It ’ s also obviously good for business . For instance , by improving supply chain visibility , a premier international brewer was able to reduce stock-out scenarios at distributor locations by 15-20 percent . In another example , a global leader in confectionery , pet food , and food products was able to standardize its hold and release process with a unified view of its supply chain . Harmonizing data from multiple enterprise resource planning ( ERP ) and warehouse management systems , it could track where the finished goods were at any given moment and hold or recall them if needed .
Unfortunately , these success stories are outliers . Even today , despite accelerated digitalization efforts , a large part of supply chains , especially in the emerging markets , rely on antiquated tracking methods such as spreadsheets or disparate and disconnected systems . Mining and harmonizing data to glean insights from across the supply chain from these siloed collection methods is effort and cost intensive .
The industry needs a new approach that allows more visibility across the partner network and more collaboration that leads to order fulfillment . An approach that goes further than digitalization and uses integrated solutions to gather , extract , and share information with multiple stakeholders , creating a truly connected supply chain .
scw-mag . com 21