In the era of the Covid-19 pandemic, businesses are faced with an increasing degree of difficulty in achieving a high level of service combined with an efficient cost and resource utilization base. One solution is the increasing degree of digitisation of business operations and supply chains. This business strategy is based on a range of secondary strategies such as:
- Strengthening data processing and analysis capabilities.
- The interaction of machines and people in the adoption of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) in more and more functions.
by Trust Economics-https://trusteconomics.eu
©The law of intellectual property is prohibited in any way unlawful use/appropriation of this article, with heavy civil and criminal penalties for the infringer.
Photo by the website https://en.wikipedia.org
SCOR Framework
If we look at the supply chain from the point of view of SCOR (Supply Chain Operations Reference) we will see that its increased degree of digitisation concerns the main axes of this:
Plan, Source, Make and Deliver.
Based on what SCOR stands for, all in-house and inter-business barriers to information exchange between marketing, product development, production, distribution, and procurement departments are gradually removed.
Due to these events, integrated digital ecosystems are emerging in which everyone participates: suppliers and suppliers of the suppliers, customers and the customers of the customers.
a) Plan Axis
This axis focuses on the coordination of the individual functions of SCOR with a view to balancing supply and demand in three (3) time horizons:
- The strategic
- The tactical
- The executive
The most important digital transformation action is the configuration of the Supply Chain Control Panel where all links are visually imprinted. Alternative demand/supply variance scenarios are also calculated to identify the weakest links and enhance overall resilience.
b) Source Axis
Businesses develop digital use-cases related to market strategy:
- Enhanced cost analysis,
- Dynamic vendor evaluation
- Common bases for monitoring and executing contracts.
Then, market-payment executive cycle areas such as electronic invoice control and order issuance/receiving automation are automated. The aim is to make use of the management time saved in larger strategic initiatives.
c) Make Axis
On this axis, use-cases are about moving to a “smart” factory. Data analysis solution such as:
1. Digital twins for simulating material flow.
2. Preventive maintenance using predictive algorithms and sensors.
3. Dynamic detailed scheduling is in line with technical implementations such as 3D printing.
4. Automated guided vehicles.
which together make up the digital transformation of production.
d) Deliver Axis
This is the last axis of the supply chain and digitisation has a direct impact on the overall experience enjoyed by the last customer.
The creation of the “smart” warehouse that feeds a dynamic distribution circuit requires the use of pick-by-vision technologies and collection/sorting robots in combination with mathematical techniques to minimize flows of the time-consuming picking process.
Digital interventions in this area are found in optimizing the last mile with deliveries within specific time windows, even with a drone, and constantly informing the recipient about the progress of his order.
All the cases above-mentioned use-case make up parts of the single mosaic that is the digital transformation strategy of business operations.
To avoid much disruption in any business, agile implementation often follows agile methodology where the rapid creation of standard solutions and pilot applications in a subcategory of products or regions follows the design.
After continuous control and improvement of each use-case is applied more widely until universal acceptance.
