Page 9 - Logistics News - September October 2022

O P I N ION

into something that was unthinkable 50 years ago. But it but whose gut matters too. We need to consider that some

happened. And we should know that it’ll continue to become problems that need fixing are old, but realise that some are

more sophisticated, more useful and more cost-effective. new or we’ll do the same-old and be left behind.
Warehouses and trucks are no longer at the Model T stage of

development. Crystal in the office
Supply chain IT starts with looking inside our organisations.
So, too, when it comes to IT in supply chains, application We have supply chains that ERP like SYSPRO will help when
is no longer a question; it’s fundamental to business existence it comes to manufacturing and distribution, enabling us to

and competitive position. Application isn’t just the basic become effective, competitive and profitable supply chain

financials, a bit of planning, some inventory management partners. Then we share plans, making our industry supply

and a touch of procurement – that’s the past. At the chains lower cost and more globally competitive.
bare minimum, we have to get used to the current ‘new’
technology so we move from Henry Ford’s ‘black beauty’ to But recent disruptions show that we need to see what’s
Ferruccio Lamborghini’s eye-bending electric exotics. Tempus coming, and how we’ll have to adapt and prepare for the
fugit, times they are a-changin’ – whatever… that’s the likely scenarios to survive in business through disruption we
history. Get ready to apply the future – now. didn’t cause.

Current future ERP, WMS, TMS, collaborative hubs, tracking and all
Automation, collaboration and innovation are the right ideas, business/SC applications now need user monitoring to
but are becoming passé, almost ordinary, as we apply them to ensure transactions are processed in a governed way. This

the problems we believe we have. Supply chain (SC) networks feeds business intelligence/analytics, which must be armed
are creaking as the inability to change – the arthritis of SC with predictive capabilities – assessing what is likely to
nodes – worsens and continual scaling up for dominance happen to supply, demand, delivery and import/export.
creates dinosaurs. But we didn’t see that coming. We relied
on a static past. To augment your own experience, you must employ a
new friend: artificial intelligence – the new guy that learns

New experiential-based learning is required to solve way faster than all of us as it learns with machine learning
new problems that we may face. Add scenario analysis and from the data we collect, looks for patterns, potential
planning on top of root cause analysis; we have to become outcomes/events, their probability of happening, the
cognitive – thinking laterally, being open-minded, armed consequential effect and the cost… what a friend it is. Add L O GI S T I CS NEWS

with risk and probability, aided by broader experience and outside data/indicators using IoT that affect your world and

have foresight from real data and events not over-affected you can predict the future and adapt in time. This is where IT
by our experience and business prejudices. Gut matters – and business are going – smart people thinking machines. •
www .l o g ist i csn e w s .c o .z a SEP T E MB E R/O CT O B E R 2022 7