PROCUREMENT INSIGHTS
26 will impact multiple companies . All of these dynamics are putting more pressure on companies to improve and to change , and technology is proving key .”
The major challenge with transforming a supply chain is the complexity of it all . There are a number of sub functions and sectors within a single supply chain and the trend across the industry is to break these various elements up and then connect them through innovative and smart technology . Demand planning , inventory planning and production planning and scheduling as well as transportation and warehouse and order management are all different but very crucial parts of the retail supply chain , and Landry believes that the way forward is to create a cognitive supply chain with end-to-end visibility .
“ Traditionally you ’ ll find siloed ways of working in the supply chain and so our vision with Genpact is to be the assembler of technology to better connect each part ,” he says . “ We ’ ll put in the plumbing and digital putty between each independent system and develop a much more cognitive , learning , adaptive and supply chain that will drive better decision making and profit .”
With the changing landscape of supply chain , how has this changed the role of the procurement professional ? As technology has evolved , technology professionals have seen their roles become much more engrained within company strategy and the same is happening to the Chief Procurement Officer and right across the supply chain board . Landry notes that with technologies such as automation , computing and the cloud , entire organisational alignment will look very different in the coming years as it “ completely opens the door for a new way of running the supply chain ”.
“ We just have to have open minds . We can ’ t predict what it ’ s going to look like , but we know its going to be different ,” says Landry . “ Regardless of what the future holds and what technology will bring , people will always be involved in every step of it . We just need to figure it out . We can ’ t ever make it lights out .”
Technologies such as the Internet of Things ( IoT ), cloud computing and machine learning are defining the current supply chain technology conversation . The commonality between them all is data . In the supply chain
FEBRUARY 2019