The Role of Automation in Supply Chain Resilience

By Ashley Richmond
March 9, 2024March 9, 2024
Automation

Supply chains are the backbone of many businesses in today’s fast-paced global economy. They make it possible for goods and services to be shipped all over the world easily. Still, the COVID-19 pandemic showed how weak many supply lines were, making it clear how important it is to be resilient right away. Businesses are slowly realizing how important it is to set up strong supply chain strategies to keep operations running smoothly, even when there are problems that have never been seen before. Using technology has become an important way to make the supply chain more resilient, more flexible, and more likely to work without any problems.

According to the survey, 83% of executives reported that their supply chain technologies hadn’t fully delivered the expected results.

Automation in supply chain resilience helps businesses adjust quickly to changes in demand, keep track of their stock more efficiently, and make sure that products are delivered on time. It’s not enough to just replace people with machines; we need to make the supply system smarter and more flexible as well. Automation helps predict and reduce risks by analyzing data in real time and making predictions. This makes the supply chain faster and more reliable.

Picking the right partner for technology is important in this ever-changing world. The best companies that do robotics come up with new ways to make supply chains much more resilient. They give you the knowledge and tools to deal with the complicated market of today, which keeps your business ahead of the curve. Working with these technology experts is a smart way to build a supply chain that can handle any problem and do well in the digital age.

Topics to Read

What is Supply Chain Resilience?

Supply chain resiliency refers to the ability to adapt swiftly to operational disturbances through flexible contingency planning and forecasting, which includes everything from material sourcing to transportation and final product and service delivery.

To make sure that goods and services keep moving without any problems, supply chain robustness means that the chain can handle and recover from sudden problems. These problems can come from many places, like natural disasters, political unrest, changes in the economy, or, as we’ve recently seen, world health emergencies.

Not only is a flexible supply chain able to handle these problems, it also shows the ability to quickly adapt to changing circumstances, which keeps business activities running smoothly and keeps customers happy.

Also Read: Top 7 Smart Warehouse Solutions to Boost Your Profits

Top 8 Ways to Improve Supply Chain Resilience

In order to begin utilising automation technology, the first step is to undertake a comprehensive supply chain audit. This audit will discover opportunities for improvement by analysing and examining supply chain processes, locating bottlenecks and inefficiencies, and identifying areas where automation can streamline operations. The following are eight important aspects to take into consideration:

1) Business acquisitions

When acquiring businesses, it is important to make use of automated data migration tools and system integration platforms in order to expedite the process of onboarding newly acquired business units and to accelerate the integration of their systems into older enterprise systems.

2) Quality management

Make use of automated processes to connect quality data from various business systems and apply established rules and procedures in order to guarantee quality that is consistent across the board.

3) Tracking of parts and products

Automation can connect several tracking programmes, which helps to prevent overstocks and misplacements of parts or products.

4) Supplier-customer collaboration

Facilitate collaboration between customers and suppliers by streamlining communications and enhancing the effectiveness and transparency of supply chain operations.

By implementing automation, one can enhance operational efficiency while concurrently fortifying relationships with vendors and consumers. For example, the implementation of digital freight negotiation facilitates increased vendor engagement, which in turn enhances competitive pricing.

Additionally, the utilization of automated invoice processing contributes to improved payment cycles, and the capability of customers to share tracking data enables a level of transparency and service akin to that of Amazon.

5) Use advanced and predictive analytics

Utilising advanced and predictive analytics can assist a company in predicting and responding to possible problems before they even occur. The use of automation technologies allows for the extraction, processing, and analysis of massive volumes of data, which can then be fed into machine learning models in order to forecast patterns and streamline the process of making proactive decisions.

6) Information technology modernization

Automation has the ability to break down data silos between ERP, PLM, MES, and CRM systems, and it can also promote integration between different platforms. This can lead to more efficient operations, fewer errors, and more accurate insights.

7) Asset monitoring

The monitoring of assets in real time is a key component in the process of making decisions that are informed and driven by data. Through the use of automation, you can establish connections with individuals, tools, or pieces of equipment in order to deliver real-time status updates and gather data in order to improve operational efficiency.

8) Scheduling and forecasting

In order to achieve accurate scheduling and forecasting, it is necessary to collect data from a variety of sources. This data may be gathered, integrated, and analysed with the use of automation, which can provide a comprehensive picture that helps influence scheduling decisions and increase the accuracy of demand forecasting.

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9) Best offers at best prices

Your team negotiates freight rates with a restricted pool of vendors via phone calls and email correspondence in a typical scenario. Today, however, there is a more intelligent and economical method for accomplishing this. You can benefit from compounded negotiation, a system in which your vendors vie for your business on a digital platform to offer you the most advantageous terms, by utilizing automation.

10) A Logistics Resource Management (LRM) platform enables you to generate and distribute request for quotations (RFQs) to your vendors, and displays their position in the bidding process upon submission of their quotations. The system encourages your suppliers to continue reducing their prices so that they can maintain first place and earn your business, thereby ensuring that you always receive their best deals.

11) Reduced environmental impact

Automation of supply chain management processes that eliminate paper usage has a beneficial effect on the environment. In a time when customers actively seek out businesses that prioritize sustainable practices and are conscious of their environmental impact, automation provides the means to gain a competitive advantage.

12) Improved visibility with live shipment tracking

A crucial component of effective supply chain management is the ability to pinpoint the precise location of a shipment in spite of ambiguity. The conventional method of tracking shipments, which involves visiting innumerable websites of shipping companies by hand, is exhausting and time-consuming.

Nevertheless, the implementation of an automated monitoring solution completely revolutionizes this procedure. By providing a unified interface with real-time, automated updates on the progress of your shipments, technology significantly diminishes the amount of time and effort required.

Looking for “Logistics Automation Companies“

14) Smooth invoice reconciliation

Sophisticated systems have emerged in the market, which integrate algorithmic programming, contextual language processing, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for the automated processing and approval of invoices.

These systems provide your vendor with an immediate notification of any inconsistencies, eliminating the need for you to personally follow up with them each time an error occurs. This not only ensures a seamless process but also substantially diminishes the expenses associated with invoice processing, thereby greatly expediting payment cycles.

15) Instant actionable insights

The significance of efficiently utilizing one’s data cannot be overstated when the objective is to decrease expenditures. Conventional approaches to supply chain management provide restricted opportunities for the systematic administration and processing of data, leading to the frequent omission of valuable and actionable insights.

On the contrary, digital automation empowers one to document each interaction that transpires during the administration of logistics. A single click now provides access to information regarding volumes, country-by-country logistics performance, and vendor and carrier service. Presently, it is possible to develop systems capable of delivering immediate insights, thereby enabling individuals to make informed decisions regardless of the situation.

Through the execution of a supply chain audit, it will be possible to discover areas in which automation can be utilized to improve resilience, streamline processes, and create a competitive advantage. The objective is not simply to automate functions for the sake of automating them; rather, it is to improve operational efficiency, raise visibility, and generate value throughout the supply chain.

These implementations can then be supplemented with complete product tracking, dashboard capabilities, and collaborative workflows in order to establish genuine end-to-end supply chain visibility.

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Advantages of Implementing Automation Solutions in Supply Chain Management

1. Enhanced Operational Efficiency: The implementation of automation facilitates the optimisation of diverse supply chain procedures, including inventory management, order processing, and logistics, thereby resulting in improved operational efficiency and decreased expenditures.

2. Improved Data Visibility: Automated systems furnish businesses with real-time data insights encompassing the entirety of the supply chain. This empowers organisations to swiftly render well-informed decisions and proactively detect potential disruptions prior to their escalation.

3. Enhanced Adaptability: Automation enables the prompt modification of production and distribution procedures to accommodate fluctuating market demands or unanticipated disruptions, thereby preserving the supply chain’s flexibility and adaptability.

4. Decreased Human Errors: Through the reduction of manual interventions, automation contributes to an overall decrease in human errors, thereby enhancing the precision of order fulfilment and inventory management.

5. Enhanced Inventory Management: Automated inventory monitoring systems enable more effective inventory control, thereby mitigating the potential for excessive stock levels or shortages and ultimately bolstering the overall performance of the supply chain.

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Final Say

Now, we can say, the incorporation of automation into supply chain management functions as a proactive tactic to strengthen the robustness of contemporary supply chains. This empowers organizations to minimize vulnerabilities, streamline processes, and maintain consistent performance, notwithstanding unanticipated disturbances.

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