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Posted 31 October 2019 by
Corporate

7 ways to get your supply chain ready for the digital era

On a sunny Thursday in November, we gathered about 150 supply chain and operations professionals across industries for our annual end-of-year conference on Supply Chain 4.0: ready to operate in the digital era? The time for digital era supply chain transformations is now.

The keys to success? One beautiful location, four hours of inspiration, eight top-notch presenters and 150 enthusiasts with a critical mindset, yet with the eagerness to open their minds and let them be guided to get their supply chain future-proof. But that’s not all: our attendees not only returned home with what they came for—inspiration—but also with brand-new insights, clear action points for their company and a takeaway inspiration goodie bag.

And as we’re not getting enough of the takeaway inspiration, here’s some for you. Ready to get your brain fuelled as well?

Here are seven ways to get your supply chain all set to operate in the digital era:

1. Drive value by applying emerging technologies & approaches within the market

Lora Cecere, founder at supply chain insights, showed us a market overview of emerging technologies and approaches you can apply to drive value within your supply chain. Why is this important? Because it seems that 95% of supply chain leaders struggle with how to drive improvement in their supply chain, and only 5% are making progress. Check below to see how to become part of that 5%.

2. Embrace digital as the gateway to your company’s growth

Do you know Digitalis, a country with 4 billion inhabitants connected to each other thanks to the internet? Thierry Geerts, CEO of Google Belgium, introduced us to the digital revolution 4.0: one with huge cultural and economic implications but, above all, one that brings along a lot of challenges and opportunities for companies. Discover how to embrace the possibilities of this digital revolution and prepare your company for the future.

3. Create your digital twin with Axon

How can a virtual twin enlighten your supply chain? Discover it in the presentation below, where you’ll get a clear view of why and how a digital twin can offer you advanced visibility on your end-to-end supply chain network to give you new insights on your post-important planning sensitive parameters. In short: How Axon can help you to move forward by removing human bias and shifting to a data-driven approach.

4. Optimize your E2E supply chain using blockchain

Blockchain technology allows partners in the supply chain to share data in a trusted and immutable way. During this presentation, Walter Stiers, industry architect at IBM, discussed how you could use blockchain to optimize your end-to-end supply chain using concrete illustrations. Two operational blockchain projects are described, from the development to the key decision process, resulting in an eco-system-oriented solution with benefits for all participants.

5. Go for a connected planning approach

Far too often, supply chain management leaders make decisions in a data vacuum. But that doesn’t work in today’s fast-paced market. Rob Van Driel, solutions consultant for Anaplan, explained why and how supply chain leaders need to make timely, value-based decisions so they can respond quickly to shifts in demand and customer needs. Because when value is king, margins are optimized and profit is maximized.

6. Apply deep reinforcement learning within your industrial process automation

Learn from Nicolas Deruytter, founder and CEO of ML6, how many new concepts like artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, advanced process control, machine learning and many more can operate as a key to success.

7. Act on a day-to-day basis to achieve transformation

How does the process of thriving in a rapidly changing business environment work? And how to act upon this? Patrick Leysen, VP of Future Lab at bpost, came to the rescue, as he argued that we should stop talking about organizational transformation and instead focus on how individuals and teams need to act on a day-to-day basis to adapt and succeed. Drawing on his experience as a leader and entrepreneur at Delhaize, Parcify and bpost, he gave us practical advice on how your company can boost creativity, innovation, and in the end, corporate transformation.

Plenty of inspiration and plenty of insights—up to you to mix & match the ones that fit the most within your company’s values and objectives. Don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn, by the way, to stay up to date about news, trends and updates within the business.

We want to see you in the digital era! Reach out to one of our experts to learn more about how we can help!