not far off . With the right data , control towers can provide much of the information needed to understand what ’ s happening within the supply chain — across supplier tiers , during the conversion process and all the way into the customers ’ hands . Managing the operations and economics of supply chains with the same tool used to manage sustainability , which was often not the direct responsibility of supply chain organizations in the past , also makes sustainability and transparency an integral part of overall supply chain decision making — both at the input level and during the conversion processes .
The increasing push for circular supply chains that recapture and reuse raw materials at the end of a product ’ s life cycle depends heavily on traceability . Tracing materials is an integral part of transparency ; being able to trace materials throughout the product life cycle is a prerequisite for feeding them back into the conversion process for reuse , recycling or remanufacturing . The benefits of having such transparency allows reduction in the consumption of raw input materials , and these circular supply chains are not limited to a single company ’ s value chain . Often , materials are recycled by third parties and later fed into another sector ’ s value chain as substitutes for virgin raw materials . To fully capture these opportunities , companies also need visibility into supply and demand – and not just into the supply chain .
Q . WHAT TECHNOLOGY CAN ORGANISATIONS ADOPT TO ACHIEVE END TO END TRANSPARENCY ?
» Assembling a next-generation technology stack is needed to facilitate end to end supply chain transparency especially when it comes to data collection , analysis and sharing . Most companies lack a platform specifically designed to provide visibility and traceability across the supply chain . Instead , they typically try to combine legacy ERP solutions with homegrown visualization and analysis . But these systems weren ’ t built for that purpose , and their ability to automate traceability and visibility with multiple ecosystem partners is limited . At the same time , making a big new technology investment in this rapidly evolving space carries risks of its own , with technology providers entering the supply chain market with solutions from many different angles .
Information led : Some solutions center on providing aggregated industry information , benchmarks and market intelligence to empower decision making .
Certification led : Other solutions provide environmental , social and governance ratings based on shared information .
Software led : Yet another set of solutions employ use cases and information sharing as enablers ( for example , data analytics engines or cloud storage solutions ), point solutions focused on one set of supply chain priorities , or end-to-end supply chain engines .
Service led : Consulting services provide strategic advice that builds on the insights delivered by software or data aggregation solutions .
“ TRANSPARENCY , RESILIENCE AND SUSTAINABILITY OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN ARE PRIORITIES THAT CAN ’ T BE IGNORED .”
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