By Manoj Kumar
ALL STAKEHOLDERS NEED TO BE INVOLVED. The supply chain of tomorrow will need to take into account the needs of all the stakeholders involved in value creation viz. end consumer, producer, suppliers, company etc. We believe that the new supply chain needs to embrace SIX T’s as explained below.
TRACEABILITY: Consumers are more conscious than ever on parameters like safety, sustainability and demanding to know details of raw material used, where things are made, who has made them, how and when products are packed, transported etc.
TRANSPARENCY: Opaque supply chains will soon become things of the past. Transparent information on costs and margins will be asked for. Buyers will like to transparently view supplier processes and progress of their orders. Concerted efforts will be made by all stakeholders to reduce wastage and increase productivity. Traceability and Transparency will become more powerful than any third party certification.
TRANSFERS: Knowledge and information will flow between all stakeholders, and create learning communities in the chain. These learning communities will take responsibility for their own performance with commensurate incentives. Payment gateways will integrate with the information flow to make performance based and timely payments. External Quality controls will be replaced by self declared Quality assurance.
TIMELY: Information and transfers will be available in real time and with the agreed frequency between stakeholders. There will be an effort to reduce data and increase relevant and needed information in a timely fashion for better decision making.
TRUST: Manual data entry will be replaced by automatic data capturing processes to increase the authenticity of information. For example, imagine that money is transferred by buyers to producers who use it to buy quality raw materials only from pre-agreed vendors. This transaction can be automatically captured in the supply chain and provide TRUST for traceability and quality assurance.
TECHNOLOGY: The re-imagined supply chain is enabled via digital technology platforms which are simple to use, ensure data safety, remote connectivity and have simple human interface. There are many PLUG and PLAY technology providers in the market who can help businesses take the big leap on the supply chain for the new ERA.