Building More Resilient Supply Chains in 2022 - How Digital Solutions Can Help

Supply chain businesses that once operated the most cost-effective and efficient supply chains have no doubt been hit the hardest by the aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While cost-effectiveness was once a competitive advantage, it turned out to be a major stumbling block, as it left companies completely unprepared and scrambling to adapt to the rapid shifts within their inflexible supply chain networks, as well as meeting skyrocketing order demands and customer expectations for faster delivery service.

Businesses across the supply chain are now swapping out efficiency for flexibility and adaptability in their supply networks, but many companies are admittedly unsure about how to go about making their supply chains more resilient.

A key problem that exacerbated the initial global supply chain crash was outdated technology employed by many companies that failed to provide the insight necessary to adapt operations when and where it was needed.

As it stands, the pace of updating and replacing supply chain technology is too slow, leaving companies vulnerable to sudden and urgent market changes. Businesses also cannot afford to embark on a digital transformation journey that spans years, due to the rapid and unpredictable nature of the supply chain ecosystem.

While there's no quick fix solution to this complex, systemic problem, businesses can overcome many of the existing challenges they face by employing rapidly evolving digital tools and technologies that will enhance the supply chain and allow supply chains to respond more quickly to market changes.

The State of Supply Chains Post-2020

The pandemic forced the global supply chain to shift and reshape almost entirely in a matter of months, as companies across the supply chain fought to survive while faced with a logistical terrain no one had ever seen or could have predicted.

The transition from low-cost supply chain networks to more agile, developing resilient supply chains is a major trend that has emerged from the events of 2020. But this transition is by no means simple, nor can it happen overnight.

2021 has brought on an entirely new onslaught of supply chain issues and disruptions. Worker shortages, shipping container shortages, shipping traffic at ports, staggered rollouts, and increased consumer demand are just a few that are still wreaking havoc on supply chain capabilities.

Companies have been left stranded with no way to move their goods stuck on docked container ships and consumers have been seeing - and feeling - the shortage of items, both on the shelves and in their wallets.

While disruptions and "tremors" have happened in the past, the accumulation of different disruptions and the extent of their effects on the supply chain worldwide is unprecedented. In addition, the events of the pandemic were directly responsible for the ongoing disruption issues, but they weren't the only catalyst.

Longstanding issues in the supply chain like "just-in-time" manufacturing and logistics also made the supply chain more vulnerable to interruptions and, together, created a "perfect storm" for the inevitable supply chain breakdown.

Using Digital Capabilities to Create More Flexible, Adaptable Supply Chains

Most experts agree that the larger, underlying problems creating the supply chain disruption are going to persist well into 2022. However, businesses can use this time to reexamine their existing supply chain weaknesses and as an opportunity to address their technological shortcomings by implementing more modern and rapidly developed digital tools and software.

Compared to other industries, the logistics industry as a whole has been slow to adopt digital transformation, and the pandemic has helped to identify the necessity of speeding up the adoption of digital tech and automation processes.

As it stands, approximately 1% of supply chain leaders have a sufficiently comprehensive digital ecosystem in place for operations management, but that is expected to jump to around 23% by 2025.

Digital transformation is more than simply moving from manual to digitized processes. It consists of multi-process automation and utilizing cloud-based solutions and systems that reduce errors and increase efficiency, as well as offer functional insights for continuous improvement.

Companies should look to deploy technologies developed in response to supply chain challenges and disruptions, like cloud-based software solutions that provide greater end-to-end visibility across the supply chain and improve supply chain structure.

Tools that employ artificial intelligence, machine learning, and intelligent analytics can eliminate data silos, improve forecasting ability and optimize network structure and distribution.

Businesses that harness intelligent, adaptable technology powered by real-time data and driven by responsive analytics in their supply chain networks can be more agile in their planning and responses, enabling them to recover more quickly from distribution shocks and be more competitive. While this will not solve every issue facing the supply chain, it will help companies recover faster and ultimately build more resilient supply chains that can better withstand inevitable future disruptions

Conclusion

Stargo is an all-in-one digital software that offers end-to-end solutions for maximizing freight forwarders', carriers', and customs brokers' efficiency across the proposal creation process.

Powered by AI and machine learning that utilize real-time data, Stargo can:

• Translate and convert shippers' price requests from any language and type into a structured format.
• Enrich and restructure carriers' buy price data into a simplified format for speedier analysis of the ideal routes, rates, and margins for shippers.
• Correct data errors and fill in missing data on price requests through deep learning.
• Automate proposal creations by using deep learning to match ideal buy prices with price requests.
• Automate and streamline booking requests from shippers to carriers via the freight forwarder's ERP system.

Stargo enables multiple supply chain players to harness and reap the benefits of digitalization to streamline routine processes and scale with ease.

If you're ready to elevate your business success using digital solutions, chat to us about your needs and we'll discuss how we can help you get where you want to go.