Leaders of traditional companies across industries may be hearing a lot about the unique versatility and security of blockchain technology and wondering what role...

Manual management and monitoring of an organization’s functions is somewhat challenging. Tracking production levels, monitoring supply-chain operations, and managing orders are time-consuming tasks. But,...

This article talks about the different processes within any electronics or related manufacturing company that can be automated using AI-based tools. Heavily manual processes...

This article talks about the different processes within any electronics or related manufacturing company that can be automated using AI-based tools. Heavily manual processes...

The automotive industry operates within a complex value chain that generates a significant volume of documents, data, and information. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) in...

As a former COO, overseeing Kaizen events, value-stream mapping analysis, upgrading ERP systems, and implementing customer success programs, I recall how easy it was...

Two is better than one, isn’t it? This is undoubtedly true in the case of IoT and machine learning. These two most popular and...

For logistics service providers, expanding into new markets and geographies can mean competitive differentiation through diversified product and partner portfolios. But business growth, especially...

Over the past few years, the topic of supply chains has taken on greater urgency. But even before the pandemic, businesses have struggled to...

A recent Deloitte survey estimated only 15% of CPO’s have visibility beyond their tier one suppliers. I found this striking. With so many companies...

In the last few years, supply chain disruptions have become more rampant. Today’s gridlock - from geopolitical tensions to increased consumer demand amid material...

Conventional thinking may have led some businesses to center their supply chain strategy around obtaining the most profitable cost, even when doing so meant assuming additional risk or lower-quality service. A supply chain that’s optimized for price alone, however, doesn’t account for today’s market demands or the complexity that’s involved in multi-enterprise, multi-tier, multi-mode, and multi-direction order flows. Within a network, there are potentially dozens of different touch points and stakeholders, all of which may have distinct systems and processes in place. Without end-to-end supply chain visibility, information becomes siloed, creating unnecessary and corrosive segmentation.

The pandemic helped expose vulnerabilities in the global supply chain ecosystem, causing shortages across sectors, from medical supplies to automobiles. The recent acceleration of supply disruptions made international headlines, but the trajectory that led us here started years before COVID-19. According to survey information gathered by McKinsey & Company, “supply chain disruptions cost the average organization 45% of one year’s profits over the course of a decade,” historical context that helps demonstrate persistent challenges to supply chain planning and logistics. The same survey also showed almost 80% of respondents said they “need to improve, and to invest in digital planning to increase supply chain visibility.”

Why are executives so concerned about supply chain visibility, specifically? The answer varies, depending on who you ask, their definition of “end-to-end visibility,” and the nature of their business.