Supply chain management and technology share a common future

A global IBM survey asked logistics and supply chain managers about how technology is changing their work. The study has been conducted with the participation of more than 200 managers from 12 industries in 32 countries. It was revealed that 42 percent of companies performing above the industry’s average are already using collaboration solutions and 43 percent of them routinely join forces with partners and consumers. The majority of managers are aware of the tasks related to improving supply chain processes and know that it would be useful to adopt new technologies for this. However, only 16 percent of participants said their companies are using predictive analytics to improve supply chain processes. It also turned out that at the majority of companies marketing and supply chain divisions work as parallel structures: the former deals with surveying and satisfying consumer demand, while the latter controls production and transportation costs. E-commerce is one of the areas where various company divisions and functions most frequently interact: 24 percent of the companies performing better than the average already give special attention to e-commerce. It is noteworthy that 87 percent of managers wish to engage in much closer cooperation with partners in the next 2-5 years.