Supply Chain Management Best Practices, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER 13Supply Chain Technology: If You've Got the Money, Somebody's Got the Solution

Flashpoints

• Digitalization is disrupting the supply chain in ways both profound and subtle.
• The real promise of artificial intelligence lies in its capability to better manage inventory, predict pricing, and streamline operations.
• RFID and blockchain offer a more efficient means of facilitating product recalls and thwarting counterfeiters.
• The Internet of Things connects devices together so they can communicate supply chain information in a meaningful way.

Throughout this book, we've touched on many of the enabling technologies that supply chain professionals use regularly or at least have in their toolboxes to address the various processes that involve the movement of goods from their point of origin to their final destination. We've looked, for instance, at how supply chain planning and predictive analytics tools offer a higher level of forecasting accuracy, helping companies reduce their inventories while improving their time-to-delivery performance. Product lifecycle management solutions allow manufacturers to collaborate on product designs on not just a company-wide but supply chain–wide basis. Warehouse management and warehouse execution systems can track the whereabouts of products anywhere within a facility while synchronizing all distribution activities. Autonomous vehicles offer ways to move materials more safely and expediently throughout warehouses, on the highways, and ...