LOGISTICS
“ MANY ORGANISATIONS ARE TURNING TO
SUPPLY NETWORKS RATHER THAN
CHAINS TO SOURCE GOODS LOCALLY ”
“ Many logistics companies now use additive manufacturing ( 3D printing ), which allows on-demand parts printing . They ’ re moving away from transporting the physical inventory of customers to producing on-demand digital inventory . This is a radical change .”
“ For example ,” Ricciarelli added , “ Airbus is now producing 10 % of its parts through additive manufacturing . In the US , UPS is building an additive manufacturing plant to produce customer parts on-demand , so it has shifted from selling products to selling services .”
Asked how important visibility is to mitigating logistical risk , Ricciarelli said such questions always lead him back to the same event : the Ever Given container ship that blocked the Suez Canal , which brought global sea shipping to its knees for weeks in early 2021 .
“ Every company was left wondering if it had a container on one of the hundreds of ships that were going nowhere ,” said Ricciarelli . “ If they did have goods on those ships , the next thing was to find out what
RICHARD JOWERS , DIRECTOR OF VALUE ADVISORY ,
INTELLIGENT SPEND & BUSINESS NETWORK , SAP
orders were delayed and who the customers for those goods were .”
Benefits of visibility & preparation He said having no visibility in such a situation “ is the worst thing that can happen ”, before adding : “ Yet the Suez Canal has been blocked five or six times in its history , so businesses really should have been prepared for it .
“ Today , technology means more businesses are prepared , because they can use geolocation and telematics to know exactly where a container is en route . They can also map the relationship between orders , deliveries , items and containers , and analyse exactly what orders are in specific containers .” supplychaindigital . com 83