According to a recent survey conducted by Forbes Insights, 65% of logistics, supply chain, and transportation executives acknowledge the necessity to revamp existing models and add flexibility to business operations in order to ensure omnichannel delivery, reduce costs and meet the ever-shifting consumer demand.
In fact, 72% of enterprises involved in planning, executing, and monitoring the flow of products from the point of origin to the point of consumption consider improved customer experience the key benefit of business transformation.
The path to increased operational efficiency and customer satisfaction lies in the digitalization of logistics workflows.
Driven by considerable advances in hardware and software development, as well as the surging global economy, regulations and heavy competition, 62% of business leaders surveyed by Forbes admitted that their companies were undergoing Digital Transformation at the time.
With the supply chain being a goldmine of structured and unstructured data, it seems only natural that the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and blockchain are considered the key drivers of Digital Transformation in logistics, supply chain management, warehousing, and transportation.
By gathering the information generated by connected equipment and logistics software and matching the data against Machine Learning models implemented in the cloud, businesses can achieve greater supply chain transparency and dramatically reduce operating expenses.
Although cloud computing adoption rates across the sector topped 50% last year, a little over 20% of businesses involved in logistics and supply chain management work with IoT software companies to fast-forward their Digital Transformation initiatives, while only 10% of logistics companies rate their data processing and analytics capabilities as advanced.
The blueprint for transformation draws upon three key digital actions: develop new business models and offerings, digitalize core operations, and build a robust internal digital foundation. The success model for logistics organizations requires a number of inputs. Some of these include:
- DEVELOP NEW BUSINESS MODELS AND OFFERINGS
- New Digital Platforms. Building robust new platforms will help remove supply chain inefficiencies, solve problems associated with asset underutilization, improve demand-supply matching, and increase visibility and connectivity across systems.
- Advanced Analytics. Putting powerful data-driven solutions to work can create new analytics tools that, in turn, can be sold to clients to help them optimize their own operations and efficiencies.
- Control Tower. Providing solutions that boost operational visibility and connectivity between previously siloed systems allows stakeholders to more seamlessly connect to one another throughout the supply chain.
- DIGITALIZE CORE OPERATIONS
- Advanced Analytics. Similar to the benefits derived from the offering of new analytics tools, logistics organizations themselves can use advanced analytics to optimize operations in pricing, routing, and partial load shipment consolidation.
- Customer Experience. Putting in place a digital front end not only provides customers with a convenient one-stop-shop experience but also improves internal operational visibility and automates previously manual processes.
- Process Automation. Increasing the automation of core internal business processes can help ease labor-intensive logistics operations, like digitizing procurement with e-auctions.
- Equipment Data. Digitally monitoring equipment health facilitates more effective predictive maintenance.
- Next-Generation Solutions. Eyeing future operational improvements via robotics, artificial intelligence, and even augmented reality can help further elevate a logistical organization’s operational efficiencies in distribution, warehousing, and picking and packing.
- BUILD A ROBUST INTERNAL DIGITAL FOUNDATION
- Talent. Logistics enterprises must actively target and attract smart digital talent in order to compete, maintain efficiencies, grow into new areas, and deliver on the promise of value for customers.
- Systems. Proffering the tenets and benefits of digital throughout the logistics organization helps rationalize investments in more flexible technology systems throughout the value chain.
- Agility. Logistics concerns need to be nimble in solution development in order to maintain the pace of digital and maximize its benefits.
