During the week of Black Friday, November 24 and 25 at Porte de Versailles (Paris), the Supply Chain Event was held, against the backdrop of the 5th Covid wave.
TNP’s Business Excellence teams were there and here is their mood post!
The health crisis, present on everyone’s lips during this Supply Chain Event with the arrival of the fifth wave, has accelerated the change in dimension that the supply chain was experiencing. The appearance of pure e-commerce players like Amazon had already revolutionized customer expectations: immediately after the act of purchase, the consumer wants to know where his product is and especially to receive it as soon as possible. The customer promise has also changed a lot and the entire supply chain has had to adapt… But keeping inventory management, order management and sales forecasts on this beautiful tool called Excel becomes increasingly complicated for supply chains. The digitalization of the processes then makes it possible to streamline the logistics information now poured out to the end customer, improving the rates and quality of service in the process.
However, the health crisis was the catalyst for the strategic repositioning of the supply chain. It highlighted its need for transparency, resilience and simplification for internal use in order to eliminate any bad surprises in favor of bad news. From now on, it is no longer a question of calling the supply chain when the customer complains, but in order to please the latter. Steering has once again become the spearhead of the supply chain. It now involves S&OP, the simplification of processes and the interoperability of systems necessary for omnichannel.
A plethora of small businesses, from startups to ETIs, have settled in this niche. They each offer a solution to respond to the operational irritants of the profession. And here we are on the Gartner productivity plateau!
The major groups trust, engage in partnership with new entrants. No more pilots, micro-projects validating a concept without ever being deployed on a large scale. Partnerships are created, networks are formed; now the Goliaths talk to each other and exchange on the interest of the Davids. They innovate and finally move forward together.
Goliath is not the only one to have changed his behavior, David has also changed “his sling” shoulder. The ease of integration and the lower investment required have minimized the barriers to entry, and deliver an almost instantaneous return on investment. Indeed, the time has now come to subscribe to the SaaS service and this operation favors innovation decisions. We align business processes, connect systems, integrate data and train users. All this process, which lasted for months, even years, which cost astronomical sums and monopolized the vital forces of the company, is now fast, inexpensive and of a disconcerting simplicity of integration.
In parallel with the traditional stands of the show, conferences were held on various themes: moments of exchange, where the speakers presented their feedback on projects related to the expansion of e-commerce, the management of their physical flows , intralogistics efficiency, or even the benefits of their transformation into a “data-driven” company.
We will conclude this mood post on this idea; finally, the reorganization that the supply chain went through to secure its performance and the transformation that it carried out to absorb e-commerce found their salvation through the same action: data management. Find out now how this optimized management can reduce the environmental impact of companies. To be continued then… at the next Supply Chain Event.
