“ We really are in nirvana … I ’ ve been in this space a long time — 26 years . It wasn ’ t even called supply chain back then … It ’ s always been about visibility end-to-end , and making faster and better decisions …”
STRATEGY
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G lenn Steinberg believes it ’ s an amazing time to be a supply chain practitioner enthusing to Supply Chain Digital that “ we really are in nirvana ” right now . Steinberg has overseen digital development at EY for three years following a variety of consulting roles with the likes of PwC and IBM . “ I ’ ve been in this space a long time - 26 years . It wasn ’ t even called supply chain back then ,” jokes EY ’ s Global Supply Chain Leader . “ It ’ s always been about visibility end-to-end , and making faster and better decisions , maximising customer service levels at the lowest cost and reducing inventories , right ? It ’ s just an amazing time right now because the technology is finally here to pull it off .”
Steinberg notes that traditionally , supply chains have been very linear - supplier , manufacturer , distributor , and customer – with systems internally focused on-prem with point-to-point interfaces . But with the rise of digital technologies that model is being disrupted to create a networked value chain capable of responding simultaneously , rather than serially . “ All the data ’ s in the cloud so when an event occurs in the supply chain it ’ s near real-time access to that information across the whole value chain ,” adds Steinberg , who sees many large international enterprises struggling with change while
“ We really are in nirvana … I ’ ve been in this space a long time — 26 years . It wasn ’ t even called supply chain back then … It ’ s always been about visibility end-to-end , and making faster and better decisions …”
— Glenn Steinberg , EY ’ s Global Supply Chain Leader
NOVEMBER 2018