is no other show out there that covers the end-to-end of supply chain like we do,” explains Simon.

“Typically you’d have to go to an event for air, road or ocean separately. But here, we have everything in one place. We have over 400 different funds here, so from an investment standpoint you’re able to walk away with a GP or an LP for your fund as well as portfolio companies. We have shippers of all different sizes, and because we are end-to-end, many of these companies are bringing their full executive teams to the show. You’re able to divide and conquer and discover lots of different things that will help a variety of areas within your business – it’s a great place to be. Your partners, vendors and suppliers are all over the place. Getting everyone together in one place and having those in-person meetings is so valuable.”

Meeting supply chain’s challenge

In today’s world, supply chain leaders need to be versatile and agile. The landscape is littered with complexity amid ever-changing geopolitical problems and ‘black swan’ events. The past decade in supply chain has demonstrated the importance of having a ‘just in case’ mindset and operating with a plan B to guard against potential disruptions. “As a Chief Supply Chain Officer, you need to know what’s happening in all aspects of your business,” explains Simon. “It’s not just the warehouse, not just the last mile – you need all of it. For shippers, we have closed round table conversations so they can build a peer-to-peer network with other shippers to understand what they are going through and be able to tackle any of the problems that are being faced as well as prevent any bottlenecks from happening in different parts of the supply chain.”

And organisers are keen to improve and make changes where necessary too, as Simon explains. “We listen to everyone,” she notes. “I try and have conversations with as many people as I possibly can, in order to understand what they are looking for, the problems they are trying to solve and how we can help them do that. It’s about listening to our audience and delivering on what they want.” 

Embracing the future

The future of Manifest looks bright with the leadership team already considering plans to expand onto an international stage. The Manifest team hopes to one day host an event in Europe, but there are yet to be confirmed plans for when or where that will happen. However, one thing that has already been revealed is that Manifest Vegas will take place once again at The Venetian on February 9th-11th, 2026. With this in mind and an eye on the future of the sector, Simon is full of optimism about what the next few years for supply chain and logistics could look like. “One of the reasons that I love this industry so much is just because there’s still so much room for transformation and disruption across all areas of it,” she reveals. “It makes it really fun for me personally. The future is very exciting.”

Check out our Manifest Vegas Takeover Edition in SupplyChain Strategy here.

Digital transformation is central to most organisations’ strategies today.

On the back of the challenges supply chain and procurement have faced over the past few years, the importance of adopting advanced technologies and new ways of working to scale efficiency is fundamental to achieving success in the modern day world. Manual, paper-based tasks don’t work any longer, AI and automation have quickly become the norm over the past decade. An extension of AI’s arm is generative AI (GenAI), which creates text based on prompts, is creating quite the buzz within the industry and beyond. But Karoline Dygas, VP of Strategic Sourcing and Procurement at Nordstrom, insists there is still work to be done before the full benefits can be realised. 

“We are on the very baby steps of our journey with GenAI,” Dygas tells us. “I believe there are a lot of use cases for how it can be used well, but no one has quite cracked how to make it useful at this moment in time. With GenAI, it does require users to input a lot of meaningful data into the tool to teach what it needs to be doing. As we’ve seen, there could be a lot of bias or fake information generated by it. Ultimately, it still requires people to navigate through the noise of what it is bringing. While I am excited about its potential, it’s going to take us a little bit of time to get to the outcomes that people are hoping we could see.”

Managing the supply chain

As part of Dygas’ role, she leads strategic sourcing and procurement for all non-merchandise categories of spend at the luxury fashion retailer Nordstrom. Dygas is responsible for a holistic transformation of the entire service delivery model and centralisation of sourcing and procurement for over $3.5 billion in annual spend for all goods and services that positively impacts the customer experience and company financial performance. Falling into the supply chain industry is a common joke among leaders within the space – and Dygas is no different. She tells us she didn’t grow up dreaming about a career within the supply chain, but fast forward 15 years and Dygas has had no intention of leaving since.

“I fell into the supply chain by complete chance,” she reveals. “Growing up and through my education, I had no idea what supply chain, sourcing and procurement was. But here I am after about 15 years in the supply chain industry. What I really love about the supply chain and what keeps me in this space is the constant change and a little bit of chaos every single day. There’s new obstacles, opportunities and global changes that impact the daily work of any supply chain professional and it’s really engaging and exciting to be a part of that journey.”

“I’ve learned a lot of patience and the importance of not overreacting to things that happen” – Karoline Dygas, VP of Strategic Sourcing and Procurement, Nordstrom

Within those 15 years that Dygas has been involved in the supply chain, the industry has undergone significant evolution. Changes to how consumers and markets are operating are shifting how organisations do business. Leaders need to move quickly to keep up, however, not at the expense of getting too carried away, according to Dygas.

“I’ve learned a lot of patience and the importance of not overreacting to things that happen,” she reveals. “Some people hear one thing and they completely overcorrect and then it goes back the other way. I’ve learned to absorb as much data as I can and make informed decisions based on the available information. That information can change and be slightly different, but the most important thing is to be calm and reach out to the network.

“The supply chain has the most amazing network of organisations and peers and we have the ability to help each other through those game-changing or life-shattering things that might happen. That has been the best utilisation of networks of abilities to come together and overcome those obstacles that we are all facing in the supply chain. I’ve been talking to a lot of people here at Manifest Vegas and we are all facing the same problem. If we can come together and solve those problems, then we can help each other out through anything.”

Technology transformation

Data is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle to get correct in supply chain. Good data allows for better decision making and forecasting to provide leaders with a more accurate overview over their supply chain operations. Accurate forecasts can eradicate incidents of stockouts or overstocking and also identify areas for cost reduction and allow for greater efficiency.

“If data is inputted by a human, there’s a very large chance that there could be something wrong with it,” explains Dygas. “As companies dive into this space, the most important thing is good data integrity practices and a process for how to ensure that the data that you’re inputting is as accurate as it can be, because there is so much ability to enter incorrect inputs. As people say, whatever you put in is what you’re going to get out. The cleaner and more accurate it is, the better results you will have on the analytics that you’re trying to put that data through.”

“Humans like consistency and they don’t like change. You have to make that change really simple, and it often starts with the why?” – Karoline Dygas, VP of Strategic Sourcing and Procurement, Nordstrom

As far as Dygas is concerned, leveraging technology for technology’s sake is not a silver bullet – it will not work. She stresses that if technology is not being used strategically, then it will not be successful long-term.

“First and foremost, what is the business problem that you are trying to solve with that technology? Then you have to combine that with the people and the process component as well as the overall change management of implementing that tool,” Dygas tells us. “You can onboard a new tool, but if you don’t have the people component and the process in place of how that tool is to be used, it is going to fail. Humans like consistency and they don’t like change. You have to make that change really simple, and it often starts with the why? Why is this important? Why do we need to change that process and how will it impact me?”

Future facing

With an eye on the next few years, Dygas believes that the industry is better prepared to meet any potential challenges given the extent of advanced technology tools at leaders’ disposal today.

“I believe we are going to continue to be faced with challenges that we might not have faced before, and it’s going to require us to continue to align our networks to be able to overcome those,” she tells us. “Supply chains have been fighting obstacles this entire time. What’s different is there are a lot of crises and headwinds that are all adding up at the same time. It’s not just one or two events; it’s 100 different things happening at the same time that impact global supply chains. We are going to continue to be resilient, innovative and strategic in how we overcome those issues. But we now have the tools and the technology to help us do it in a much more educated fashion than we have had in the past.

“Without the data and the technologies, it was more of a case of figuring it out however we could, but now we have the analytics to make smarter decisions and be more prepared for what’s coming.”

Find out more about Nordstrom here.

“The future of supply chain and logistics is here” was the tagline of Manifest Vegas 2025. And this year’s event certainly lived up to that billing.

Hosted at The Venetian for the very first time after outgrowing Caesars Forum, over 6,000 attendees arrived from more than 50 countries, with over 400 high-level speakers taking to the stage. Held over three days from February 10-12th, 2025, supply chain leaders, logistics service providers, innovators and investors all gathered to network and learn. Manifest is an event unlike most trade shows – it unites the entire ecosystem and brings everyone together under one roof.

Manifest Vegas 2025

Given the nature of today’s supply chain and logistics environment, a big focus was around data and how the likes of AI and automation are changing the way goods are moved around the world. A short look around the large expo hall would give attendees an insight into everything they needed to know, advanced technologies are beginning to have a real impact on the industry. From Dexory’s 46-foot autonomous robot to drones flying in the air and robotic dogs wandering the floor and everything in between, automation and its capabilities were in full view to excited attendees.

The true spirit of Manifest is its aim to shine a light on the problems of the day and provide advice on how to tackle them. Now in its fourth year, Manifest has grown bigger and bigger. Its 2025 conference offered more than 150 conference sessions which covered a range of aspects within the supply chain ranging from robotics and AI to nearshoring and sustainability. Big names were speaking on stage too with the likes of Patrick Kelleher, CEO of North America at DHL Supply Chain, Sandeep Desai, EVP, Chief Supply Chain Officer (Ice Cream) at Unilever and Gretchen McCarthy, EVP, Chief Supply Chain and Logistics Officer at Target, among many others, all providing world-class insights into the latest topical issues. 

Rise of Manifest Vegas

The conference also offered an innovation stage in the expo hall where some 40 companies presented and demonstrated their latest technologies, while a startup area also hosted 100 startups. Overall, the expo hall was filled with something for everyone to enjoy. Indeed, there was a plethora of networking opportunities available at Manifest Vegas 2025. Across the space were coffee bars, a beer garden and a mocktails area. There was a puppy pen where long queues awaited their chance to greet a dog, there were mini golf stands, a blackjack stand and even arcade games to play such as Pac-Man.

It has been quite the rise for an event which was founded during one of supply chain’s most troubling times – COVID-19. Indeed, given the pandemic’s impact, the Manifest leadership team had a two-year wait before they could even host a launch event.

That debut event in January 2022 was the culmination of a significant amount of work by Manifest President Courtney Muller and her team. Indeed, it could have been seen as something of a risk considering the uptake of virtual events in the wake of the pandemic. But fast forward to today and Manifest has become one of the most influential and largest supply chain and logistics events in the world. “It was a blessing in disguise,” Muller told us late last year. “We had a two-year lead up to build the first Manifest. This is very unusual for a conference but it enabled us to penetrate the industry, not just in the United States but globally.”

Setting the standard

Elsewhere this year, a new exciting element that Manifest introduced was mentorship. As part of the invitation to the Manifest Women’s Lunch, conference organisers asked C-suite level attendees whether they would like to be a mentor or mentee. Anyone who showed interest was added to the event networking app for matchmaking before being paired up. Speaking exclusively to SupplyChain Strategy following the conference, Pam Simon, Conference Chair and EVP of Programming at Manifest told us she was pleased with its response. “It was received unbelievably well. When we first sent the email out, we were inundated with people of all different ages, and sizes of companies wanting to be both mentors and mentees. We have so many leaders in this industry who are looking to give back and foster the next generation. It was a natural progression to have it at the show.”

Promising future

And following the action-packed conference, Grammy-nominated and global megastar Flo Rida performed exclusively for Manifest Vegas on the Official After Party stage at the nearby Brooklyn Bowl. Attendees got the opportunity to get up and close with the ‘Low’, ‘Right Round’ and ‘My House’ singer, with some even being invited on stage to perform with the man himself for what was a truly captivating end to a spectacular conference.

And despite such success from 2025’s event, Muller, Simon and co. have no intention of slowing down. The future of Manifest is in a positive place with the leadership team already considering plans to expand onto an international stage. The Manifest team hopes to one day host an event in Europe, but there are yet to be confirmed plans for when or where that will happen. However, one thing that has been decided is that Manifest Vegas will take place once again at The Venetian in Las Vegas on February 9th-11th, 2026. And if 2025’s edition was anything to go by, next year is set to be unmissable.

And it’s a very special one indeed – it is our Manifest Vegas Takeover Edition. Last month, we travelled to Las Vegas to cover Manifest Vegas 2025 which has quickly become one of the world’s leading supply chain and logistics conferences.

Manifest Vegas brings together the most comprehensive ecosystem of those innovating and transforming end-to-end supply chain and logistics. Now in its fourth edition, the 2025 offering was its biggest yet. The event offers complete visibility over the end-to-end supply chain, which is not typically the case within industry trade shows. “I believe there is no other show out there that covers the end-to-end of supply chain like we do,” explains Pam Simon, Conference Chair and EVP of Programming at Manifest. “Typically you’d have to go to an event for air, road or ocean separately. But here, we have everything in one place.”

Throughout these pages, you will find exclusive interviews and articles from Manifest Vegas, featuring global companies, including the likes of Surgere, Sientis, Dexory, Kaleris, Kinaxis and ExxonMobil, among many others.

Elsewhere in the magazine, we speak with Joseph DeMarco and Jamie Bilbrey of ABM, who explore the process of putting relationship management and innovation at the heart of a procurement transformation. 

Before you go, be sure to check out a feature with Michael Altman, Head of Global Strategic Initiatives at Kenvue, who talks supply chain transformation, resilience, and learning the lessons of the pandemic. 

Enjoy!

Sean Galea-Pace

Deputy Editor

Read the full magazine here!

The global postal industry has had a difficult time in recent years, with challenges only increasing in 2024. The industry simultaneously has faced declining letter volumes and increased operating costs worldwide. This has led some countries to take measures, such as Germany revising postal laws to lower delivery frequency standards in a bid to ease burdens. However, in today’s on-demand society, steps like these risk undermining service quality and customer trust in vital infrastructure. 

Strict compliance regulations and heavy financial penalties from regulatory authorities have made the situation more challenging. For example, Ofcom recently fined Royal Mail £10.5m for failing to meet delivery targets for first and second class mail — for a second year in a row. The postal operator is required to deliver 93% of first class mail within a day, a target that the company missed by nearly 20% in the year ending March 2024. Many postal services are struggling to strike a careful balance between consistently meeting these service-level agreements (SLAs) whilst also keeping costs under control.

The current state of fluorescent barcode scanning — is it good enough?

Barcodes have been an integral part of postal operations for a long time, but few stop to consider the key role fluorescent barcodes play in making sure letters and parcels get where they need to go.

Fluorescent ink is used to print barcodes that contain information like destination zip codes or delivery routes, allowing for easy detection and scanning by specialised sorting machines. This technology significantly speeds up the sorting and routing processes and has been part and parcel of postal automation for many years now. 

However, these machines are mainly used for initial processing at major sorting centres, and not throughout the entire delivery chain — the dwindling parcel volume along the delivery route simply doesn’t warrant the investment in expensive UV scanners. Thus, postal workers cannot benefit from automated routing at subsequent touchpoints and instead have to manually sort the mail. Additionally, even at sorting centres, the process can sometimes require manual intervention in scenarios when smudged or incomplete ink leads to incorrect routing. 

All this manual work makes the process prone to sorting errors and potentially causes delivery delays due to misplaced letters, eventually resulting in unhappy customers, frustrated employees,  compliance issues and significant fines. 

Now possible: Fluorescent barcode scanning on smart devices

One solution to the current status quo is fluorescent barcode scanning on the go. 

As mentioned, historically only specialised machines in sorting centres could scan fluorescent barcodes, which limited their benefits to fixed locations. However, new developments in smart data capture software can enable any camera-based handheld device (e.g., smartphones or handheld computers) to perform the same function. This innovation represents a major leap forward by offering postal workers a new level of flexibility and efficiency without any hardware investment. For instance, it allows them to access automated routing information in real time, make corrections if needed, create an audit trail, and gather operational insights — anytime, anywhere. 

It also unlocks other key benefits for postal services. By enabling additional scanning points throughout the distribution network, post services obtain real-time visibility into the movement of letters. This tracking capability helps organisations prove they are meeting delivery deadlines, thus creating an audit trail and lowering the possibility of penalties. 

Case study: CTT

Take, for example, Portugal’s oldest mail provider CTT Correios de Portugal. After integrating fluorescent barcode scanning capabilities into its workers’ mobile app, all of its 5,000 postal workers were able to capture and track fluorescent orange barcodes using their phones, leading to more than 40,000 scanned letters every hour and a read rate of more than 98%. 

CTT therefore also gained access to a goldmine of actionable operational insights. When provided with comprehensive data regarding mail volumes and delivery patterns, postal services can identify high-volume areas, peak times, or workflow bottlenecks and work towards improving workforce and infrastructure planning, helping them meet strict SLAs and avoid hefty fines, in addition to enhancing customer satisfaction. CTT is now so confident in its new-found efficiency that it increased its audit sample size from 500 monthly items to 80,000.

This scanning technology could also send recipient notifications very soon, updating customers when postal services dispatch, sort, or deliver a letter. Such features would enhance transparency and build trust with customers.

A competitive edge for the future

Given the critical need for postal services to reconsider their operations, the timing of this technology is crucial. By integrating this mobile data capture capability, they may address long-standing inefficiencies and more effectively adapt to changing customer demands and regulatory requirements. 

This technology is transformative for the industry since it makes use of existing infrastructure to streamline delivery routes, improve compliance, and ensure customer satisfaction. By integrating smart data capture innovations like fluorescent barcode scanning on smart devices, the postal industry can tap into new efficiencies whilst avoiding significant hardware costs, unlocking increased profitability and ultimately securing a sustainable future for itself.

European supply chains faced significant disruptions last year. These included ongoing freight transport delays at key border crossings due to new Brexit regulations and global ripple effects from incidents like the Suez Canal blockage. These disruptions cost businesses an average of $82 million each, denting annual revenues by up to 10%. 

The 2025 landscape may grow even more complex with U.S. President-elect Trump’s proposed tariffs poised to reshape import and export dynamics while potentially increasing costs. 

For procurement professionals and business decision-makers, this points to an urgent need for greater agility in supplier relationships alongside more resilient and responsive supply chain strategies. From shifting revenue models to restructuring vendor networks, contracts are the cornerstone of commerce. More and more, they are the key to accelerating financial outcomes. Yet inefficiencies in contract management and outdated contracting practices are draining millions in potential revenue. 

From Risk to Opportunity

Managing a large portfolio of supplier contracts is an intricate and time-consuming challenge. Each one has their own unique terms, conditions, and performance obligations. Recent Icertis research reveals that 90% of CEOs and 80% of CFOs acknowledge poor contract negotiation practices. These subpar practices result in leaving untapped value ‘on the table’ for their businesses. These missed opportunities are particularly glaring for procurement teams responsible for managing spend before contract execution. Additionally, unchecked supplier costs, inflation adjustments, and overlooked auto-renewals are also leading to significant revenue leakage across the post-signature lifespan of a contract.

For instance, 70% of CFOs identified cost increases due to inflation as a leading source of financial loss. However, more than 40% of businesses are not leveraging inflationary pricing protections in contracts. These contract oversights not only create unnecessary expenses but also expose organisations to greater risks. This is particularly true as supply chain disruptions grow more frequent and severe. Taking action requires reimagining contracts as dynamic tools and data resources, with AI providing the necessary solution to effectively make this shift.

Applying AI in Contracts 

AI in contracting eliminates the dependence on antiquated ways of working or cumbersome manual processes, equipping businesses with a clear, real-time understanding of their supplier agreements. This visibility enables enterprises to pinpoint potential revenue drivers, identify missed renegotiation opportunities, and uncover costly hidden risks, positioning leaders to respond quickly and make better informed decisions. 

AI-driven solutions for intelligent contracting simplify supply chain complexity by analysing agreements at scale. With actionable insights into what’s outlined in every supplier contract, and how suppliers are performing, business leaders are positioned to: 

1. Navigate disruptions with agility. 

By harnessing AI to identify supply chain vulnerabilities in existing contracts, businesses can effectively mitigate potential revenue losses and implement precautionary measures, such as price adjustment clauses and liquidated damages clauses within agreements. Additionally, companies can diversify their supplier base by entering into new contracts to establish contingency plans in preparation for potential disruptions before they occur.

2. Transform financial weak spots into strategic advantages. 

Poor contract management costs companies as much as 9% of their bottom line, and the stakes are only multiplying. By automating the monitoring of key contract terms and the parties’ obligations, such as inflation adjustments and discounts, organisations can reduce financial losses and ensure commitments are fulfilled. 

3. Futureproof supply chains. 

The future of procurement lies in the convergence of technology and strategic planning. As economic pressures grow and geopolitical risks become more rampant, businesses that adopt AI-driven contract management platforms will be more agile and resilient, positioning themselves for long-term success.

Intelligent Contracting in Action 

In today’s volatile environment, the ability to quickly identify problems and opportunities is crucial. Unpredictable events like floods or political unrest create bottlenecks, raise prices, and reduce stock availability, impacting a business’s ability to meet customer needs. 

Consider the Panama Canal crisis. A climate-crisis-fueled drought resulted in a queue of 154 commercial ships with average wait times of 21 days. These delays impacted supply chains across almost every industry, hindering shipments, limiting production, and driving up costs. Businesses with AI-powered contracting were positioned to quickly identify impacted suppliers and adjust logistical strategies to ensure business continuity. 

Another notable example is the adaptation of the force majeure clause, which gained critical relevance during the COVID pandemic. AI enhances the application of force majeure clauses in contracts by enabling businesses to automatically ensure they are included in every agreement and easily and quickly triggered, should a crisis or catastrophe occur.  

The Bottom Line

As we look to 2025 and beyond, procurement leaders have an opportunity to leverage contracts as a source of strength and operational value. Contracts are the foundation of business relationships, and effective management across the enterprise is imperative to safeguard financial health, reduce risks, and create more resilient supply chains in any economic climate. By adopting the right AI tools and forward-thinking approaches, organisations can avoid the financial strain that often accompanies unexpected disruptions. AI-powered contracting is an indispensable part of modern supply chain management, equipping businesses with the agility to not only address immediate challenges but also build greater resilience for future uncertainties. 

It’s that time of the year when business leaders turn an eye to the future. What’s in store for the months ahead? What’s going to shape the challenges and opportunities the organisation will face? Where should we invest and where should we play it safe?

Data is going to be a key driver of change in 2025. The quality and agility of businesses’ data strategy will make the difference as they navigate the ups and downs of the market. Manufacturers and logistics operators are facing sustained pressure, juggling the need to comply with evolving supply chain regulation, handle the impact of climate change, remain adaptable in the face of economic challenges, and work to meet their corporate social responsibility requirements. 

To achieve this formidable combination of tasks while also driving commercial growth, companies need to prioritise good data processes. They need a complete, end-to-end view of their supply chain, not only to ensure they can appease regulators, but also to enable business success, giving them the insight they need to adapt to change at each level. 

As tough as it can be to secure growth in a volatile market, the real challenge will be felt by companies that don’t develop systems that ensure their data is relevant, responsible, and robust. Organisations that fall back on incomplete or scattered data that delivers inaccurate results will soon feel the pinch of poor decision-making.

So here are three key data trends for supply chain professionals to keep on top of: data quality, data visibility, and AI for data management.

Data quality has to come first 

When it comes to data strategy, quality underpins everything. If data is incomplete, out of date, or unusable, it might as well not exist at all. Organisations need to detect and migigate data quality issues early, before they proliferate across systems and processes. Observability tools and enterprise data quality tools play a crucial part here.

As companies seek to improve their data quality, there are some critical factors to consider. The first is to identify and, if possible, remediate data quality issues at sourc. Addressing these errors and inconsistencies where they originate prevents them cascading into the rest of your supply chain processes and applications. 

Another key area to work on is data observability. This essentially means ensuring that everyone who needs to know about possible data quality issues is kept informed in real time. Businesses should aim for proactive monitoring, with notifications rapidly going to the right stakeholders if patterns of poor data quality appear. Additionally, as data ecosystems and infrastructures become increasingly complex, robust data integration and interoperability is crucial. Integrating systems effectively ensures that data flows efficiently and accurately, allowing businesses to unlock the full potential of their data, while avoiding hold-ups caused by siloed or incompatible systems. 

Visibility growing clearer

Once data quality is assured, organisations need to put that data to use. For supply chain success, it’s crucial to have real-time insight into key information streams like supplier movements, product availability, and shipping routes. That means making the right data available to the right people, in the right format, at the right time.

As a result, supply chain visibility systems need to include end-to-end monitoring and enable data-driven decision making. This means integrating both internal and external data in a trusted and timely manner. The best way to do this is to take a cloud-native data management approach, ensuring all your data is accessible and secure at all times. 

Consider a product recall: a manufacturer must quickly trace affected items across a complex supply chain. 

With high-quality, visible data, businesses can pinpoint the exact locations and quantities of defective products and rapidly communicate with retailers and consumers. And let’s not forget the importance of data visibility for ESG reporting. Without visibility into ESG-related data across an organisation and its supply chain, it becomes challenging to get an integrated picture of ESG performance. By implementing metadata management and data lineage, and maintaining a unified 360-degree view of all products and suppliers, businesses can make informed decisions based on trusted data.

How AI and analytics are changing the industry

Good data processes don’t just form the foundation for good decision-making and supply chain management: they also drive the development of next-gen AI applications that can transform how companies operate. 

For example, AI can extract actionable insights from supply chain data much faster and to a far greater level of depth than was previously possible. It can identify trends and predict outcomes that would have been tough to spot in the past. 

This capability will be a necessity for identifying alternative suppliers, creating more effective partnerships and getting the right products to the right places fast. However, the success of AI depends on orchestrating AI models with the right data at the right time, supported by real-time visibility and trusted data integration. 

AI can also help automate data management processes, connecting the dots between technical and businesses’ meta data. Beyond ensuring data quality at scale, these technologies can help automatically classify data in line with sensitive and organisational policies. Metadata-driven AI models can help automate and improve the data management experience. Plus, as natural language models à la Chat GPT are merged into these systems, operators will be able to use intuitive prompts to discover and understand supply chain data visibility, and generate data management artifacts to support scaling of these insights. 

In short, AI can connect the manufacturing chain to the supply chain, from start to finish.

Have you ever seen the mesmerising movements of a Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) machine in action, tracing intricate patterns layer-by-layer? Or experienced your design materialising from a resin bath with the magic of UV light? 

Additive manufacturing (used synonymously with 3D printing in this article) is not a new concept. 

However, we are yet to see the mass adoption of 3D printing in supply chains and operations. This is largely due to its slow production speed, limited material choices, and the need for post-processing. However, developments in 3D printing offer an opportunity for organisations to adopt the technology across supply chains and operations. The technology could even have a place manufacturing end products in various industries such as aerospace, construction and fashion.  

How can 3D printing transform your supply chain?

1. You can manufacture on-demand

The increasing affordability of 3D printers have made 3D printing on-demand or make-to-order products more economically viable, especially for highly customisable products. Custom implants and dental moulds are some good examples. We have also been involved in the manufacturing of ‘miniature’ figurines for tabletop boardgame designers and enthusiasts. 

2. Your supply chain will be resilient to disruptions

3D printing enables local production, allowing production to be de-centralised. Each site can produce what is needed in house, reducing the dependency on parts produced by other locations and making it less vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. Businesses and communities can benefit from a de-centralised production, in some cases by the community itself. During the initial PPE shortage due to Covid-19, we helped to produce and donate hundreds of face shields assembled with polyurethane sheets to local charities and frontline workers in London. 

3. You can reduce dependency on distant suppliers

Similarly, businesses can become less dependent on foreign suppliers as additive manufacturing improves the capability of businesses bringing productions locally. 

A good example would be car repair shops 3D-printing parts required. Inventory management is challenging due to the large number of car parts, for which the demand is relatively low. Repair shops often order lower-volume parts from suppliers only as demand arises. 

By creating local production capability of 3D printed car-parts, it can reduce the order lead-time, especially from distant suppliers. This, in turn, would reduce the need of stock buffers. The average auto repair franchise makes $1.2 million per year, with COGS covering roughly 30% of their revenue. Assume that the franchise decentralises its network into 5 local regions which yields 20% COGS reduction from inbound logistics and margin, this will give $14,400 cost savings per printer annually. Implementing a network of metal 3D printers costing $80,000 each can achieve an ROI of 26%, assuming an average machine lifespan of 7 years. 

4. You can drive costs out of your business

Additive manufacturing yields very little material waste compared to traditional subtractive manufacturing as it constructs layer-by-layer. This is especially apparent when valuable materials are used, such as titanium alloys and carbon fibre composites in the aerospace industry. 

It also has a high material efficiency when creating lightweight additively. These same designs would be significantly more costly to achieve with subtractive manufacturing methods. Furthermore, by enabling localised production, 3D printing can shorten supply chains and reduce transportation and logistics costs.

5. You can fix, replicate and create

When paired with 3D scanning and Computer Aided Design (CAD), additive manufacturing can create close replicas of existing objects. 

Reverse engineering is especially useful in speeding up the time-to-market. The process is ideal for replicating and improving existing parts in the product development stage. Not only that, but it can also extend the usefulness of end-of-life products no longer supported by the manufacturer. 

Apart from prototyping, we have also scanned, modified and printed parts for brackets and hand tools for repairing. This process proved to be functional, inexpensive and quick.

There are, however, industry challenges

There are ongoing debates on whether additive manufacturing is a sustainable and environmentally friendly practice. While it comes with the benefits of eliminating overproduction and lowering carbon emissions due to long-distance transportation, there are also environmental concerns on its harmful emissions. 

Some additive manufacturing technologies involve the use of photopolymer resins which emits volatile organic compounds (VOCs) during the curing process, as well as potential soil and water pollution if the resin is disposed improperly. Direct skin contact with resins causes irritation, and inhalation of fumes can lead to respiratory issues.

Reverse engineering has also resulted in key issues on patent violation as patented inventions can be replicated without permission, which in turn lead to counterfeit products and trademark infringement. This problem has been worsened by the rise of digital manufacturing; the enforcement of IP rights is particularly difficult as design files can be easily shared online. 

3D printing offers a transformative potential for supply chains by enabling on-demand manufacturing, enhancing resilience, reducing dependency on distant suppliers, driving down costs, and facilitating repairs, replication and creation of parts. These benefits streamline operations, as well as making 3D printing a valuable asset for innovation: 3D printed shoes could be tailored to the form of a customer’s feet [source], cruelty-free meat products could be 3D printed to replicate the texture and structure of actual meat products [source]. 

The versatility and economic benefits of 3D printing are clear, positioning it as a key technology for the future of manufacturing and supply chain management. While it is important to be mindful of environmental and intellectual property concerns, there are many ways 3D printing can transform your supply chain.

From scanning inventory when it first enters the warehouse to tracking parcels out for delivery, devices are heavily relied on by the transport and logistics (T&L) sector. When devices go offline or when applications malfunction, multiple points of the supply chain can be disrupted. As a result, staff productivity can be severely hindered. 

This lost time quickly adds up. New data from SOTI reveals that T&L workers each lose an average of 11 hours a month to device issues. This is costly for companies, especially during the festive shopping season when demand is high.  

SOTI’s data suggests that a lack of visibility may be the root of the problem. Over a third of workers reported an inability to identify downtime issues and fix them quickly as a key source of delays. 

Coupled with ongoing labour shortages, this makes visibility, or a lack thereof, a crucial factor for businesses to address. Without doing so, goods can’t be delivered as efficiently and seamlessly as possible. 

Tackling Tech Stress 

A big part is making sure that employees have the necessary tools for their role. Vitally, those tools must also be charged, updated and ready to go. Yet, SOTI’s study found that over half (54%) of UK workers are experiencing increased stress due to device issues impacting their ability to get on with their job. This includes fast battery drain and apps being slow to load or not working at all. Much of this could be avoided if logistics businesses could take stock of their full fleet of company devices. Doing so would allow them to better monitor health and performance. 

Another issue is the rising trend of device swapping within organisations. Almost three-quarters (71%) of respondents reported that device swapping was becoming more common. This is due to scanners being uncharged or not working, or there not being enough to go around. 

While SOTI found that 82% of workers feel adequately trained in data security, this culture of sharing devices increases the risk of data breaches as employees may gain access to sensitive information not required for their role.  This can be prevented if each employee has their own well-managed, working device. Central visibility also means that if a device becomes lost or stolen, it can be tracked and locked down immediately. 

Combatting E-Waste

In addition to battling downtime, workforces are expecting more from their employers when it comes to sustainability, and some are even willing to walk out the door. SOTI’s report found that half of T&L employees would leave their jobs if their employer was not doing enough to protect the environment. And one of the biggest preventable issues is e-waste. 

There needs to be a bigger spotlight on how businesses repair, reuse and improve existing devices as too many are thrown away for ‘shiny, newer’ models, simply because it’s easier. This rip and replace culture of devices needs to be addressed from a wider environmental perspective but the enterprise mobility industry has a huge role to play. By enabling better visibility and quick, remote fixes, organisations can reduce the swap mentality and focus on identifying device issues upfront. 

This not only contributes to a more sustainable tech ecosystem but helps improve employee morale, enhance operational efficiency and bolster security. 

Road to Success

We’ve seen this in action through our work with logistics provider, DPD Ireland. DPD has a network of over 300 delivery vans and drivers within its network of depots. The company manages up to 25,000 parcels every single day. And this volume doubles during peak periods like Christmas. Due to these high volumes, it needed to ensure its devices were up to the task, allowing its workforce to get on with the job. With SOTI, DPD gained instant visibility over operations throughout the complete job cycle. Immediately, they began receiving updates on the state of devices so that issues could be dealt with quickly. 

The Top Five Benefits of Increased Device Visibility:

• Security. The T&L sector can ensure the security, compliance and protection of sensitive data by locking down managed devices. Critically, this can be done from any location at any time.
• Deployment. Companies can rapidly deploy devices, content and apps, out to their fleet of devices. 
• Tracking assets. Real-time tracking allows businesses to see the location and status of assets, so operations can continue to run smoothly. 
• Increased productivity. Reduced downtime from device issues means staff can focus on getting the job done. 
• Reduced e-waste. With access to device diagnostics and intelligence, managers can make more informed decisions on whether a device needs to be replaced or simply repaired.  

If the past few years have shown us anything, it’s that the supply chain is far from straightforward. 

Supply chain leaders have had to become agile jugglers, balancing everything from global ‘black swan’ events to digital transformations, sustainability initiatives, and talent management. With so many moving parts, it’s no wonder the challenge can often feel overwhelming.

However, aiming to simplify matters for supply chains is Vizion. Vizion empowers companies to track and monitor individual containers during the container journey and has recently launched capabilities to actively monitor 60% of global trade. TradeView, Vizion’s Global Trade Intelligence platform and dataset is designed to measure and analyse the flow of goods to identify risk and improve supply chain resilience. 

Vizion’s container tracking solution seamlessly delivers the most comprehensive, standardised, and detailed container tracking events directly to any software system or spreadsheet. This empowers logistics service providers, shippers, and stakeholders with complete end-to-end visibility into the freight that fuels their business, ensuring they stay ahead of the curve. Too often, outdated data leaves companies in the dark when they need it most. Vizion’s real-time tracking solution provides its customers with instant updates, allowing them to monitor a container’s every move as it happens. Through Vizion, customers stay in control and make informed decisions with data that is fast and responsive.

Speaking exclusively to SupplyChain Strategy ahead of Manifest Vegas 2025, Kyle Henderson, CEO of Vizion, explains why he thinks the supply chain industry is at a pivotal moment amid a disruptive geopolitical world and a new US administration and the knock-on impacts these events have.

Can you share some background on yourself and the business?

Kyle Henderson: “I am the founder and CEO of Vizion, a leading company in the freight visibility industry. Vizion monitors, maps, and predicts global supply chains live. We provide unparalleled visibility into the flow of goods, enabling businesses and governments to identify risks, optimise logistics, monitor markets, and combat illicit trade. Imagine a world where you can trace the origin of every component in your product, or instantly detect anomalies that could disrupt your supply chain. That’s the power of having Vizion.”

What inspired you to get involved in logistics?

Kyle Henderson: “My career is all about using technology to change industries. I started back in 2015 with ClearMetal, where I realised how important logistics is. It’s how everything we use gets to us. It was important to use tech to make the whole process of moving stuff around the world way more efficient. I call this ‘using bytes to move atoms.’ Since starting Vizion, I have been focused on finding innovative solutions for supply chains and global trade. I am excited about the huge potential for tech to totally transform these areas.”

What are you most looking forward to at Manifest 2025?

Kyle Henderson: “Engaging with our customers and partners in person is a top priority for us. Events like Manifest provide the ideal setting for these valuable face-to-face interactions. Whether it’s on the bustling expo floor or during our dedicated Ion Stage event, these connections are invaluable for understanding the evolving needs of our customers and strengthening our partnerships.

“Furthermore, Manifest is a dynamic event for discovering the next wave of innovation in our industry. We’re always eager to explore emerging companies and groundbreaking technologies that are poised to disrupt the supply chain landscape. Keeping a finger on the pulse of these advancements is essential for us to stay ahead of the curve and continue delivering cutting-edge solutions to our clients.”

How do you think events like Manifest are contributing to the overall evolution of supply chain and logistics? What makes it so special?

Kyle Henderson: “Biggest and broadest. Manifest brings the largest audience of attendees from all over the supply chain space. Whether there to learn, shop for solutions, or reconnect with professional networks Manifest is a wonderful place to discover software, hardware, and people solutions for conquering supply chain challenges.”

What, broadly, do you think 2025 holds for the supply chain space?

Kyle Henderson: “The year 2025 is packed with unknowns: new US administration, deepening geopolitical tensions, the redrawing of supply chain networks to optimise resilience vs. cost. We should see freight rates improve as freight volumes return push past 2010 highs. Needs around supplier risk and compliance will continue to grow as regulation and politics make impacts. We’ll see large corporates begin reorganising to take better advantage of tech, optimise costs, and rethink the geographies they do business in.”

What does 2025 hold for your business specifically?

Kyle Henderson: “For Vizion, 2025 is about expanding on our customers’ success with the TradeView platform. We continuously monitor 99% of the container freight assets and have unprecedented visibility into what is being shipped worldwide. This intelligence is used to help logistics operators, supply chain planners, and market analysts understand and predict live trade at unprecedented detail and scope. Logistics Visibility, Supply Chain Risk, and Trade Forecasting are at the heart of Vizion’s 2025.”

Learn more about Vizion here.

Nokia is changing the game.

In the pursuit of streamlined, customer-centric, and cost-effective operations, warehouse managers are presented with a difficult choice.

They can either pour sizable resources into costly labour to oversee vast inventories, or they can accept the inevitable losses from shrinkage — the theft, misplacement, or damage of goods within expansive warehouse spaces. According to Nokia, this can lead to large annual inventory losses, not only inflating operational expenses but also jeopardising the timely shipment of products to customers.

This is where Nokia has stepped in. The company has solved this dilemma via the revolutionary launch of its Autonomous Industrial Monitoring Service (AIMS).  Cutting-edge autonomous drones navigate warehouses with ease, scanning inventory in real-time and providing managers with near-continuous, accurate updates. The result? A significant boost in accuracy, efficiency, and cost savings.

Paul Heitlinger is the General Manager, Nokia AIMS. In an exclusive interview with SupplyChain Strategy ahead of Manifest Vegas 2025, Heitlinger fills us in on the moves his company is making within the space and why 2025 is set to bring even further transformation.

Can you share some background on yourself and the business?

Paul Heitlinger: “Hello all. I am an entrepreneurial leader with extensive experience in corporate innovation and entrepreneurship. In my current and most exciting venture to date, I am leading AIMS, a Nokia startup that uses autonomous drones, computer vision and AI to automate warehouse inventory cycle counting. The venture originated as a Nokia Bell Labs research project, progressed to a commercial launch and is now in an accelerated growth stage. Previously, I have held senior positions in companies such as Avis Budget Group, Verizon, Citigroup, Capgemini, and various startups, in varied roles including CEO, venture capital, corporate innovation, product management and strategy consulting.”

What inspired you to get involved in logistics?

Paul Heitlinger: “Logistics is an industry with vast efficiency improvement possibilities – there are a hundred thousand warehouses around the world that still operate manually with limited automation. The industry holds multiple opportunities for true innovation that improves logistics performance, efficiency, customer satisfaction and ultimately the bottom line. This is such an exciting space to be building a new service right now.”

What are you most looking forward to at Manifest 2025?

Paul Heitlinger: “The team and I are looking forward to interesting discussions around warehousing automation possibilities. I’m not just there to pitch the value of AIMS to prospective customers, but also to learn from my peers and thought leaders. It’s an amazing opportunity when the brightest minds in the industry come together in one place to learn from each other, network and have fun. Manifest isn’t too large or too small, it’s just the right size to sell, learn and create new relationships.”

How do you think events like Manifest are contributing to the overall evolution of supply chain and logistics? What makes it so special?

Paul Heitlinger: “It is a perfect opportunity to meet a lot of experts in the field, learn from them and share future visions. Attendees can explore a lot of innovative solutions and can bring back concrete, ready-to-go solutions already in the market for immediate implementation. Everyone, both customers and vendors, have something to contribute to the event.”

What, broadly, do you think 2025 holds for the supply chain space?

Paul Heitlinger: “In 2025, more and more companies will evaluate their operations on a detailed level. There are more opportunities for automation and analytics. 2025 will be an exciting year as we see more AI and ML solutions to help warehouse operators manage operations, sales and workforces. Add in uncertainty around tariffs and trade, and I think this will be an amazing year for both logistics companies and vendors working with them.”    

What does 2025 hold for your business specifically?

Paul Heitlinger: “2025 will definitely be a growth year for Nokia AIMS! We have gone through the start-up phase and are now expanding rapidly. The need for this kind of solution is evident and our capability enables warehouses to automate inventory counting 7-10 times faster and with higher accuracy and increased efficiency than manual counting. Nokia AIMS has a proven 30-40 % ROI over a three-year period, therefore it is truly a no-brainer to our customers. As a result, employees can concentrate on more value-adding tasks, and thus companies can increase employee satisfaction and decrease employee turnover. We look forward to working with our customers and making the product better than ever and helping our customers operate best-in-class warehouses.”

Learn more about Nokia AIMS here.

In the fast-moving logistics industry where speed and efficiency are everything, fast and high-performance internet and Wi-Fi are essential to getting shipments out the door on time and keeping customers satisfied. 

Network downtime isn’t just an inconvenience—it’s a costly disruption that can throw off delivery schedules and damage a company’s reputation. 

Enter Meter, the innovative solution driving change in the world of logistics. Founded in 2015, Meter’s mission is to build enterprise-grade networks that are faster, more reliable, and more secure. With a full-stack approach that seamlessly integrates Meter’s own hardware, software, and operations, they ensure that companies can run smoothly on a modern, reliable network—no matter their size or sector.

Speaking exclusively to SupplyChain Strategy ahead of Manifest Vegas 2025 is Adam Ulfers, VP of Sales at Meter. He explains the seismic shift from experimentation to the widespread implementation of transformative technologies within the supply chain.

Can you share some background on yourself and the business?

Adam Ulfers: “Today, I run the global sales team at Meter. I’ve been in the industry for over a decade, most recently building and leading the global sales teams at Cisco Meraki. 

“Meter provides internet infrastructure for the enterprise. Alongside our partners, we handle everything needed to get great internet, networking, Wi-Fi, and cell coverage in any space. We’ve spent the last decade building a unified network stack: enterprise hardware, intuitive software, and operational support delivered to our customers for one, predictable monthly fee. Today, hundreds of customers,from growing startups to the largest hedge fund in the world, trust Meter to run their networks.”

What inspired you to get involved in logistics?

Adam Ulfers: “The logistics industry relies on fast and highly performant internet and Wi-Fi to get shipments out the door to meet delivery schedules and maintain customer satisfaction. Network downtime can be disruptive and extremely costly to businesses, so leaders in logistics are turning to modern networking solutions, like Meter’s, to ensure their devices remain connected. Logistics companies like Go Bolt, Stord, Veho, and others use Meter to scale their warehouse and shipping operations. With Meter, they can reduce their total cost of ownership, increase operational efficiency, avoid heavy upfront hardware costs, and always have the latest technology in their spaces.”

What are you most looking forward to at Manifest 2025?

Adam Ulfers: “We’re really looking forward to connecting with leading logistics companies to demonstrate how they can save time and money with Meter’s end-to-end network solution. Today, warehouses have robust networks with numerous Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Robotic pickers, scanners and cloud-based software stacks require a reliable, secure, and scalable solution. Meter can provide a streamlined solution and management support to enable IT teams to focus on more high-leverage tasks for their business. We’re excited to showcase Meter’s solutions to this audience, building meaningful relationships along the way.”

How do you think events like Manifest are contributing to the overall evolution of supply chain and logistics? What makes it so special?

Adam Ulfers: “Events like Manifest play a critical role in driving the evolution of supply chain and logistics by fostering innovation, collaboration, and thought leadership across the industry. Supply chain challenges are increasingly complex and can really benefit from cutting-edge technology and cross-industry partnerships. Manifest helps bring these elements together in one place, creating a unique environment for progress.”

What, broadly, do you think 2025 holds for the supply chain space?

Adam Ulfers: “The adoption of new technologies in the supply chain space is accelerating, driven by the need for greater efficiency, resilience, and adaptability. In 2025, I expect to see a significant shift from experimentation to widespread implementation of AI and ML, IoT and sensor technologies. It will be imperative to have a network that supports this influx of new technologies to ensure each component stays online and productive.”

What does 2025 hold for your business specifically?

Adam Ulfers: “We’re growing quickly, serving hundreds of customers today across the US, Canada, and the UK. Into 2025, we’ll continue acquiring new distributed spaces as enterprises look for a solution that makes their life easier. We’re excited to grow our business in the shipping and warehouse space–Meter was purpose built for it. All we need is an address and a floor plan, and we can take care of the rest. From ISP procurement to network design, configuration, installation, and management, and finally, ongoing support and upgrades we work with and for our customers along the way.”
Learn more about Meter here.

2020 was a year to forget for lots of people.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused disruption in almost all walks of life and shook the world to its very core.

However, in amongst that chaos was also opportunity as Courtney Muller discovered.

Today, she serves as President at Manifest Vegas as well as Chief Corporate Development Officer at Connectiv. Manifest brings together the most comprehensive ecosystem of those innovating and transforming end-to-end supply chain and logistics. It is a must-attend for those looking to discover how technology is transforming the way goods are moved around the world.

As a result of the pandemic’s impact, Muller and her team had a long wait before Manifest could launch its first event in 2022. But, according to Muller, that actually acted as an advantage. “It was a blessing in disguise,” she tells us. “We had a two-year lead up to build the first Manifest. This is very unusual for a conference but it enabled us to penetrate the industry, not just in the United States but globally.”

And it has quickly become one of the most hotly anticipated events in the supply chain calendar. With 6,000+ total attendees arriving from over 50 countries, there will be more than 1,500 shippers, 1,200 startups and investors and over 300 world-class speakers at the three-day event. Set to be hosted at The Venetian for the first time, Manifest showcases a unique combination of a global audience with an all-star line-up of speakers, exhibitors and networking all blended to make Manifest an unmissable experience.

Early beginnings

That launch event in January 2022 was the culmination of a significant amount of work by Muller and her team. Indeed, it could have been seen as something of a risk considering the uptake of virtual events in the wake of the pandemic. However, Muller was determined to make Manifest a success. “When we launched the event, the Omicron wave was in full force,” she reveals. “I can’t tell you how many conversations we had with people to reassure them we were still holding the show. It’s funny to look back now because everyone wore a mask that first year and that’s an important part of the journey. But you can’t beat in-person communication. It’s the best way to build relationships and network.”

Katie Date, SVP, Industry Relations and Strategic Initiatives at Manifest, has been with the organisation for a little over a year. Date has 20 years of experience bridging businesses, research, and education in various supply chain roles. Currently, she leads efforts to build strategic partnerships, drive innovation, and promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) in the industry. She also founded the Women in Supply Chain Initiative at MIT, a pioneering project that expands knowledge and resources to create more diverse and inclusive workplaces.

People-focused

Her journey to Manifest is an interesting one as she was recruited by Muller after delivering a keynote speech at the Women in Supply Chain Lunch at Manifest in 2023. “I was on stage talking about the topic of diversity and inclusion which is close to my heart and Courtney and I had a very short conversation backstage which really set the wheels in motion,” she explains. “I got to see the magic that was Manifest, meet the team and see first-hand what they were creating. A year and a half later, we’re still creating that magic.”

Muller adds that recruiting Date was one of the most important moves her company has made so far due to the qualities she brings to the table. “Katie’s background and expertise is so important, and we both really care about DEI and gender diversity,” explains Muller. “It is a topic we connected on together. I had seen Katie quoted in a Wall Street Journal article which is how I came to know about her. I reached out to her LinkedIn, and I remember not hearing from her for a while so when I finally did, I was so excited and she ended up giving one of the best speeches we’ve ever had at the Women’s Lunch.”

Innovation

A new exciting element that Manifest is introducing is mentorship. As part of the invitation to the Manifest Women’s Lunch, conference organisers ask the C-suite level attendees whether they would like to be a mentor or mentee. Anyone who shows interest will be added to the event networking app for matchmaking before being paired up.

“We are suggesting that these people can meet at the Women’s Lunch but they would obviously be able to meet before that if they would like,” says Muller. “Katie is going to talk about how to be a great mentor and how as a mentee you can get the most out of the relationship. We are hoping that at the end of the lunch, there are going to be lots of people hanging around who are meeting for the first time, potentially in a new mentor-mentee relationship, and that they will have been matched up by the Manifest technology. We are really excited about this.”

Muller adds that one of the great things about the Manifest Women’s Lunch is that a significant number of men also attend. “Often when you go to women’s events, it is 95% women, but this event attracts an even spread and we have a lot of men asking questions at the end and really engaging to learn more,” she reveals. “It’s just such a great thing to see and I feel that many people walk out of that lunch learning something that they didn’t know before and adopt a new practice around gender diversity.”

Navigating the supply chain 

Given the disruptive nature of the supply chain in recent years following a barrage of issues ranging from COVID-19 to geopolitical tensions, Manifest aims to shine a light on the problems of the day and advice on how to tackle them. “I’m really proud that at Manifest we have sessions focusing on cutting-edge technologies like AI, visibility and autonomous vehicles, but we’re also looking at things like organisational design and change management,” explains Date. “Also by popular demand, we are expanding our shipper round tables. For shippers particularly, this is a great opportunity because shippers in a small group setting get to talk about the issues that are top of mind and walk away with some new connections and some real tangible solutions that can be applied in the supply chain.”

Date’s primary area of focus is recruiting shippers to Manifest. With more than 6,000 supply chain leaders in attendance, Manifest is certainly creating quite the buzz in the space. “My aim is to attract more shippers to the event. With so many on stage bringing their larger teams to the event, it’s a great signal to the industry that this is truly the place to be with your peers,” explains Date. “A lot of people consider Manifest a little mini supply chain reunion because there are so many people from lots of different companies there. And we love it because we do the business at Manifest, but we also like to have fun with things to make it a truly immersive experience at every corner of the event.”

Why Manifest?

Manifest certainly offers something for everyone. With more than 150 conference sessions covering a range of aspects within the supply chain ranging from robotics and AI to nearshoring and sustainability, attendees will be spoilt for choice. The conference will offer an innovation stage on the expo hall where some 40 companies will present and demo their latest technologies and there will also be a startup area that will host up to 100 startups.

“Our expo floor is unique because it offers so many opportunities to network and have fun with peers,” explains Muller. “We keep our audiences well hydrated with coffee bars, we have a beer garden and if you don’t like alcohol, we’ve got a mocktails area too. You can pet a puppy, swing a golf club, or even play an arcade game on the Manifest Expo floor while browsing the latest technologies. It’s an event that focuses on innovation, content, networking, and an incredible show experience. We invest in the things that make it a better experience for our audience.”

After Party

And following a packed three-day agenda at Manifest, Grammy-nominated and global megastar Flo Rida will perform exclusively for the conference on the Official After Party stage. With international hits such as ‘Low’, ‘Right Round’ and ‘My House’, Flo Rida has sold more than 80 million records worldwide. “The response has been great. Everyone knows Flo Rida and his music is extremely upbeat so we’re all really excited about this booking,” affirms Muller. “Every year, we try to get a great performer and I truly feel like Flo Rida has resonated with our audience.”

Previous years has seen the likes of Ludacris, Nelly and Neo all perform at Manifest’s After Party. Date adds that the advantage of booking headliners is the close setting. “These parties are pretty small and you can get quite close to the performers,” she explains. “It’s a great opportunity to let your hair down and have a great time. It’s truly a celebration of everything that we’ve put into planning the event, but everything that the industry has put into making the content so rich.”

Future plans

Despite so much planned for 2025’s event, Muller and her team have no intention of slowing down. With more countries set to be represented than ever before at approximately 50+, Manifest is driven to go international. “In the 2024 show, we had 44 countries represented, and the year before it was about 35. We keep growing every year and we are now seeing people from all five continents attend our conference. We truly are a global event.”

As part of that, the team’s long-term plan is to host an event in Europe, however, there are no firm plans for when or where this will be yet. “For now, our focus is on getting companies from outside the US to participate in Manifest,” reveals Muller. “About 15% to 20% of our speakers are from outside the United States and this past year we actually hired a European representative called Babs Baxter. We hired her from Logistics Business Magazine in the UK, and she’s helping us bring more European companies and get the word out in Europe about Manifest. This will be a constant drumbeat for us and we will continue to be global to ensure that our attendance is representative of people all over the world.”

Targeting Europe

Date adds that bringing Manifest to Europe where lots of multinational companies have headquarters will provide the additional ability to attract leaders who can’t necessarily bring their whole team to the United States. “Instead, they could bring their team to a regional European show and it’ll give us the opportunity to really expand on content and some of those intricacies in the supply chain,” she discusses. “What I’ve learned about travelling throughout the world is that almost everyone has a common goal to make the supply chain run smoothly. There are so many lessons that can be learned across fences, and I think that’s what Manifest does really well. It’s about bringing people together.”

This month’s cover of SupplyChain Strategy features Schneider Electric’s Cassie Crossley who discusses cybersecurity leadership, securing the product lifecycle supply chain for software, hardware, and firmware, and protecting critical infrastructure. 

For a global industrial technology leader like Schneider Electric, which provides energy and digital automation and industrial IoT solutions for customers in homes, buildings, industries, and critical infrastructure, there are few more important considerations. The company serves 16 critical sectors and has a vast digital footprint spanning the globe, presenting a complex and ever-evolving risk landscape and attack surface. As a result, cybersecurity, product security and data protection, and a robust and protected end-to-end supply chain for software, hardware, and firmware are fundamental to its business. 

Overcoming supply chain challenges

“For us, supply chain security means taking a holistic approach and considering every aspect from the beginning to the end of the entire product lifecycle,” she explains of her core activities. “That means product lifecycle security – we build and manufacture our own products, but also use third parties components so are responsible for the upstream supply chain as well. It also involves SBOM, source code governance, the security and risk management of the manufacturing process and facilities we use, the security of our products that become part of larger systems, and the ongoing work we do with customers through our field service engineers. Transversely, we also consider vulnerability management, cyber defence, incident response, and the various policy work I carry out with government organisations.” 

Elsewhere, Adriano Garibotto, Co-founder and Chief Sales & Marketing Officer at Creactives SpA, discusses the generation of enormous benefits for CPOs and supply chain chiefs through a unique brand of AI. Plus, we speak with executives at Manifest Vegas to look ahead to one of the hottest events in the supply chain calendar and uncover why 2025 will be the conference’s biggest meet yet.

Enjoy!

Read the full issue of SupplyChain Strategy here.

Koray Köse, futurist and expert in geopolitical risk, supply chain technology, and strategic advisory, has announced the launch of Kōse Advisory. Specialising in providing actionable insights, Kōse Advisory focuses on the convergence of people, processes, and technology to create tangible business impact for its clients.

Kōse Advisory: The Vision 

Kōse Advisory’s vision, according to its founder, is to inspire and empower technology companies, corporations, and investors to navigate an ever-evolving landscape by helping them strategise for visionary success, prioritise transformative initiatives, and elevate their operations through innovative technology and AI. The organisation has committed to managing the convergence of people, processes, and technology. It will do so with a focus on effectiveness, responsibility, and competitiveness. 

Sustainability is also central to its founder’s vision for the business. Kōse Advisory’s services also focus on ensuring the organisation’s comittment to a more resilient and responsible future.

Kōse Advisory will serve a wide range of clients, including:

• Technology Firms (Startups & Scale-ups). Companies eager to advance in market presence, investor and analyst relations, and efforts to scale.
• Corporations on a Journey. Enterprises seeking technologies to enhance their value and supply chains while becoming more sustainable and resilient.
• Venture Capital & Private Equity Firms. Investors exploring their next supply chain technology investment or looking for industry expertise to support their current portfolio through mergers and acquisitions.
• Events & Conferences: Organisers seeking cutting-edge, research-driven content, engaging public speakers, and dynamic panel discussions.
• Research Organizations and Consultancies. Firms looking to collaborate on advancing their coverage in AI, advanced technologies, and supply chain risk management.

“In today’s interconnected world, sustainable supply chains are not just a competitive advantage; they are essential for long-term success. At Kōse Advisory’s, we empower organisations to harness the potential of AI and emerging technologies, transforming challenges into opportunities for growth and resilience,” said Köse. “We are dedicated to providing strategic insights that not only enhance operational effectiveness but also foster a responsible and sustainable future.”

Kōse Advisory’s mission is to deliver actionable strategies and cutting-edge insights to technology companies, corporations, and investors. Going forward, the company will focus on creating tailored strategic plans. These plans will prioritise key initiatives, and leverage advanced technology and AI to drive operational excellence. “Our research into technology, geopolitics, and economics informs our approach to enhancing global value chains and procurement. We guide clients through every phase of transformation—from strategy development to implementation—while integrating sustainability to achieve lasting benefits for businesses and the environment,” added the company in a press statement. 

The future of automation is dynamic, exciting, and here. Increaisngly, automation is playing a crucial role in mitigating supply chain disruptions. It’s also increasing resilience across the courier industry, gaining more momentum with each year. It serves to address some of the industry’s most pressing issues and helps companies make more informed decisions to optimise efficiency. 

However, as we adapt to artificial intelligence-powered tools, maintaining the human touch remains an important factor as we usher in the new era of automation.

The combination of advanced technologies and human intuition in decision making and strategic tasks can create a harmonious balance in the courier industry, as well as keeping it ethical and transparent.

Ushering in a new era of automation

Automation is increasing efficiency in supply chain and logistics, freeing up employees’ time and handle demand. Incorporating new technologies like AI also enhances decision-making, allowing for the automation of increasingly complex and valuable manual tasks. Because AI can analyse vast amounts of data quickly, AI-powered automation can help to provide actionable insights into problems ahead of time as well as being able to predict potential disruptions in deliveries for example. It allows businesses to take proactive measures against potential problems before they can escalate.

A significant improvement that automation can help deliver is enhancing supply chain visibility. By having end-to-end visibility, companies are now able to track the movement of goods and quickly respond to issues. Consumers nowadays are able to see their online delivery from point A to point B, and businesses should expect to see the same visibility in the supply chain.

Automation filling in the gaps 

Importantly, automated inventory management systems ensure that warehouses don’t run out of stock. When inventory levels fall too low, automated inventory management systems can trigger a replenishment order, ensuring stock is kept at optimal levels at all times. With the integration of AI, these warehouse automation systems can even forecast demand ahead of time.

There is always a surge of demand during the summer months as consumers plan ahead of time for the holiday season. When there are sales and stock is still high, customers like to purchase their Christmas presents, creating a surge of demand. 

Warehouse automation technologies reduce human strain by speeding up tasks that take up employees’ time and reshaping how customer service is delivered.

The human touch

While automation promises to help employees with the pressure of routine, tedious tasks, and data processing that can be time-consuming, human touch is still required in the supply chain.

As the courier industry evolves, the demand for experienced individuals who have the right expertise in managing these automated systems grows. With dedicated individuals to oversee the process, there can be no margin for error and ensure that it remains ethical and meets compliance standards.

With situations that present unprecedented challenges, like an upset customer, it is undoubtedly better to have human judgement and empathy involved. It can inject the right amount of consideration and thought needed into the situation, helping to resolve issues that automation cannot.

By building and maintaining relationships with customers and suppliers, and handling situations with human intervention, it continues to create a foundation of trust and collaboration that people require from a company. Automation can’t perform a task that requires emotional intelligence.

Additionally, humans have a fundamental role in ensuring the use of automation in the supply chain remains ethical. Human oversight is necessary to hold systems accountable for automated decision making.

Overall, automation remains an important topic in the supply chain as we adapt to a new way of working. However, it is imperative that we never forget how far the human touch can get us, and never erase its value.

Today, companies have more information at their fingertips than ever before.

In the world of 2024, good data is critical to making the right decisions. It quite often sits at the base of a productive and responsive supply chain and is a key component to whether an organisation succeeds or not. Data doesn’t just provide insights, it encourages teams to eliminate manual work to deliver efficiency and accuracy which is also being amplified through the likes of generative AI. Truthfully, the supply chain space has never seen so much transformation before and the real winners will be the ones who steer into this technological evolution and are open to embracing new solutions quickly.

Following the recent ASCM CONNECT, Matt McKinney, Co-founder and CEO of Loop spoke to CPOstrategy, to discuss the importance of using AI to access better data, automate processes, and uncover insights in order to enable supply chain teams to maximise their people and performance.

Would you be able to give me a brief introduction to your role and the company you work for?

Matt McKinney: “I’m Matt McKinney, Co-founder and CEO of Loop. Loop is on a mission to unlock profit trapped in the supply chain and lower costs for consumers. Bad data and inefficient workflows create friction that limits working capital and raises costs for every supply chain stakeholder. Loop’s logistics-AI centralises and standardises supply chain and financial data to automate workflows and surface strategic insights. We improve visibility so companies can control costs, uplevel decisions, and power profit.”

ASCM CONNECT 2024

What is the value of events like ASCM CONNECT 2024: North America? How important is this conference in the supply chain calendar?

Matt McKinney: “ASCM is an incredible watering hole for an industry that is spread out. There is no one region that houses all of the supply chain companies so having the opportunity to come together and share insights and learn is really powerful.

“Because the supply chain is a connected network of networks – your success relies on the performance of your partners. Collaboration, trust, and transparency are paramount. Getting together at ASCM fosters all three and gives people the chance to understand innovation in the space.”

Global supply chain

Given the backdrop of the global disruption over the past few years (COVID, wars, inflation etc), how would you sum up where the supply chain space finds itself today?

Matt McKinney: “The logistics industry is in the midst of a major shake-up, driven by the rapid pace of technological change. As nearshoring, shifting customer expectations, regulatory changes, and a soft freight market weigh on businesses, companies are under pressure to keep up. Many leaders are turning to AI to revolutionise their supply chains. The challenge right now is that those that fail to adapt to these modern times risk falling behind.”

What do you feel are the biggest lessons supply chains have learnt over the past few years and how well equipped is the modern day supply chain now to deal with ‘black swan’ events like the ones we’ve seen recently?

Matt McKinney: “The disruptions over the last few years, especially COVID, exposed the companies that hadn’t invested in their people, processes, and technology. We’ve spoken to several teams who were stuck at home, unable to execute work without physically being in the office, because they hadn’t invested in software. Simultaneously, several teams were left in a lurch without great data to make informed decisions on how to best manage disruptions.

“As supply chains continue to get faster and more complex, teams need great data and automated processes so they can keep up and start maximising their personnel. Your people make your company. When people are struck processing, they cannot strategise and collaborate. Processing work hurts performance and often morale. As leaders, it’s our responsibility to give our people the tools to perform at their highest potential.

“AI is powering this transition. Sure, it’s not a magic wand, but it allows for a better understanding of your business and gets your people out of soul-sucking work that’s not strategic. This frees you to start thinking outside of your four walls and be more dynamic to optimise for any potential disruption.”

Digital transformation

Where are generative and conversational AI having the biggest impact in the supply chain? What types of supply chain and procurement decisions are now possible, or much easier to make, with the rise of AI and LLMs? How does this compare to just a couple of years ago?

Matt McKinney: “Generative AI foundation models, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, etc, have propelled AI into the mainstream. The reality is that AI has been around for a while but there has been incredible progress in two model types – Large Language Models and Computer Vision models that are at the forefront of transforming the AI ecosystem.

“The supply chain has struggled with the digital transformation because of its complexity and scale. The typical heuristics – ‘if this then that’ rules– of SaaS software can’t accurately handle the complexity, scale, and fragmentation of supply chain data. It’s a bad problem for people and legacy software but an incredible problem for AI.

“But the most important step is matching the right AI to the right problem. There are two core types of AI applications available today and which one you leverage will be dependent on the problem you’re trying to solve: General foundation models and domain-specific models.

“Now, general models like ChatGPT – GPT actually stands for General Processing Technology – are incredibly versatile. They’re our well-rounded models. They have a wide breadth of knowledge from history to pop culture to basic science. But that breadth is a double-edged sword when it comes to specialised business contexts.

“On the flip side, we have domain-specific models. These are our specialists, the experts in their field. In the supply chain world, we’re talking about models that are trained specifically on supply chain data, documents, and industry-specific terms.

“Now, why does this matter for supply chain? Well, imagine you’re trying to optimise your shipping routes or calculate complex transportation charges. General AI might give you a plausible-sounding answer, but it could be way off base. It simply doesn’t have the depth of knowledge required. That’s where our verticalised models come in.

“Verticalised models are built from the ground up to understand the nuances of supply chain language, operations, and context. They’re not just pulling from a general pool of internet knowledge. They’re working with curated, industry-specific data and ideally are trained on your data. This is logistics-AI. 

“Supply chains generate vast amounts of data from diverse sources such as suppliers, customers, carriers, logistics service providers (LSPs), and internal systems. There is no ‘source of truth’ in the supply chain because each of these stakeholders has multiple systems with different IDs that track a component of their value delivery.

“Ask for a reference number on a shipment and you might get a number of different responses. Will you get the shipment ID? The purchase order (PO) number? Maybe it’ll be the carrier pro number? Or an invoice or order number?

“True logistics-AI is built to handle this unstructured data to create a unified view of your data from any source. At Loop, we use our models to wrangle and standardise supply chain data’s different taxonomies, terminologies, and discrepancies. So that we can improve visibility so companies can control costs, automate workflows, and uncover insights to power profit.

“The highest impact for AI in the supply chain will be on specialised AI that’s built for the supply chain. LLMs are language-based. The supply chain has its own language. To take advantage of AI, you need AI trained on logistics data, documents, and contracts. The beauty of a well-trained model is that it never stops learning and improving because it is constantly contextualising the inputs and outputs it can access. The more you use it, the more accurate and tailored to your business it becomes over time.

“Don’t get me wrong – general AI models have their place. They’re great for broad applications and simple tasks. But when it comes to the nitty-gritty use cases required in many use cases in the supply chain, domain-specific models are absolutely crucial. They’re the ones that can really drive efficiency, accuracy, and innovation in our industry.

“For a more deep dive to understand AI in the supply chain check out our free guide, Making Sense of AI In A Rapidly Evolving Supply Chain.”

GenAI journey

What should CSCOs out there do first? What needs to be considered before starting the gen AI journey?

Matt McKinney: “Choosing the right AI provider is about more than just selecting a vendor. It’s about applying the right AI to the right challenges AND finding a true partner who will grow with you and support your strategic goals. These are the key things that I would look for before bringing on AI:

“You need to understand if you need a generic or a specialised model. The more nuanced your problem or the more mission-critical it is (i.e. managing financial data), the more you’ll need AI that understands the context of your domain. We actually put together some questions you can ask to understand if a technology vendor offers generic or specialised AI, you can find them on our website: 10 Questions to Validate Logistics-AI.

“You should pick a partner, not a vendor. Select a provider who understands your business challenges and shares your vision for the future. This alignment is crucial for fostering innovation and ensuring that the provider can evolve alongside your business.

“You have to prioritize account support; you don’t want someone who is just going to leave it up to you after the sale or after the implementation. Partner with a team that is going to treat you as a top priority and deliver white glove support.

“Finally, you must assess viability. There are a lot of companies pitching AI solutions. Assess their long-term viability by looking at their growth, existing customers, and financial viability. Again, check out our great guide that dives deep into how to assess if an AI partner is the right fit for your supply chain needs.”

AI challenges

What are the biggest challenges or hesitations you’re seeing companies have around AI? What should organisations look for in technology to hedge against these concerns?

Matt McKinney: “Companies need to be very prescriptive about why they’re choosing AI. It’s a mistake to get the AI solution because it sounds good or seems like the right choice. Companies have sold ‘automation’ to everyone, but it comes in various forms. Automation can be a simple and rigid ‘if this, then that’ statements, it can be manual work executed by outsourced labor, or it can be true AI that is dynamic, flexible, and autonomously executing workflows…while continually learning, of course.

“The AI you need will be different based on the problem you’re trying to solve. Many supply chain problems require supply chain context. Generic AI models will not have the depth of knowledge or context needed to make high-quality decisions around the nuances of many supply chain use cases.

“Think about it, how contextual is your supply chain compared to your competitors or someone in a different industry? Your AI solution should be able to handle that because it’s trained only on your industry’s data, not trained on all of the data on the internet. That introduces a lot of risks you cannot control.

“I would recommend that the team be very clear about what their needs are before they start their research process. Then you need to ask very specific questions about how the provider’s AI works to understand what drives answers – an offshore team or actual models. Grill the providers a little bit. How do they train their AI, what data is it trained on, what is the rate of improvement, and what failsafes do they have to prevent hallucinations? All of these things are critical to ensure that the AI actually will provide the value the provider is claiming.”

What are the underlying issues in how companies are currently storing and looking at their supply chain data? Why is this a problem and how can they overcome those challenges with generative AI and knowledge graphs?

Matt McKinney: “Supply chains are drowning in data and it’s a mess—unstructured, fragmented, and disconnected. Legacy systems and outdated processes only make things worse. You’ve got rigid, siloed software—or no software at all, and people are handling data manually. You’ve also got a mixture of legacy documents (think paper invoices and photos of bills of ladings) and old-school filing systems that hurt decision quality. Combine that with the supply chain’s complexity, and it’s hard to get a complete view of the drivers that impact your profit. This locks up liquidity, slows down operations, and creates inefficiencies that no one can afford.

“But, AI thrives on messy, unstructured data. It turns this chaos into a powerful asset. In a world where manual processes and outdated tech are dragging you down, AI can boost efficiency, cut costs, and ramp up productivity. Logistics-AI makes data usable, it automates workflows and provides powerful analytics to improve margin. But again, AI is not a magic wand. It can certainly feel like one if you map the right AI to the right problem.”

Talent management

People are a company’s greatest asset but can also be a hurdle to overcome when it comes to innovation. How do you manage the people challenge and get them on board with change?

Matt McKinney: “Absolutely, people are a company’s greatest asset. You need to set your team up for success with the right technology, processes, and work. Historically, mind-numbing processing work has trapped people. They’re sitting at their desks sifting through papers trying to find what they need. They’re number crunching in spreadsheets, and they’re manually entering data into rigid software. It’s brutal. People don’t want to do this work anymore. As a result, companies cannot fill these roles. So many of our customers have turned to us to replace a retiring workforce that they cannot backfill.

“The great thing is that AI takes this soul-sucking work off of people’s plates. One of our customers, Jeff Toman, a finance exec at Great Dane said it best, ‘Loop has turned my team from processors to analysts.’ Everyone wants to be an analyst. No one wants to be a processor. Jeff is empowering his teams to ask meaningful questions and make better decisions with high-quality data. This level of work elevates morale and builds confidence. Employees can see the impact of their work because it’s no longer just an operational slog. You get buy-in by showing them how their work will evolve and what else they’ll get to focus on with AI as their partner.”

Future

What about the future? How exciting a future does the supply chain space have?

Matt McKinney: “The supply chain is constantly changing. That’s why people like it because it keeps them on their toes. This is the most exciting time to be in the supply chain for two reasons. AI is helping customers accelerate their transformations so they can evolve from one phase of sophistication to another. We consistently help companies jump from Supply Chain 1.0 to 3.0, they completely bypass the challenges and investments required to get to 2.0. The rate of innovation has never been faster and it’s building a more transparent, collaborative, and performant supply chain.”

Find out more about Loop here.

Supply chain warehouses today face mounting pressure to accelerate order fulfilment while simultaneously maintaining inventory accuracy. This is particularly evident in e-commerce. Here, cross-border retailers are experiencing rapid growth, and next-day or even same-day delivery expectations have become the norm. Common warehouse processes such as order picking, packing, and shipping preparation are also largely manual, labour-intensive. This makes them prone to human errors, exacerbating existing challenges. 

As global supply chains become increasingly complex and customer expectations soar, the sector demands a more data-driven approach. Organisations striving to meet these escalating demands places the supply chain sector at a critical juncture. To meet the challenge, the sector requires new new solutions that will help ensure resilience. 

While digital transformation and automation are frequently discussed as potential remedies, wearable technology offers a promising and oft-overlooked advantage to these challenges confronting supply chain operators. And, although the initial hype surrounding wearable tech products such as VR headsets and smart glasses faced challenges scaling, the dominance of healthcare and fitness driving demand for wearable tech is a prelude to that broader impact wearables can have on industries. 

The wearable tech industry is on a trajectory for explosive growth, set to hit $290.6 billion by 2030. By drawing from the successes and insights from consumer markets, supply chain operators can harness the potential of wearables to make gains in supply chain operations. 

The data potential 

Beyond their fashionable appeal, the wearable devices’ practical applications and promise of transforming healthcare propelled the sector into a success story.

This same potential exists within the industrial sector. Wearables, in constant proximity to its user, capture granular data on every movement from equipment hum to worker activity. This data isn’t just numbers, but a roadmap to warehouse efficiency. 

This shift from analog to digital opens up unprecedented opportunities for efficiency gains. For instance, smart glasses with built-in scanners guide workers to the exact item, cutting picking time. Meanwhile, real-time location tracking can safeguard lone workers. 

The aggregated data can then be analysed to optimise operations, identify bottlenecks, and used to improve overall productivity. This data-driven approach mirrors the success of consumer wearables, where personalised experiences are built upon understanding individual behaviour. 

A safety net for warehouse workers

Worker safety is also paramount in high-pressure warehouse environments, where a spike in activity, especially during peak seasons, can lead to an increased risk of worker injuries. Beyond efficiency gains, wearable technology can become a lifeline for worker safety. From invisible ergonomic challenges, to falls and heat exhaustion, the breadth of hazards within a warehouse meant workers need to take extra safety precautions at work.

Unfortunately, businesses often lack visibility into the day-to-day challenges, or struggle to correct patterns without the data-driven insights. Questions like “Where do workers fall most often?” or “What tasks lead to the highest injury rate?” often go unanswered. This is where wearable technology, particularly those with vital sensors can help businesses monitor worker vitals, detect potential hazards.

Smart wearables like barcode scanners can be easily integrated into gloves, which streamlines tasks for pickers and warehouse workers. Not only that, but wearable scanners also alleviate physical strain commonly associated with handheld scanners, which can contribute to complications like repetitive strain injuries. Additionally, real-time location tracking enables swift response to emergencies. When a worker has falls, or when an equipment malfunctions, wearables can provide rapid alerts. 

In saying that, it’s important to recognise that safety wearables are tools and cannot therefore be used in isolation. Supply chain operators should already have established a strong foundation of workplace well-being and safety protocols before a full-scale integration with wearables. This way we can ensure technology complements existing safety practices, rather than replace them. 

The path forward

The future of supply chain operations hinges on data-driven innovation, and a blend of human ingenuity. Wearable technology is poised to be a catalyst for transformation. As devices evolve to capture increasingly granular data, an integration with existing IoT and ERP systems will create a comprehensive operational blueprint. 

While the technology is powerful, its effectiveness is contingent upon a strong foundation of human expertise and established operational protocols. The goal here is to create a symbiotic relationship between technology and human expertise. Through harnessing the power of data and human intelligence, supply chain operations can unlock new levels of efficiency, productivity, and safety to drive operational excellence.

Manufacturers produce vast quantities of data. This information is created at every stage of a complex network of machines, systems, and applications. Annually, the sector generates over 1,800 petabytes of data. This is double the data generation as the next closest industry. 

Given the ongoing need to reevaluate supply chains in the wake of COVID-19, having reliable and efficient data is crucial for aiding decision making processes and risk management. Reliable data will ensure accurate demand forecasting, improved quality control, efficient inventory management, and true end-to-end visibility. 

Manufacturers’ primary challenge is the heavy data loads from disparate, poorly connected systems, which complicates effective data management and clarity. Data scientists spend about 80% of their time preparing data instead of analysing it. This is because organisations deal with an average of at least 31 different data sources. Unifying that data and ensuring its accuracy is therefore essential.

This leads to inconsistencies and inaccurate data. Fixing these problems demands substantial time for proper data preparation for analysis. This is a situation that opens the door for inaccuracies and low quality datadown the road. Consequences include supply chain disruptions, inefficient production scheduling, increased security risks when interfacing with external data environments, and sub-optimal equipment downtime due to siloed maintenance data. 

These challenges impair operational efficiency and security. An example is the 2018 KFC incident in the UK where a switch in logistics partners led to severe supply chain disruptions, widespread chicken shortages, outlet closures, and damaged brand reputation. The core issue stemmed from poor data integration with the new logistics partner and a lack of real-time supply chain visibility.  

Role of Master Data Management in the Supply Chain

Supply chain Master Data Management (MDM) integrates various technologies and information governance practices to ensure the integrity and accuracy of data across the supply network. It offers manufacturers a unified, authoritative perspective on information affecting suppliers and other business aspects. 

By putting MDM in place, businesses can remove data silos created from different sources and consolidate information, ensuring a comprehensive and high-quality data overview. This process includes cleansing (also known as scrubbing) the data and maintaining consistency. 

Consistent data maintains the same format, units, and terminology across the dataset. For instance, by organising data into principal categories like suppliers, customers, and products, those master data categories can be uniformly and comprehensively presented.

Benefits of effective supply chain MDM

Master data management helps companies identify and resolve challenges through decisions based on ‘true information data.’ Here’s a quick breakdown of supply chain MDM’s main benefits:

Improved data quality and accuracy

MDM consolidates and standardises data from multiple sources into a single source of truth through a structured process of sourcing, cleansing, and integration. Automation aids this process by enforcing rules for data cleansing and standardisation, minimising human error and inaccuracies. 

Enhanced visibility and traceability

Eliminating data silos improves supply chain visibility and traceability, allowing manufacturers to access comprehensive data from raw materials to final products and customer feedback. Supplier MDM software helps monitor and optimise supplier relationships, improving practices across the product lifecycle and enhancing customer experiences.

Streamlined operations and reduced lead times

MDM enables manufacturers to share accurate data across various processes and divisions, facilitating collaboration, streamlining operations, and shortening lead times. This allows team members to understand tasks and timelines easily.

Better decision-making and increased profitability

Manufacturers dealing with poorly managed data often miss early warning signs, leading to unforeseen business crises. MDM helps decision-makers extract actionable insights promptly and efficiently, enabling a proactive response to potential issues before they escalate into something severe.

Critical elements of a supply chain MDM roadmap  

To develop a robust and effective supply chain MDM strategy, manufacturers must implement the following critical elements first:

Data governance framework

This framework ensures data security, integrity, availability, and usability, helping to meet regulatory requirements and maintain effective management for high-quality data production.

Data standardisation and harmonisation

Data standardisation involves centralising data from various sources to eliminate accounting variations and unify data presentation. While reducing accounting variations, data harmonisation specifically focuses on improving data quality and usability.

Data integration and consolidation 

These actions involve merging data from various sources into a single repository, standardising it for uniformity, and removing duplicates or bad data.

Data stewardship and ownership

Data stewardship assigns specific roles and responsibilities for effectively putting an MDM program in place and making sure that policies and practices are adopted. The data’s owners are responsible for the integrity of their data, which is typically managed on a departmental basis.

Continuous data quality management and monitoring

MDM is a continuous initiative that requires consistent resource commitment to maintain data quality. Successful MDM programs include regular monitoring to ensure reliable outcomes that support the company’s objectives for the program.

MDM implementation steps 

To kickstart MDM for a manufacturing supply chain, follow these six steps:

1. Assess the current state of data management: Evaluate resources, skill sets, and challenges to see what needs to be done and lay out a plan for how to do it.
2. Identify gaps and improvement opportunities: Analyse the discrepancies and potential areas for making sets of data better and more useful to the business.
3. Develop a comprehensive MDM strategy: Create a roadmap with key components such as goals, gap analysis, and data governance strategies.
4. Select the right MDM tools and technologies: There are specific tools for various MDM categories. These include employee, product, customer, location, and asset data management data.
5. Implement training and change management: Develop a robust plan for employee training and gaining buy-in from the company as a whole. Managing cultural resistance to digital projects like this is a key part of making sure goals are met.
6. Monitor and measure the success of MDM initiatives: Use KPIs to track and assess the effectiveness of the MDM strategy.

A competitive edge

The cornerstone of effective supply chain management lies in maintaining consistent, up-to-date, and reliable data. For supply chain leaders, successfully tackling data management through MDM is crucial. Doing so allows them to overcome common challenges and hopefully seize a competitive edge in the market. 

Manufacturers are, therefore, encouraged to explore and implement MDM solutions actively. By doing so and seeking expertise from data management professionals, they can ensure the resilience and efficiency of their supply chains. 

Environmental Resources Management (ERM) is seeking to shape a sustainable future in tandem with the world’s leading organisations.

As the world’s largest specialist sustainability consultancy, ERM partners with clients to operationalise sustainability at pace and scale, deploying a unique combination of strategic transformation and technical delivery capabilities.

This approach helps clients to accelerate the integration of sustainability at every level of their business. With more than 50 years of experience, ERM’s diverse team of 8,000+ experts in 40 countries and territories helps clients create innovative solutions to their sustainability challenges, unlocking commercial opportunities that meet the needs of today while preserving opportunity for future generations.  

Speaking exclusively to SupplyChain Strategy ahead of ASCM CONNECT 2024, Ed Struzik, Partner, Supply Chain at ERM, discusses the current state of play in modern supply chain amidst digital and sustainability transformation.

Would you be able to give us a brief introduction to your role and the company you work for?

Ed Struzik: “I am a Partner at ERM, the world’s largest pure play sustainability consulting firm. ERM partners with clients to operationalise sustainability at pace and scale through our unique combination of strategic transformation and technical delivery capabilities. I lead our Sustainable Supply Chain Group in North America.”

ASCM CONNECT 2024

What is the value of events like ASCM CONNECT 2024: North America? How important is this conference in the supply chain calendar?

Ed Struzik: “ASCM Connect provides educational opportunities as well as the opportunity to exchange ideas and best practices. This is in addition to bringing the most up-to-date thinking to supply chain practitioners across the globe. For me, this conference is one of the top three must-attend events on my calendar!”

Is there anything that makes this event stand out for you? How is it different from others you’ve attended?

Ed Struzik: “It is the way the sessions are intentionally set up to inform and educate. There is not one opinion, there are, of course, better practices presented, but the objective is an open exchange of ideas, sessions, small and large and workshops which help take away actual knowledge!”

Global supply chain

Given the backdrop of the global disruption over the past few years (COVID, wars, inflation etc), how would you sum up where the supply chain space finds itself today?

Ed Struzik: “The supply chain today is at a VERY important crossroads. You have disruptions—which lead to the need for resiliency, you have regulations, which lead to the need for traceability and you have consumer pressure/sustainability which leads to the need for better design, packaging and less waste. Now, these three do have some overlap and traceability can advance all of these areas rapidly.”

What do you feel are the biggest lessons supply chains have learnt over the past few years and how well equipped is the modern day supply chain now to deal with ‘black swan’ events like the ones we’ve seen recently?

Ed Struzik: “I think supply chains have learned to shy away from ‘just in time’ in favour of buffer inventory in order to offset the impacts of the black swan, this is not a great trend. A smaller movement, but one that will make supply chains less susceptible to black swans is an effort to re-shore/near shore. This also cuts down the number of places to track the material from and can also lead to improved sustainability. There is also a fast-evolving need for good tracking software…. Digital Product Passports, blockchain/digital ledgers should be gaining much more traction than they are.”

Sustainability

Sustainability is an important item on most Chief Supply Chain Officers’ agenda. Amid government legislation and changing customer demands, is a sustainable supply a non-negotiable in today’s world?

Ed Struzik: “Between the traceability requirements of regulations (CSDDD, CSRD, etc.) as well as consumer, board and financial pressures to be better corporate citizens, OEMS/companies are being held accountable for the sustainability practices of their suppliers. It is exactly the right time to collaborate, partner and improve or risk being left behind.”

In what ways have you incorporated sustainability into operations?

Ed Struzik: “As a consultancy, we assist clients every day with their sustainability needs and how to integrate them into operations. Whether that is through improved health and safety policies, responsible sourcing, re-designed, more sustainable packaging, circularity and recycling audits we are a one-stop shop for our clients. ERM’s comprehensive approach to sustainability is embedded in our corporate strategy with a stated purpose: to shape a sustainable future with the world’s leading organisations. ERM strives to operate sustainably in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which we’ve been involved in since the start of their development in 2012.”

Digital transformation

Where are generative and conversational AI having the biggest impact in the supply chain? What types of supply chain and procurement decisions are now possible, or much easier to make, with the rise of AI and LLMs? How does this compare to just a couple of years ago?

Ed Struzik: “While AI and ML have existed, it was only recently that they have taken off. Analysis of routes, lanes, GHG considerations, and when to optimise freight or inventory levels can all be accelerated through the use of AI and ML. In addition, the receiving, billing, tender process, etc. can all be improved and run faster with the use of AI.”

What should CSCOs out there do first? What needs to be considered before starting the gen AI journey?

Ed Struzik: “I would want to get supply chain fully mapped. It is 100% traceability to the commodity. Then we can get more creative. Use of AI for alternates, reduction of bottlenecks, etc. let the AI run the scheduling algorithms and make recommendations faster.  Next, I would link all those accepted decisions to a digital ledger, let it keep track of actuals, lots, locations, price, assay, composition, recycled content etc. as it can hold way more information than an ERP system and it is accessible to the next person in the chain as you want it to be!”

Data challenge

What are the biggest challenges or hesitations you’re seeing companies have around AI? What should organisations look for in technology to hedge against these concerns?

Ed Struzik: “Number one is fear of the unknown. No one wants to be the one who took a big swing at running their supply chain with AI and failed. They need to hedge. And they are by implementing AI in pockets, small functions, small products, pilots etc.”

What are the underlying issues in how companies are currently storing and looking at their supply chain data? Why is this a problem and how can they overcome those challenges with generative AI and knowledge graphs?

Ed Struzik: “There are too many systems. As AI improves and companies properly set up digital twins and data lakes they will be able to let AI fill gaps in actuals and then get them presented in a unified, single dashboard—set up for different levels in the organization. This has been a promise of several SCP packages for years, but no one has ever gone all in on any of them.”

Talent management

People are a company’s greatest asset but can also be a hurdle to overcome when it comes to innovation. How do you manage the people challenge and get them on board with change?

Ed Struzik: “As a consultancy we do a lot of supplier education and upskilling, especially around sustainability in the supply chain.”

What about the next generation of talent? What is the key to encouraging more people into a career within the supply chain?

Ed Struzik: “In terms of sustainability, the next generation of supply chain talent is there, they want to make a difference, they do not need motivation for that, they will actually be frustrated with the corporate ‘slowness’ to adopt the change. They need to be educated and lead the charge on alternate sources of supply, new methods of vendor selection, etc.”

Supply chain’s next step

How can the supply chain industry take that next step and what strategies can be implemented to push the industry forward even further?

Ed Struzik: “Regulations will not stop, consumer pressure will not stop, the need for resiliency will not stop. The number one strategy is to figure out how to be traceable, sustainable and resilient. Manually this will not happen. Digital solutions are the only way—mapping and digital ledgers are at the forefront of this movement.”

Are there any exciting projects that you’re currently working on or any past ones that you’re proud of that you’d like to highlight?

Ed Struzik: “ERM has been at the forefront of supplier engagement, especially for decarbonisation. Every one of these has been special to me because they improve our client’s position and help improve the planet. I have also personally developed a lot of the material ERM uses to engage our clients on sustainable supply chain creation and this continues to grow and expand.”

Future

How exciting a future does supply chain and procurement have? Some people say that now is the greatest time to be in the space. Is that true?

Ed Struzik: “The future is on fire for supply chain and procurement. Never in history has it been so talked about and become such a business differentiator. The sheer volume of supply chain regulations and the need for responsible sourcing puts way more power and emphasis on procurement than ever before. The days of getting the cheapest part that meets spec to my door the fastest are long gone. Cost, quality and OTD are only a part of the equation now. Is it sustainable, how recyclable it is, who made it is table stakes now and the new supply chain and procurement professionals need to embrace it.”

Learn more about ERM here.

Pyplan S&OP is a robust platform integrating Python’s computational power and AI-driven insights, designed to enhance organisational resilience in dynamic market environments.

It empowers businesses to adapt swiftly to market shifts and evolving customer demands by offering deep analysis into operational facets like capacity, inventory management, production efficiency, and distribution channels. With Pyplan S&OP, decision-makers can anticipate bottlenecks, identify optimisation opportunities, and devise strategies to capitalise on emerging market trends.

Ahead of ASCM CONNECT 2024, CPOstrategy spoke with Odeta Pine, Product Specialist at Pyplan, to discover how the company is navigating supply chain’s evolving landscape amid the rise of technology and sustainability initiatives.

Would you be able to give me a brief introduction into the company you work for?

Odeta Pine: “The platform fosters cross-functional collaboration by creating a unified business model that transcends departmental silos, ensuring comprehensive strategic planning resonates across the organisation. By enabling stakeholders to contribute insights and perspectives, Pyplan S&OP cultivates a culture of ownership and accountability, driving collective efforts toward shared organisational goals. Notably, industry leaders like Puma, Pirelli, Nestle, and Coca Cola have successfully implemented Pyplan solutions, leveraging its capabilities to streamline decision-making, optimise operations, and stay competitive in the rapidly evolving business landscape.”

ASCM CONNECT 2024

What is the value of events like ASCM CONNECT 2024: North America? How important is this conference in the supply chain calendar?

Odeta Pine: “This event is very important for us to see the latest trends, strategies and innovative technologies within supply chain management. It is an opportunity for us to showcase Pyplan – a new python based GenAI product to the US market. We are excited to network with other peers and big companies we can learn from.”  

Is there anything that makes this event stand out for you? How is it different from others you’ve attended?

Odeta Pine: “The great keynote speakers, technology companies and the great well-known companies attending.”

What are the biggest takeaways from this year’s ASCM CONNECT for you?

Odeta Pine: “Networking, education and learning about all the cutting-edge solutions and new tech start-ups.”

Global supply chain

Given the backdrop of the global disruption over the past few years (COVID, wars, inflation etc), how would you sum up where the supply chain space finds itself today?

Odeta Pine: “The supply chain right now is in a state of digital transformation and adaptation to all the disruptions. From what we have seen this year, companies are focusing a lot on resilience over efficiency by having a lot more diverse suppliers and increasing inventory levels to mitigate risks. They are focusing on increasing the EBITDA line by improving cost management given the high inflation rate and fluctuating raw material cost. Risk assessment, scenario management, sustainability and digital transformation have been key.”

What do you feel are the biggest lessons supply chains have learnt over the past few years and how well equipped is the modern-day supply chain now to deal with ‘black swan’ events like the ones we’ve seen recently?

Odeta Pine: “I think the biggest lessons learnt have been the need for agility, diversification of suppliers’, better inventory management and technology. The modern-day supply chain space has improved but it is still vulnerable to the ‘black swan’ events. Today, it is using better technologies to predict and forecast better with Python-based technologies – Python is the new and future business language. I think the most important lesson, is that it has increased awareness at the C-level which means more visibility and therefore faster strategic decision making to any sudden events.”

Sustainability

Sustainability is an important item on most Chief Supply Chain Officers’ agenda. Amid government legislation and changing customer demands, is a sustainable supply a non-negotiable in today’s world?

Odeta Pine: “A sustainable supply is non-negotiable and that is the reason we have seen a lot of new techs emerging such as GenAI tools understanding better consumer insights and trends to be able to tell organizations what is happening and what they should focus on from a demand and therefore supply point.”

In what ways have you incorporated sustainability into operations?

Odeta Pine: “Diversifying suppliers, optimising transportation logistics and real-time KPI tracking for sustainability.”

Digital transformation

Where are generative and conversational AI having the biggest impact in the supply chain? What types of supply chain and procurement decisions are now possible, or much easier to make, with the rise of AI and LLMs? How does this compare to just a couple of years ago?

Odeta Pine: “The biggest impact we see is within logistics and transportation optimisation, inventory management and demand forecasting as well as supplier relationship management. Inventory levels can better be managed to reduce overstock and stockouts. Artificial intelligence can automatically suggest reorder points, dynamic pricing based on real-time data. AI continuously monitors and updates suppliers’ data. AI in transportation and logistics have extremely improved real-time route optimisation and dynamic scheduling.”

What should CSCOs out there do first? What needs to be considered before starting the gen AI journey?

Odeta Pine: “Before a CSCO starts the AI journey, it is important to have a clear objective and use case, good clean data related to the objective and the right skilled team behind the AI projects.”

Tech-driven

What are the biggest challenges or hesitations you’re seeing companies have around AI? What should organisations look for in technology to hedge against these concerns?

Odeta Pine: “The biggest challenge is the good data, data privacy and security – companies should look for AI technologies that have a good handle on data encryption, security compliance and anonymisation.”

What are the underlying issues in how companies are currently storing and looking at their supply chain data? Why is this a problem and how can they overcome those challenges with generative AI and knowledge graphs?

Odeta Pine: “The biggest issue we see is the data quality, storage and inconsistency. Data is siloed and extremely fragmented. For any AI technology to be successful, the data needs to be good, consistent and easy to access. This is an issue because companies never really took supply chain data or any type of data seriously. On top and with the vast amount of data generated from multiple data sources anytime, this data now is so challenging, and it needs a lot of cleansing/ ETLs. Having a great data team to identify the sources, access the data, transform it, clean it and create KPI tracking reports is crucial.”

Talent management

People are a company’s greatest asset but can also be a hurdle to overcome when it comes to innovation. How do you manage the people challenge and get them on board with change?

Odeta Pine: “Communication, transparency and training throughout all teams across all departments.”

What about the next generation of talent? What is the key to encouraging more people into a career within the supply chain?

Odeta Pine: “Education and awareness are key to encouraging the next generation. Teaching young people about the global impact of supply chain in everyday life and how they can help with that is so important. Learning about technology, innovation, the importance of good data and coding languages like Python is key to having more people into a career within the supply chain.”

Future

How can the supply chain industry take that next step and what strategies can be implemented to push the industry forward even further?

Odeta Pine: “The supply chain industry can take the next steps by implementing data-driven decision making using advanced technologies for real-time KPI tracking, predictive analytics, process automation, implement AI for inventory optimisation and demand forecasting.”

Are there any exciting projects that you’re currently working on or any past ones that you’re proud of that you’d like to highlight?

Odeta Pine: “Nestlé Brazil was looking to find a tool that allowed it to automate and optimise the Demand and Production Planning process, so that it would allow users to have complete visibility both in the hierarchy of its large product portfolio (by segment, family, brand, SKU, among others), as well as by logistics points, factories and production lines. We implemented a fully automated DRP Module Distribution, Demand Planning and Production Optimization Module. The benefits achieved from Nestle:

• Increased accuracy
• Increased reliability of supply
• Reduction of stock breaks
• Granular visibility of historical data and forecasts
• Reduced stock accumulation
• Greater product availability

How exciting a future does supply chain and procurement have? Some people say that now is the greatest time to be in the space. Is that true?

Odeta Pine: “Yes because of the many innovations happening within the space! AI/ML, IoT and a lot more!”

Learn more about Pyplan here.

We are pleased to announce that SupplyChain Strategy is an official media partner for LogiPharma USA 2024.

Over the past 20+ years, LogiPharma has become the go-to event for pharma, biotech and medtech supply chain executives since its founding in 2002.

This year’s event will take place at Westin Copley Place in Boston, Massachusetts, between September 23^rd and 25^th.

Advancing Global Supply Chains – Together

Through collaboration with heads of supply chain on both the manufacturing and provider sides, LogiPharma aims to promote deeper collaboration among industry players which leads to more effective and efficient supply chain management.

Today, LogiPharma is a must-attend event for any supply chain executive within the pharmaceutical industry in order to stay up-to-date with the latest trends, enhance knowledge and build vital relationships with peers in the field.

The event will also focus sessions on the role of collaboration and how it protects the United States’ drug supply chain. In this session, panellists from the FDA, ODNI and DoD will meet to discuss how partnerships have helped mitigate risks and share insights gained from addressing evolving challenges in the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Speakers include Lucy Alexander, Capabilities Lead, Global Supply Chain Strategy at AstraZeneca, Frank Binder, Global Head of Supply Chain Management at Santen as well as Mario M. Feliciano, PLA Product Director at Novartis, among many others.

LogiPharma – A closer look

• Thought-provoking

LogiPharma has become one of the leading pharmaceutical supply chains events in the world and serves as a platform for practitioners to come together and engage in meaningful discussions and thought leadership. Industry-leading speakers and pharma supply chain leaders have collaborated to develop this event specifically for pharma supply chain professionals.

• Engaging

LogiPharma goes beyond simply bringing professionals together. The primary aim is to provide a platform for those keen to share their expertise and experience. This event provides the opportunity for industry experts to instruct and inspire their peers by presenting innovative solutions and discussing cutting-edge processes that are set to shape the future of the pharmaceutical supply chain.

• Relaxed

Attendees can expect an in-depth programme that features a variety of topics all vital to the pharmaceutical supply chain. From the likes of emerging technologies and digital transformation to regulatory compliance and risk management, LogiPharma aims to cover all aspects that shape the industry’s landscape.

Find out more about the event here.

The global supply chain landscape has become increasingly fraught over the past few years. 

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chains have contineud to face near-constant disruption. These pain points have ranged from climate-crisis-fueled droughts to geopolitical conflict. Rising prices and economic instability have conspired to destabilise the sourcing and movement of goods around the world. As a result, a greater focus on resilience over cost has crept closer to the top of the CSCO’s agenda. 

However, it’s hard to identify how to protect a supply chain from disruption — let alone leverage that supply chain to create new value — without strong visibility into that network. This is where Internet of Things (IoT) technology is supporting supply chain managers and CSCOs. The technology provides new levels of visibility, resilience, and control over their operations. Defined as a network of physical devices and sensors interconnected digitally and used to gather information, the IoT is making supply chains smarter, easier to track, and better prepared for the unexpected. 

Here are five of the ways that IoT technology is transforming the supply chain. 

Tracking shipments 

One of the most obvious and straightforward applications for IoT in the supply chain is digitising the tracking process. Traditionally, updates on goods moving through the supply chain have been sporadic, or nonexistent until the final delivery. 

IoT sensors enabled with GPS are changing that, however. For high value items, IoT technology like GPS trackers, RFID tags, wireless temperature sensors, and other devices can ensure that goods can be monitored at every stage of their journey. Customers using something like FedEx’s SenseAware or SAP IOT Logistics can track cargo for changes in environmental conditions, location, delays, and even alterations to routes. 

Cold chain management 

The cold chain is a temperature-controlled supply chain that moves, stores, and distributes sensitive and perishable goods. This can include vaccines, chemicals, sea-food, meats and dairy products. 

As any deviation from the ideal temperature range can affect the freshness of food and the efficacy of medicines, proper monitoring of the cold chain is essential. IoT sensors that issue an alert if the cold chain is broken are a critical piece of the puzzle for supply chain managers attempting to gain visibility into these complex and critical systems. 

Sourcing authentication 

Whether it’s specialty coffee that needs to be traced from a single point of origin to the small batch roaster, or a multi-million dollar shipment of lithium that needs to reach an EV battery manufacturer without touching a Chinese-owned processing plant, regulations are making it increasingly important to have verifiable visibility into every step of the sourcing and supply chain process. 

However, some industry experts have argued that basic IoT-based supply chain management systems fail to provide confidentiality and security. In combination with blockchain technology, IoT devices can more reliably authenticate the origin and subsequent steps in the journey of a product or material. This allows organisations to avoid ptential goods seizure or tariffs when entering new markets, and comply with ESG commitments. 

Warehouse automation 

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have been applied to great effect by logistics teams. The technology has significant potential to help pick, arrange, and otherwise move goods through warehouses. Amazon has been using an increasingly sophisticated variety of robots in its warehouses since 2017. The global market for warehouse automation was valued at $16.23 billion in 2022. It is expected to hit around $71.03 billion by 2032.

However, AI tools and automation platforms need a bridge between the digital and physical worlds in order to work. IoT forms that bridge, allowing digital tools to gather accurate data in real time about the physical world. The information gathered from these IoT sensors can then be used to pilot fleets of robots. It could also direct human pickers, control the ambient temperature, schedule deliveries, and oversee numerous other warehouse management tasks.  

Predictive analytics 

IoT can not only provide critical insights into what’s happening in the supply chain right now. The technology can also use the data it gathers, in combination with AI, to make educated guesses about the future. IoT creates huge amounts of information constantly. Sensors placed throughout the supply chain, from warehouse operations to transportation and delivery are continually reporting on location, temperature, time-to-process, and other useful information. 

With the application of digital tools, this data can be used to forecast trends, pain points, and demand patterns. At a time when supply chain managers are overwhelmingly preparing for a future where disruption is the norm, rather than the exception, predictive analytics using IoT-derived data are a vital tool. 

We are pleased to announce that SupplyChain Strategy is an official media partner for ASCM CONNECT 2024: North America.

ASCM CONNECT is a dynamic three-day conference dedicated to the latest trends and tactics in end-to-end supply chain SupplyChain Strategy. 

As a media partner, SupplyChain Strategy will deliver exclusive content such as articles from some of the event’s speakers and sponsors.

Set to take place between September 9^th and 11^th in Austin, Texas, innovation is set to shine with sparking collaboration the key to shaping the future of supply chain management. At ASCM CONNECT, attendees are invited to tap into the knowledge and experience of an expert speaker line-up, and dive into education that transcends the ‘what’ to explore the ‘how’ and address the ‘so now what’ of industry advancements.

Attendees to the conference will uncover the latest advancements and trends in:

• Stability, resilience and agility
• Digital capabilities, technologies and enablers
• Talent, leadership and transformation
• Sustainability, circularity and climate

Who Should Attend?

Open to all supply chain professionals, ASCM CONNECT delivers value no matter where you are in your supply chain career. Attend and be at the forefront of shaping the future of the industry.

Industry Executives

• Engage directly with other top industry leaders and influencers who are driving innovation and transformation in the supply chain profession.
• Gain invaluable insights and forge meaningful connections that can catalyse positive change across all sectors of the supply chain.
• Make a lasting impact with your presence – your newfound connections and insights have the potential to resonate and drive significant advancements in supply chain practices.

Emerging Supply Chain Leaders

• Enhance your skills and knowledge through invaluable insights from industry leaders and experts. Accelerate your career growth and stay ahead in the ever-changing world of supply chain management.
• Immerse yourself in keynote presentations, educational sessions, and Connection Cafés designed to address the unique needs and questions of supply chain newcomers.
• Expand your professional network, connecting with peers and mentors who can provide guidance and support on your career journey.

Supply Chain Champions

• Join a vibrant community of supply chain enthusiasts and novices alike, where collaboration is key. Connect with peers from diverse supply chain backgrounds, exchanging insights, troubleshooting challenges, and sparking innovative ideas together.
• Equip yourself with actionable strategies for navigating the complexities of today’s rapidly evolving supply chain landscape. Whether you’re seeking solutions to specific challenges or simply eager to absorb knowledge from industry experts, this conference offers an unparalleled opportunity to learn, grow, and network with fellow professionals, thought leaders, and essential vendors.

Find out more information about the event here.

It’s an interesting time to be in the supply chain business. Not only are supply chains under increasing pressure to unlock greater value for the business, but executives find themselves operating in a landscape that might be even more challenging than that of the pandemic just a few years ago. 

Geopolitical tensions are rising, disrupting global trade routes. The spectre of economic downturn looms over Europe and the US, intermingling with growing unrest over the cost of living, wage stagnation, and the broken promises of 21st century capitalism. And, over everything, the worsening climate crisis throws a long shadow. Crop failures, extreme weather events, and disrupted ecosystems are conspiring to create a world where, for supply chains, disruption is the norm. 

Many organisations are turning to technology as a way to improve their efficiency, cost-containment, and resilience. Supply chain operators are being driven by the need to “ensure their foundation can support both past and future investments, while also looking ahead for new differentiation opportunities,” noted Christian Titze, VP analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain Practice. 

A key theme emerging for Titze is the role that emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and maturing technologies like robotics will play for supply chains. However, Gartner’s report stresses that the success of adoption when it comes to these technologies is tied to “ the complementary integration of humans and machines.” 

Humans and machines in the supply chain

Gartner’s report identifies a number of trends connecting the broader theme of humans and machines in collaboration. 

“These technology trends are not isolated, but rather interconnected and mutually reinforcing,” said Dwight Klappich, VP Analyst and Fellow in the Gartner Supply Chain practice. 

Composite AI, AI-enabled vision systems, augmented connected workforce initiatives, next generation humanoid robots, and machine customers are all contributing to the increasingly collaborative relationship between humans and machines in the supply chain.

AI-Enabled Vision Systems

AI-enabled vision systems combine industrial 3D cameras, computer vision software and advanced AI pattern recognition technologies to autonomously capture, interpret, and make inferences based on unstructured images in real time.

Augmented Connected Workforce (ACWF)

ACWF initiatives aim to reduce onboarding time for employees to achieve full productivity and enhance decision-making. 

Augmented connected forkforce is a strategy that combines the value of intelligent technology, workforce analytics, and skills augmentation to accelerate talent growth and optimisation.

Composite AI

Individual AI applications are impressive, but it’s in aggregate that the technology really begins to shine. Composite AI uses multiple AI techniques together to increase the efficiency and accuracy with which these models learn. Composite AI also broadens the level of knowledge representations, and could ultimately solve business problems in a way that drives supply chain performance improvements.

Next-Generation Humanoid Working Robots

Robotics have been an established part of the supply chain for over a decade at this point. Signalling the next phase in the technology’s journey towards maturity, humanoid working robots combine sensory awareness, mobile manipulation, and dynamic locomotion to perform tasks previously done by humans. 

They typically feature sensor-equipped heads, power and mechanical bodies, manipulative arms/hands, and legs that allow for more dynamic movement than previously seen.

Machine Customers

Machine customers are nonhuman entities capable of selling or purchasing goods or services autonomously. 

Examples include IoT devices placing independent orders, intelligent replenishment algorithms maintaining product availability, and automated assistants suggesting new deals to consumers.

Businesses in all industries depend on the smooth operation of global supply chains. Yet as these vital systems and processes become more complex, they can also become more fragile – needing careful management to keep them running effectively.

Data is an important enabler of modern supply chains, as long as it’s of the highest possible quality. When data is accurate and reliable, organisations can optimise their supply chain by streamlining operations, improving decision-making and reducing risk. However, poor quality data can have the opposite effect by adding pain points, reducing output, hindering inventory management and stopping companies’ ability to measure and assess risk factors. Improving both data quality and data traceability should therefore be a priority at every stage of the supply chain.

The data puzzle

With some companies managing upwards of 75,000 suppliers, tracking, reporting and analysing supply chain data is an arduous task. This is particularly true when it comes to fragmented data sets stored in multiple siloed systems distributed across geographies, business units and suppliers. 

And when data is not reliable, accessible and up to date, it can impact many parts of the supply chain. For instance, successful inventory management requires companies to deliver just the right quantity of the right product to the right place at the right time. And the whole process heavily relies on accurate data from multiple places – customer service, suppliers, warehouses and shipping providers. 

 If this information is fragmented, incomplete or difficult to interpret, organisations will find it difficult to deliver products or services in line with customer expectations. But imagine if that data could be pulled into a single view giving users the ability to see – in one place –  not only all the data they needed, but information on the quality of that data and the processes associated with it.

Yet gathering data is also just one part of the puzzle. This challenge will grow exponentially in the short to medium term with the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the increasing use of both public and private cloud services, and generative AI. Supple chains must account for the sheer volume and diversity of data. There is a heightened need to automate processes to ensure that data is well managed and catalogued throughout the supply chain. 

Mastering supply chain data 

To overcome data challenges, organisations need to focus on introducing the tools and processes to share data and collaborate with partners. In addition, trusted, relevant data on everything from bills of materials and supplier challenges, to shipping routes and customer demand, needs to be available on-demand and in near-real-time. 

Achieving this approach relies on having a clear, end-to-end view of the entire supply chain, ensuring supply chain managers use data optimally. For example, a cloud-based platform approach to managing data can seamlessly integrate internal and external data, bringing together trusted, governed and relevant supplier information from across the entire business into a centrally managed system. 

Ensuring data quality is crucial. Organisations must guarantee the accuracy of their own data as well as that of their partners or suppliers. To prevent issues from spreading through complex supply chains, it’s important to monitor data directly at its source. Implementing data observability practices enables proactive monitoring and early detection of data quality patterns, allowing for quick remediation and smooth operations.

Finally, AI and machine learning (ML) can significantly enhance supply chain management by automating many aspects of data management. These technologies analyse vast amounts of information to provide useable insights. For instance, AI and ML can help detect and maintain data quality across large datasets, automatically classifying data to meet organisational standards. 

Delivering on demands

With a holistic, trusted, single view of suppliers, ML and AI can extract valuable insights from supply chain data. By connecting technical data with business metadata, these technologies enable organisations to gain a deeper understanding of their supply chain operations and make more informed decisions. This improved data comprehension can lead to more efficient inventory management, better demand forecasting, and enhanced supplier relationships.

For example, we’ve recently seen supermarkets contending with supply chain disruptions – cold weather, high energy costs and transport disruption. A 360 view of all supplier profiles helps supermarkets navigate turbulence. The ability to visualise and understand strategic supplier relationships is crucial to identifying alternative suppliers and getting the right products to the right places fast.

Ultimately, data is critical to maintaining a supply chain. As such, supply chain managers must organise and manage their data effectively. To do this, it’s fundamentally important to ensure data is of the highest possible quality and is traceable at every stage. With an accurate, holistic view of suppliers feeding applications, AI and analytics, companies can quickly understand macro demand trends, gain visibility of suppliers, improve collaboration and optimise supply chains to deliver their product or service more quickly.