*By Waldir Bertolino
War in Eastern Europe, rising prices, worldwide economic and social instability. All these issues have contributed to a scenario of great uncertainties and agitation for the business environment. The teams that lead the supply chain management are highly disadvantaged in this context, because they have to deal with challenges that are often unpredictable. And if all the difficulties we've faced so far weren't enough, it's unlikely that 2023 will be any different.
Therefore, it is essential to put together a strategic action plan to respond to market fluctuations and, above all, maintain the resilience of your logistics network to boost your company's success. Staying ahead of supply chain management trends is essential to achieving this goal.
A recent study of the Gartner indicates that in the coming years, digital technologies will be strongly adopted by supply chain teams, with the aim of improving decision-making by leaders and the management of warehouses and distribution centers. Below I list some of the predictions that should guide IT investments in this area in the coming year.
Autonomous robots in logistics
Logistics and innovation go together. In an industry where agility and efficiency mean profit, adopting automated processes becomes increasingly necessary. No wonder, the implementation of autonomous robots has been more frequent and should continue to grow in the coming years. By 2026, according to Gartner, 75% of large companies will have adopted some form of intelligent robots for automating logistics processes.
These robots address the need to automate processes to complement the human workforce. Typically, autonomous robots are configured to carry lighter loads, such as boxes. However, the expectation is the massive entry, in the short term, of some models capable of handling large volumes, especially pallets.
Efficiency in sharing and processing data
Asset management in the logistics area is one of the biggest challenges in the sector. Sharing information efficiently among all those involved in the logistics ecosystem can make the difference between delivering products to the right place, on time, at the lowest possible cost, or putting the entire operation at risk.
Therefore, investing in technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence (AI) are key to improving supply chain management. This is what Gartner estimates, pointing out that more than 75% of companies should incorporate these technologies to obtain greater gains in visibility of logistics processes, in addition to boosting decision-making.
Microservices as a productivity lever
As supply chain complexity and volatility increase, organizations must become more agile. This means that traditional applications built around old architectures are no longer suitable for today. One way to future-proof the supply chain technology foundation is to move to microservices-based, composite application architectures.
I believe in the growth of the microservices approach, as this digital architecture system manages to simplify business tasks and, with that, should make supply chains more agile and efficient to deal with complex and adverse scenarios.
In the clouds
O Gartner also foresees an exponential growth of cloud technology for business management. According to the consultancy, global spending on cloud storage should reach 500 billion dollars this year and will continue to guide the investments of business leaders in 2023. The result translates what the solution delivers: decentralizing data management, reducing costs, optimize the operation, in addition to facilitating the user journey. All this is advantageous for any organization to remain competitive in the market, and it is no different with companies in the logistics chain.
With the use of an ERP in the cloud, the processes of routing, receipt and separation of goods, dispatch of orders, storage and control of freight contracts will be carried out through virtual platforms, offering gains in agility and productivity for the teams.
Finally, Brazil has been accompanying, albeit timidly, the growth of the global economy. This will force companies to modernize their processes so that the supply chain is not an obstacle to achieving better results and these technologies are part of this radical change. Resilience and agility will remain key assets of a truly efficient supply chain.
*Waldir Bertolino is Country Manager at Infor
Notice: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies
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