Supply chains are at the heart of so many businesses. They support growth and success, yet they can also be the most complex and vulnerable area of your company—especially these days when every new year seems to bring with it some previously unheard-of complexity or disruption. And while you can’t control politics or the weather, you do have the power to leverage data and AI-powered technologies to enhance your supply chain visibility, driving a more agile and competitive enterprise.
Supply chain visibility is the strategic capability to monitor every component of the supply chain from end to end. By providing real-time insights into inventory levels, shipment status, production schedules, and warehouse management, enhanced visibility can help you create a more responsive and resilient supply chain to better manage the unpredictability inherent in global markets. This not only boosts operational efficiency, but also supports regulatory compliance and shows you areas where you can improve the overall sustainability of your supply chain operations.
Supply chain visibility also provides a base of information that trading partners can use to work together, ensuring that all parties can act quickly and with informed confidence. This not only reduces risks and minimizes delays, but it is essential for maintaining a competitive edge and ensuring customer loyalty. Ultimately, supply chain visibility translates to quicker decision-making and more efficient operations, helping you to not only meet but exceed customer expectations.
Supply chain visibility vs. supply chain transparency
Both terms refer to better clarity across supply chain operations. While supply chain visibility is comprised of the measures used to gain this clarity, supply chain transparency specifically has to do with a company’s willingness and capacity to disclose key information—including financial, ethical, and environmental practices—for all the global suppliers, stakeholders, and logistical partners that they work with. And while these terms have different meanings, the fact is: Without supply chain visibility measures, systems, and technologies in place, it’s almost impossible to implement a transparent supply chain. Today’s business leaders know that their brand integrity, customer relations, and even profits depend upon their ability to demonstrate transparent and sustainable supply chain practices. Tools like blockchain, inventory sensors, and cloud connected data collection systems are growing in popularity for their ability to support transparency initiatives.
How does a visible supply chain work?
For your supply chain to work at its best, you should be able to see all of its component links from a single vantage point. Businesses have long sought to achieve this, but until recently, the technology simply didn’t exist to support the unified collaboration of people and systems. Today’s visible supply chains operate by empowering teams and by leveraging AI, machine learning (ML), cloud connectivity, automation, and advanced analytics. Below are some of the core components that go into achieving a more visible supply chain.
- Data integration: It’s one thing to amass an enormous amount of informative data, but its value can only be realized when it’s integrated into enterprise-wide systems—and strategically analyzed to deliver powerful insights and inform automation and decision-making. A unified data pool is essential for breaking down silos within the organization and ensuring that all stakeholders have access to consistent and accurate information.
- Continuous monitoring: A supply chain control tower represents cloud connected tools that can monitor operations from end to end. Connecting IoT devices, systems, sensors, suppliers, and partners to a centralized vantage point helps you identify and address disruptions proactively. By integrating data from all supply chain components, a control tower helps to boost your confidence and arm you with the intel you need to pivot and respond to both opportunities and threats.
- Analytics and reporting: From sales and operational planning (S&OP) to inventory management, and planning/forecasting, supply chain visibility relies upon your teams’ ability to get customized cross-business reports and to make fast confident decisions. Here is where all that data capture and integration pays off: AI-powered analytics and integrated, connected systems allow you to leverage and understand the big data sets you need to work with to compete in today’s market.
- Collaboration: Enhanced visibility improves coordination between all supply chain participants, from R&D teams to suppliers, manufacturers, shippers, and consumers. When combined with a supply chain collaboration platform that connects and integrates all the partners in your supply chain, clearer visibility informs true collaboration. Guesswork turns into assurances; reactiveness turns into preparedness.
- Risk management: Supply chains came into the spotlight during the pandemic when the whole world began to understand what business leaders have known all along: supply chains are as essential as they are vulnerable. And from raw materials to customer feedback, they have an enormous number of moving parts—all of which are susceptible to risk. The better able you are to see across your supply chain from a central digital vantage point, the greater your ability to mitigate risk and ensure compliance.
