Note: Today’s post is part of our “Editor’s Choice” series where we highlight recent posts published by our sponsors that provide supply chain insights and advice. Today’s article comes from the team at Coupa and explores an agile and resilient supply chain.
When it comes to supply chains, the last few years have exposed real global vulnerabilities. But supply chain leaders have risen to the challenge to ensure the availability of critical products and services.
We believe supply chain organizations are uniquely poised to help their companies gain a competitive edge. In that vein, at Inspire we announced innovations designed to maximize the value and impact of every dollar a company spends.
As we have come to understand the cracks in our supply chain, we’ve also arrived at a pivotal moment. Over the next decade, supply chains will undergo fundamental changes. This means leaders now have an opportunity to actively design their supply chains utilizing digital technologies, such as the ones Coupa offers, and the opportunity to design their destiny.
Building more effective partnerships between supply chain and procurement
While we may not know what the future holds, one thing is certain: there has never been a more important time to build relationships between procurement, finance, and supply chain, as businesses embrace digital transformation to succeed in the present and withstand any changes the future holds.
Reduced margins, unnecessary costs, frustrated suppliers and customers, delayed deliveries, and unclear processes are just some of the potential consequences when procurement, finance, and supply chain organizations lack cohesive, collaborative teams, consistent processes, and effective technology.
Building resiliency and agility require collaboration. As organizations strive to make their supply chain design a reality through planning and source-to-pay processes, many remain constrained by organizational silos and disparate systems. But by leveraging the right technology to bridge digital divides between supply chain, procurement, and finance, organizations can collaborate to make smarter and faster decisions to achieve profitability, resilience, and sustainability objectives.
Making supply chains more agile and effective
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly everywhere. While it might seem daunting to some, for the supply chain, AI has the power to unlock immense value by streamlining processes and leveraging massive volumes of data.
The challenges of the last few years, especially around transportation and logistics, have made the ability to run simulations, revisit supply chain designs and assumptions, and embrace continuous design a supply chain imperative. But supply chains are also enormously complex. Supply chain modelers have to wade through thousands of data points to try to find optimal solutions. Combined with increasing pressure and demands from other teams and business units, even the best modeler in the world might miss opportunities that could lead to important savings and value creation across the business.
To read the full article, click here.
