JDA Focus Wrap-Up: Pursuit of the Autonomous Supply Chain

Supply Chain Mapping

Earlier this month we attended JDA Focus 2018 at the Marriott World Center in Orlando, Florida. We heard all the latest on innovative technologies, customer-focused business strategies and the pursuit of the supply chain of the future.

JDA CEO Girish Rishi discussed three trends that are currently driving the industry:

  • Local as the new global
  • Hyperpersonalization
  • Techology at the edge

Rishi believes it is time to localize your business for your customers because that is the standard we are approaching. Personalization is now something that more and more people are utilizing – from personalizing products they use to expecting a personal interaction with brands. He also mentioned that companies should be forward-looking – focused less on the “what” and more on the “what next?”

JDA’s “moonshot” is their pursuit of the autonomous supply chain. In discussing this pursuit, Rishi elaborated on four stages of the digital supply chain maturity progression:

  • Visibility – Requires the integration of data from all of the systems across your supply chain both inside and outside of your “four walls.” Finding a way to utilize this data is an uphill climb, but a necessary one, for companies.
  • Predictive Analytics – Combining data and algorithms allows you to predict supply, demand and any potential disruptions.
  • Prescriptive – Courses of action to respond to changes or disruptions can be prescribed by intelligent engines, based on various optimization algorithms and/or AI/machine learning.
  • Self-Learning Supply Chain – AI/Machine Learning can learn over time, based on observation. As trust in the system’s recommendations increases, a greater and greater portion of decisions can be made automatically by the system, without human intervention. This allows the professionals to focus their time and effort on problems that only they can solve.
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enVista is working toward advancing these ideas every day. Here are some examples:

  • Using historical data on supplier compliance/performance to predict potential supply chain disruptions (i.e., late shipments leading to potential stock outs) and to prescribe potential solutions such as alternate suppliers for products or increased safety stocks or lead times if you only have a single source for the product(s). This data can also be leveraged to renegotiate contracts and/or recoup costs of these factors (e.g., increased inventory carrying costs.
  • Leveraging detailed transactional data in WMS and LMS systems to identify operational barriers such as congestion and/or poor slotting. Prescribing alternate layouts and slotting to reduce and eliminate these productivity barriers.
  • Leveraging algorithms to analyze trends in zero ships to determine root cause factors that will in turn point to the right mechanisms for decreasing zero ships.

enVista is working towards the autonomous supply chain, as many others are across the industry. Will it happen in our lifetime? Only time will tell. Stay tuned to this space to see how far we can go!

To read more about how enVista has helped companies utilize visibility to data and turn it into predictive analytics, read the white paper “What’s the Big [Data] Deal?

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White Paper

Increase ROI Through Successful Warehouse Slotting

A well-thought-out slotting strategy also enables businesses to minimize wasted space and maximize storage capacity within the warehouse. Increase ROI using the right tools, strategy and management plan with successful warehouse slotting.

Download
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