Future of Supply Chain

Supply chains are losing customers amid disruptions. Mounting backorders, low inventory, increased prices and delayed shipments plague supply chains and threaten customer loss. Supply chain performance plays a key role in whether a customer is likely to repurchase, and services and offerings should be designed around customer enablement. According to Gartner research, enabled customers are 2x as likely to repurchase, but only 23% of supply chains focus on enabling their customers. To scale customer experiences across the global supply chain, focus on three key actions:

1. Streamline the supply chain service menu. The best supply chains offer their capabilities “as a service”, and differentiate the customer experience order to order across the buying journey.
2. Gain funding and address high service-delivery costs with cost-to-serve transparency.
3. Address the challenge that the pace of launching new services is too slow.

Learn More

• 3 Tactics to Drive Supply Chain Customer Loyalty 
• Supply Chain as a Partner for Growth 
• How to Improve Your Supply Chain Customer Experience 
• Executing Best-Practice Supply Chain Segmentation
• Creating a Nontraditional Supply Chain
• The Next Supply Chain Disruption Is Coming — Take Action Now

As legislation and stakeholder pressure increases, reinvention to achieve sustainability has gone beyond the nice-to-have and is now critical to future-proof business operations and address global sustainability concerns. Sixty-seven percent of CSCOs are accountable for environmental and social sustainability KPIs. Communication and alignment may improve internal effectiveness and reputation, but supply chain transformation is how you truly realize sustainability and drive change in the end-to-end value chain. Across supply chain sustainability activities — like circular economy, greenhouse gas emission reduction and risk governance — top CSCOs are significantly more likely (19% on average) to have capabilities in place to achieve their goals. To authentically fulfill your commitments, embed ESG in goals, measurement and decision making.

Learn More

• The Gartner Top Supply Chain Sustainability Trends and Emerging Priorities for 2023
• Supply Chain Top 25 Climate Change Leadership
• 3 Key Actions for Supply Chain’s Response to Climate Change
• Supply Chain Management Amid an Energy Crisis
• Elevating Humanity Through Supplier Diversity
• A Blueprint for Building the Purpose-Driven Supply Chain

Ninety-five percent of supply chains must quickly react to change, but only 7% can execute decisions in real time. Without real-time execution, the supply chain will know exactly what to do, but response execution will be delayed. As such, supply chain real-time decision execution adoption will increase 5x by 2028. With the right supply chain technology, analytics and skills, the future supply chain will automate execution and improve performance across the end-to-end value chain. Real-time supply chain capabilities require a three-step transformation:

1. Access to real-time data from across the end-to-end supply chain.
2. The capability to analyze that data on the fly. This enables supply chain organizations to meet enterprise expectations for real-time decision making.
3. Real-time decision making will trigger an expectation for real-time execution.

To achieve this, CSCOs must overcome the challenges of legacy technology and lack of data, all while utilizing the right technology that enables, not overwhelms. This requires digital transformation to optimize critical operations.

Learn More

• Gartner Predicts the Future of Supply Chain Technology
• What Supply Chain Data Will Look Like in 2025
• Digital Supply Chain: Six Strategic Actions
• The Supply Chain 2035 Roadmap 
• Aligning Supply Chain Technology With Business Processes
• Foster a Digital Supply Chain Ecosystem to Increase Competitiveness

Scarce talent is a major challenge. According to our 2022 Global Labor Market Survey, approximately 20% of supply chain employees have demonstrated job seeking behavior over the last year, and the impact is hitting the business — more than half (54%) of all supply chain organizations say that an inability to access talent has interrupted or curtailed business activities in their organizations. CSCOs aren’t sitting idly by: They are investing in the employee experience and employee value proposition (EVP). But procedural and cultural challenges to work flexibility persist. To attract, retain and engage the talent that future supply chain strategy and planning demand, CSCOs must offer an EVP that moves beyond financial motivation to one that provides a flexible, purposeful day-to-day employee experience that creates a feeling for employees of being understood, autonomous, valued, invested and cared for. And, creates pathways for personal development and choice in work. The competitive advantage here comes from attracting and retaining not only the right skills, but having more engaged employees helping your organization succeed.

Learn More

• Gain Access to Future Supply Chain Talent
• Supply Chain Talent Retention
• The Future of Work According to a Supply Chain Expert
• Developing the Supply Chain Professional of 2025
• Well-Being and Flexibility Are New Table Stakes for Today’s Frontline Workforces
• Essential Roles and Talent for Supply Chain Analytics Excellence