Supply chain management balance shifts from efficiency to resilience under Covid - E-guide
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E-guide Supply chain management balance shifts from efficiency to resilience under Covid
Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
In this e-guide
In this e-guide:
Covid crisis shifts supply
This year’s Covid-19 global health crisis pandemic has put
chain management from immense strains on supply chains, even unto breaking point –
efficiency to resilience at least sporadically.
Achieving supply chain There seems to be a consequent shift in business economic
resiliency: how to adapt to
thinking from “just in time” to “just in case”, at least relatively
long-term global disruption
speaking. A shift from lean, absolute efficiency to a big dollop
AI, robotics help businesses
of resilience.
pivot supply chain during
COVID-19 Advanced supply chain technologies have kept companies in
the game, whether business networks, such as SAP Ariba,
How Infor Nexus is helping to Open Text’s Trading Grid, and Infor Nexus platform, which
digitalise Asia’s supply chain operate like dating apps for buyers and suppliers, or machine
learning and robotic process automation to automate supply
chains as much as possible. However, much of the ML and
RPA-led transformation of supply chains is still for the future.
This e-guide explores these matters, beginning with a
comprehensive article that ranges over supply chain
Page 1 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
management, from a macro level through how trading platforms
In this e-guide
have been flexed to switch suppliers rapidly down to how
Covid crisis shifts supply
robots have been quickly deployed to solve problems of scale.
chain management from
efficiency to resilience We publish some advice on how to weather the storm, and
report on how Wayfair, UPS, Unilever and Siemens are
Achieving supply chain automating more of their supply chains as the pandemic
resiliency: how to adapt to
wreaks havoc. We also look at how Asian companies were
long-term global disruption
digitising their supply chains before the pandemic and the
AI, robotics help businesses
benefits that has brought.
pivot supply chain during
COVID-19 Brian McKenna, Business Applications Editor
How Infor Nexus is helping to
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
Page 2 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
In this e-guide
Covid crisis shifts supply chain
Covid crisis shifts supply management from efficiency to resilience
chain management from
efficiency to resilience Brian McKenna, Business Applications Editor
Achieving supply chain
Looked at on a world scale, the Covid-19 pandemic will continue to deliver
resiliency: how to adapt to shocks to global supply chains for some time to come. Even if the public health
long-term global disruption crisis abates in the UK, our economy is part of a global economy, and UK
corporate IT will have its work cut out in supporting companies as they are
AI, robotics help businesses forced to re-forge supply chains, perhaps over and over again, and at short
pivot supply chain during notice.
COVID-19
The crisis has provoked some rethinking of how the world economy ought to
work, with an emphasis on the desirability of a shift from efficiency – doing
How Infor Nexus is helping to
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
things “just in time” – to resilience – building in more slack. The FT’s Rana
Faroohar provides an account of such rethinking in an article entitled From ‘just
in time’ to ‘just in case’ published earlier this year.
In the discussions which lie behind this article there are different emphases on a
spectrum of opinion: some say we can have both efficiency and resilience
equally, others that there is a choice to be made for one or the other, and yet
others say it’s a matter of balance, of trading off.
Page 3 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
Tony Harris, global vice-president of business network solutions at SAP, says it
In this e-guide has to be a combination. “You wouldn’t want to move to a resilient network or
supply chain that wasn’t also efficient,” he says. “It’s a balancing act between
Covid crisis shifts supply the two, given what we’ve seen over the past five to six months, but with the
chain management from
right technology solutions in place you can weather the sort of storm we’re
efficiency to resilience
hopefully coming out of now.
Achieving supply chain “With a business network you get resiliency as well as efficiency. What we’ve
resiliency: how to adapt to seen with our customers, with supply chains that were disrupted because of the
long-term global disruption pandemic, is their being able to quickly find an alternative source of supply that
meant they were not impacted for long at all.
AI, robotics help businesses
pivot supply chain during “For example, Ram Tool Construction Supply was constructing a temporary
COVID-19 hospital just outside of New York City, and its traditional supplier no longer had
access to hospital beds, so it posted its requirement on the SAP Ariba
How Infor Nexus is helping to Discovery service, which is like a dating app for suppliers and buyers. Within 30
digitalise Asia’s supply chain minutes, it had an order confirmed. Outside of cloud-based systems, that is
unheard of,” he says.
Harris also recommends the supplier risk software that is part of the Ariba
product set. “It’s not a crystal ball that can predict the future, but it can help you
prepare for the worst. And it gets you down to level two, level three of your
supply chain in terms of assessing risk and putting mitigation in place, as well
as giving monitoring and alerting,” he says.
Page 4 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
Nevertheless, some sectors have suffered more than others, particularly travel,
In this e-guide oil and gas, airlines and automotive. “Some have been able to pivot, partly
thanks to technology such as our online trading directory,” says Harris.
Covid crisis shifts supply
chain management from Another recent SAP Ariba example he adduces is Al Dahra, an agribusiness
efficiency to resilience based in Abu Dhabi, which needed storage options for grain in desert
conditions. The company’s usual suppliers had maxed out their storage
Achieving supply chain capacity. After posting its sourcing need on SAP Ariba Discovery, it received
resiliency: how to adapt to responses from 142 suppliers around the world in less than three days. The
long-term global disruption company was able to find the storage supplies it needed to avoid shipment
delays.
AI, robotics help businesses
pivot supply chain during “In the past, you would have spent weeks or months doing that sort of thing,”
COVID-19 says Harris.
In terms of major structural changes that big companies might have to deal with
How Infor Nexus is helping to
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
after the pandemic, such as de-globalising pressures, he says: “I think that has
been in the background, especially in regard to the trade war between the US
and China, with tariffs being introduced. ‘Should I source locally, at a higher unit
price but without the tariff?’ is the sort of question companies have been asking.
“The pandemic has raised that conversation again. I think companies will start
to take advantage more of networks. And by that I don’t just mean electronic
document exchange, I mean networks of assets and the internet of things [IoT].
Page 5 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
“Having sensors on things that connect to networks of procurement transactions
In this e-guide will lead to a supply chain that can be far more intelligent and automated than
ever before. We are only just becoming aware of the art of the possible. And,
Covid crisis shifts supply again, that kind of intelligent automation balances efficiency with resilience,” he
chain management from
says.
efficiency to resilience
Navigating uncharted business territory
Achieving supply chain
resiliency: how to adapt to Margaret Heffernan is a business author and former chief executive who places
long-term global disruption more emphasis on resilience than efficiency. Her most recent book is
Uncharted: How to map the future together.
AI, robotics help businesses
Heffernan was one of the speakers at this year’s CogX conference, in a panel
pivot supply chain during
COVID-19
entitled, Recovery: What’s coming next/Economics in the age of Covid-19.
Her short answer to the question of how the economy will be different post-
How Infor Nexus is helping to pandemic is: “Nobody knows – there are a lot of people spinning their favourite
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
theories, but none of us have been here before.”
She believes, however, that the efficiency mindset that has dominated business
thinking for decades is too brittle for a world necessarily stalked by uncertainty –
and that the pandemic has thrown that into relief.
“There are events that no one sees coming, so-called black swans, but there
other things which fall into the category of uncertainty, in that we know they are
going to happen, in general, but are specifically ambiguous,” says Heffernan.
Page 6 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
“Epidemics are a perfect example of this. We know they happen, but because
In this e-guide there is no profile of an epidemic, we can’t say when they are going to break
out, or when they will stop, or what the disease will be. In those cases, you need
Covid crisis shifts supply ‘just in case’ not ‘just in time’ thinking. In other words, if it happens, what would
chain management from
we wish we had ready and prepared?
efficiency to resilience
“Now, preparedness does not feel efficient. But, to be prepared [in the UK] we
Achieving supply chain would not want the NHS to be running at full capacity. We would want there to
resiliency: how to adapt to be PPE [personal protective equipment], and more beds than we need right
long-term global disruption now. We would want there to be more healthcare professionals than we need
right now. In the absence of knowledge, that is all you can do.
AI, robotics help businesses
pivot supply chain during “The efficiency mindset, which has dominated business since the industrial
COVID-19 revolution, is about getting rid of all waste. But it puts you in danger when you
know there is uncertainty in the system,” she says.
How Infor Nexus is helping to
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
“The reason ‘just in time’ [manufacturing] was so phenomenal is that it leaves
decision-making to the very last minute when uncertainty is minimal. In most
contexts that makes perfect sense. But the truth about ‘lean’ and ‘just in time’ –
when, say, you’re in car-making and sourcing parts from many countries all over
the world, when you are trying to optimise for factors like labour costs,
currencies, and so on, to be as lean as possible – is that there is a downside.
And that is, you have exposed yourself to all sorts of things you can’t control –
political strife, religious strife, trade wars, weather events, and so on. You don’t
want to be so punctiliously efficient – you have to build in redundancy.”
Page 7 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
She argues, and shows persuasively in her book, that when businesses go
In this e-guide through a crisis, people keep supporting the organisation because of the
friendships they have made at work – they fight alongside and for each other.
Covid crisis shifts supply She contends that the gig economy – which is a good homology for a ‘just in
chain management from
time’ supply chain – by contrast, is “tremendously wasteful of human capital”
efficiency to resilience
and that workers won’t share innovative ideas when working in that mode.
Achieving supply chain Nor does she see the pandemic model of working from home all the time –
resiliency: how to adapt to which supply chain managers, along with other managers, have had to adopt in
long-term global disruption pandemic circumstances – as sustainable. She mentors CEOs and other
business leaders who, she says, have found it “hard to get a sense of how the
AI, robotics help businesses business is feeling” during the crisis. She gives an example of the CEO of an
pivot supply chain during investment bank who admits to missing even the people she dislikes. “We all
COVID-19
get our sense of identity from others. A job isn’t just a series of tasks. It is
meaningless if it is so,” adds Heffernan.
How Infor Nexus is helping to
digitalise Asia’s supply chain Supply chain management, like all aspects of business management, are done
and led by human beings. What should, in her view, resilient managers look
like?
Heffernan identifies an answer, which might read across to supply chain and
other managers, in how the military recruits and develops “adaptive leaders”.
For her book, Uncharted, she interviewed General Sir Nick Carter, chief of
defence staff. “In the army, you face uncertainty all the time, and so he told me
Page 8 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
they try to identify and develop adaptive leaders. They don’t want people who
In this e-guide know one type of warfare when another comes along. And so they are trying to
hire more diverse people – for which they have been pilloried in the tabloid
Covid crisis shifts supply press,” she says. “Now, it is very hard to find those people. The educational
chain management from
system does not produce them. It trains people to assume there is a right
efficiency to resilience
answer, and to know what it is.”
Achieving supply chain What role can IT professionals in user organisations play in getting the economy
resiliency: how to adapt to out of the post-pandemic recession to come by helping their companies and
long-term global disruption organisations be ready for anything?
AI, robotics help businesses “In IT, because the technology changes so fast, you want to recruit people who
pivot supply chain during are fantastic learners. We tend to hire people for the skills, but in IT those will
COVID-19 change, so you want people for whom lifelong learning is their idea of fun. You
also need people who can translate between customer needs and technical
How Infor Nexus is helping to understanding and who are cross-pollinators, who understand all the bits of the
digitalise Asia’s supply chain business, and transfer what’s been learnt from one part to another,” advises
Heffernan.
Connecting complex systems
How IT professionals and those operating within the supply chain can use data-
driven insights to connect an increasingly complex ecosystem and optimise
business processes is a subject of specialist interest to Mark Morley, cloud
integration evangelist at OpenText.
Page 9 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
The vendor sells a platform called TradingGrid, which combines network
In this e-guide services, integration services, managed services and software-as-a-service
(SaaS) applications that, in part, are geared towards optimising supply chain
Covid crisis shifts supply efficiencies. It is similar to SAP Ariba.
chain management from
efficiency to resilience In an interview with Computer Weekly in the early stages of the pandemic, in
April 2020, he talked about the impact the virus was having on business
Achieving supply chain operations globally, from his perspective at OpenText.
resiliency: how to adapt to
long-term global disruption He confirmed that TradingGrid has in the region of 65,000 customers and said it
had been in a good position to “help companies identify alternative suppliers
AI, robotics help businesses really quickly”.
pivot supply chain during
COVID-19 When Covid-19 first emerged in China, that posed a big problem since roughly
half the world’s manufacturing parts come from there, he commented. China
was coming back around that time, so there was some recovery there, but much
How Infor Nexus is helping to
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
of the western world was going into lockdown. But another aspect of having to
switch quickly was the demand for diversification of manufacturing capacity
towards healthcare – specifically, at that time, the manufacture of ventilators.
He took the view that companies which had not made the shift to the cloud
would struggle to make those business process changes which necessarily
have implications for their supply chains.
Page 10 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
“We certainly believe having a cloud-based integration platform is a key
In this e-guide requirement for companies to manage a disruptive period. I’ve never seen
anything like this – even with tsunamis and earthquakes in the Far East. It is
Covid crisis shifts supply interesting to see supply chains front and centre because, without them, there is
chain management from
no way companies could manufacture what they are in such a short time
efficiency to resilience
period,” said Morley.
Achieving supply chain At that time, he was characterising the world’s supply chains as “somewhat
resiliency: how to adapt to frozen”. He also said he saw companies rethinking their pre-existing supply
long-term global disruption chain, with a view to building in more resilience.
AI, robotics help businesses “One thing is having more flexibility in terms of being able to choose new
pivot supply chain during suppliers, or switch manufacturing to other locations. Another is collaboration,
COVID-19 with good day-to-day communication with suppliers. Yet another is visibility,
where IoT comes into play. And finally insights that supply chain leaders can get
How Infor Nexus is helping to from the data that is moving across our network, so they can make alternative
digitalise Asia’s supply chain plans. And that is where machine learning comes in, to go through ‘what if’
scenarios. I know of companies that have set up ‘war rooms’, disruption
management facilities to look at supply chains, not just now, but when they
restart,” he said.
War rooms
Slimane Allab, general manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA)
at supply chain software company Llamasoft, confirms that he, too, has been
Page 11 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
seeing customers improvising “war rooms” to rebuild their broken supply chains
In this e-guide during the pandemic.
Covid crisis shifts supply Llamasoft derives its name from the mountain-trekking, supply-bearing beast of
chain management from burden native to South America. The company, says Allab, has always been
efficiency to resilience focused on the “value network” of its customers. “For us, it is all about network
optimisation. We apply AI [artificial intelligence] to company network
Achieving supply chain management to address business optimisation problems.” (By “network” he
resiliency: how to adapt to does not mean telecommunications networks, but rather the value chain of a
long-term global disruption company from source suppliers to end customers).
AI, robotics help businesses “Typical problems would be: What is the right product flow to optimise the
pivot supply chain during reduction of CO2 emissions? What is the inventory target associated with that?
COVID-19 And so on,” he says.
Its customers include large automotive companies, fast-moving consumer
How Infor Nexus is helping to
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
goods companies such as Coca-Cola, and retailers.
What, then, has been the impact of Covid-19 on the supply chains of
Llamasoft’s customers this year?
“Some have seen it as an opportunity, like grocery retailers. Pharmaceutical and
petro-chemical companies were affected on the supply chain in the early days,
with an impact of around 20% to 30%,” says Allab.
Page 12 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
“And this is why we’ve seen companies use ‘war rooms’, to address how they
In this e-guide are being affected both on the supply side and on the demand side. And these
war rooms have led them to think differently about resilience and agility; about
Covid crisis shifts supply how to best leverage the network they own in normal times for the new times,
chain management from
and to minimise the impact on their bottom line.
efficiency to resilience
“They are typically thinking more local, less global. But there are areas that will
Achieving supply chain need to remain more global, if you think about parts for engines or vehicles. If
resiliency: how to adapt to you have 30% of your parts coming from China, you are looking to reduce that,
long-term global disruption have dual sourcing, and so on, to de-risk sourcing. So, global [sourcing] will
remain, but to a lesser extent than before.
AI, robotics help businesses
pivot supply chain during “Companies are also looking at demand from the end customer. What does
COVID-19 fresh and healthy mean? We’ll see a less broad assortment, more local
sourcing, plus, most importantly, an emphasis on sustainability – for example,
How Infor Nexus is helping to fashion made with sustainable fibres. The pandemic has focused attention on
digitalise Asia’s supply chain sustainability.
“It’s about a movement from optimisation and efficiency to consideration of other
factors in sourcing. Some 30% of our customers have sustainability as a
criterion, and that proportion is increasing. They are looking at cost, risk,
resilience and sustainability [when sourcing suppliers],” says Allab.
One client Llamasoft has worked with is China’s largest retailer, JD.com, “to
bring Chinese supply chains back online after their Covid-19 disruption in the
Page 13 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
earlier part of this year”, says Allab. “We partnered with JD’s logistics [arm] to
In this e-guide provide services to other companies and organisations in China.”
Covid crisis shifts supply Llamasoft has had a strategic partnership with JD Logistics since August 2019,
chain management from whereby the former exclusively delivers and integrates Llamasoft’s supply chain
efficiency to resilience design and analytics software as part of its own service and technology systems
to select manufacturers, retailers and logistics providers in China using the JD
Achieving supply chain Logistics network.
resiliency: how to adapt to
long-term global disruption Robots to the rescue
Siemens Healthineers is another company that turned to advanced automation
AI, robotics help businesses
technology to quickly solve a supply problem posed by the pandemic. In this
pivot supply chain during
COVID-19
case, Infosys Consulting provided the medical equipment manufacturer with a
robotic process automation (RPA) system to help it meet demand for parts as
the crisis raged.
How Infor Nexus is helping to
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
The Infosys team implemented an RPA solution in four days that would usually
take four weeks.
This Covid bot they put in – one of two – now runs global stockchecks 24/7 to
ensure parts can be shipped to where they are needed most, updating as
supplies arrive – doing what humans were doing before, but six times faster,
according to Infosys and Siemens Healthineers.
Page 14 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
Michael Buchmann, head of RPA, Europe, at Infosys Consulting, leads their
In this e-guide engagement with an automation centre of excellence at the Siemens business
unit. “It’s my favourite project,” he says.
Covid crisis shifts supply
chain management from The particular problem they looked to solve was the delivery of parts and
efficiency to resilience medical equipment. “Worldwide demand increased very much with Covid, for
example for ventilators and parts for those. The people dealing with the delivery
Achieving supply chain of those were just overwhelmed so there were delays,” he says.
resiliency: how to adapt to
long-term global disruption Such was the urgency of the crisis that Infosys got access to all the systems it
needed much more quickly than would normally be the case with a client. “We
AI, robotics help businesses got the access in a day or two – normally that takes months, or indeed never,”
pivot supply chain during says Buchmann.
COVID-19
His multinational team – two from Europe, one from Brazil, and one from India
– worked on the problem from a Tuesday in April to the Sunday night, going live
How Infor Nexus is helping to
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
on the Monday. “It was a beautiful and incredible effort,” he says.
The manual process they have robotised used to take nine minutes – it now
takes 30 seconds. Also, the robot replaces the work of 10 human users and the
system does not crash. In the first 40 days of running, the robot had processed
4,000 items, saving 350 hours of labour, says Buchmann.
This process is one of distributing stock from warehouses to plants to build
medical equipment. The different country plants order parts from a central SAP
Page 15 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
system and availability of stock globally needs to be checked. This is now done
In this e-guide by the robot, which also then makes any adjustment in stock worldwide
automatically. If it is not possible, the robot rejects it with an explanation why. If
Covid crisis shifts supply there are different plants ordering the same stock as the same time, it helps
chain management from
coordinate between them so the stock doesn’t get double booked.
efficiency to resilience
The team went on to code – using BluePrism RPA software, as with the first
Achieving supply chain robot – a second bot that scans lists of materials, sees lower priority sources of
resiliency: how to adapt to demand and reallocates items to higher priority sources of demand. “It creates a
long-term global disruption queue, assigning [by] priority. It does automatically what it would take 10 people
much time to do, freeing up those highly qualified people to do more complex
AI, robotics help businesses things,” says Buchmann.
pivot supply chain during
COVID-19 “What fascinates me is that when everyone works together in a crisis situation a
lot can be done quickly. If we can work more efficiently, why not go to a four-day
How Infor Nexus is helping to work week, and make our economy more resilient, because there is less
digitalise Asia’s supply chain pressure put on people? These bots we have built shine a spotlight on that
general concept,” he says.
Weathering the storm, but winter is coming
Cloud-based business network systems, such as those offered by SAP,
OpenText and Llamasoft, among others – we could mention Infor Nexus, too –
will help companies that operate globally to continue to weather the pandemic
storm. Automation, too, fuelled by machine learning of the stripe built for
Page 16 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
Siemens by Infosys, has a role to play in balancing efficiency and resilience –
In this e-guide but, most probably, in a new economic paradigm that favours the latter over the
former.
Covid crisis shifts supply
chain management from However, he or she who says “supply chain” also says “world economy”.
efficiency to resilience Nobody really knows at present what the precise economic impact of the global
Covid-19 coronavirus will be. This prognostication from the London-based
Achieving supply chain international journal of ideas New Left Review, published during the peak of the
resiliency: how to adapt to first wave of the virus in the spring, still seems realistic as autumn unfolds and
long-term global disruption winter is coming. It is also void of the careful, anodyne and euphemistic
language of the mainstream business press, so it is blunt, shorn of the niceties
AI, robotics help businesses of conventional economic commentary.
pivot supply chain during
COVID-19 “The demand shock from the west hammers a world economy still struggling to
recover from the end of the commodities super-cycle and burdened by debt,
How Infor Nexus is helping to much of it denominated in strengthening dollars,” it reads. “Oil has sunk below
digitalise Asia’s supply chain $35 a barrel; remittances and tourism revenues have been slashed. Welfare is
minimal across most of Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian Subcontinent and
Southeast Asia, where lockdowns are enforced with lathis and sjamboks. With
further waves of the virus expected over the next six to 18 months, global
supply shocks have yet to kick in.”
Page 17 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
In this e-guide
Achieving supply chain resiliency: how to
Covid crisis shifts supply adapt to long-term global disruption
chain management from
efficiency to resilience Brian McKenna, Business Applications Editor
Achieving supply chain
This is a guest blogpost by Mark Morley, Director, Strategic Product Marketing,
resiliency: how to adapt to OpenText
long-term global disruption
Disruption to global supply chains, particularly in the manufacturing sector, has
taken many different forms over the years. Whether due to natural disasters,
AI, robotics help businesses
large-scale industrial action or widespread social unrest, each disruption has
pivot supply chain during
COVID-19 brought uncertainty around how suppliers will be impacted and how long the
disruption will last.
How Infor Nexus is helping to All major forms of supply chain disruption – be they triggered by significant oil
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
price moves, regulatory environment shocks such as Brexit or catastrophic
climate events and earthquakes – have brought about the need for new levels
of supply chain risk management. However, the global supply chain is facing a
very different challenge today. The Coronavirus pandemic is not just a short-
term crisis. We are facing many months and potentially years of disruption
impacting companies all around the world, and we're already witnessing turmoil
on a scale never seen before. The old rules no longer apply. So how can
organisations adapt to manage long-term global supply chain disruption?
Page 18 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
The challenge ahead
In this e-guide
We're into uncharted territory. No one knows exactly what lies ahead as the
Covid crisis shifts supply COVID-19 pandemic could almost be described as causing the first truly global
chain management from supply chain disruption of the modern era. The types of supply chain turbulence
efficiency to resilience the world has experienced in the last few decades have tended to be more
regional in nature. For instance, following the Fukushima earthquake and
Achieving supply chain tsunami in 2011, agile businesses were able to pivot quickly and source
resiliency: how to adapt to alternative supply elsewhere. In contrast, a global pandemic is by its nature a
long-term global disruption global challenge. Bloomberg recently estimated that this particular outbreak
could cost the global economy $2.7 trillion – close to the entire GDP of the UK.
AI, robotics help businesses Dun & Bradstreet predict that nearly 5 million businesses globally could be
pivot supply chain during impacted.
COVID-19
As each country implements different restrictions depending on the severity of
How Infor Nexus is helping to virus transmission in their respective region, supply chain resilience is being
digitalise Asia’s supply chain tested in new ways. Deloitte recently referred to COVID-19 as a ‘black swan'
event. It will force companies to restructure supply chains and introduce more
flexible IT infrastructures that facilitate new ways of working and support more
agile supply chains. Instead of abandoning global supply chains though, it's time
to redesign and rebalance supply chains.
The reality is companies are unlikely to completely avoid supply chain disruption
caused by the Coronavirus. All the traditional approaches to supply chain risk
management still need to be deployed but it's likely that the companies which
Page 19 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
think innovatively about their production and supply chain operations will
In this e-guide weather the storm best. This means making changes to better map supply
chains, understand risks and deploying systems that help them adapt and flex.
Covid crisis shifts supply
chain management from Adapting to the ‘new normal'
efficiency to resilience
Many organisations have already demonstrated their ability to adjust to new
Achieving supply chain
challenges when required during this pandemic. For instance, distilleries across
resiliency: how to adapt to the UK switched production to make alcohol-based hand sanitizer to slow the
long-term global disruption rate of coronavirus transmission. The manufacturing sector in particular was
able to pivot quickly in response to the UK government's rallying call to assist
AI, robotics help businesses with ventilator production. The VentilatorChallengeUK Consortium – comprised
pivot supply chain during of UK industrial, technology and engineering businesses from across the
COVID-19 aerospace, automotive and medical sectors – came together to meet the
national requirement for more ventilators. In total, the 33-strong consortium led
How Infor Nexus is helping to to over 5,500 people working across nine sites to produce between 100-200
digitalise Asia’s supply chain combined units per day.
Beyond adapting production lines, the magnitude of the current global pandemic
is forcing many manufacturers to adopt new ways of working that maximise
productivity and flexibility through information management and digital
technologies. The reality is business and supply chain resilience go hand-in-
hand with digital transformation in the ‘new normal' – for manufacturers and
companies across other sectors.
Page 20 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
Establishing supply chain resilience
In this e-guide
Establishing supply chain resilience requires organisations to adopt more robust
Covid crisis shifts supply digital tools and make a fundamental change in their approach to business
chain management from practices. Given today's global levels of disruption, organisations must focus in
efficiency to resilience on four key areas to achieve resilience within their supply chain.
Achieving supply chain
Flexibility
resiliency: how to adapt to
Adopting technology which enables supply chain flexibility and keeps vital
long-term global disruption
channels of information open and accessible anywhere around the world is key
for business continuity. Companies that achieve this can better weather
AI, robotics help businesses
unforeseen events. In today's market, cloud-based deployment and storage is
pivot supply chain during
COVID-19 essential here – enabling businesses to manage costs, resources and risk
without sacrificing competitive advantage, customer satisfaction or product
innovation. When a manufacturer shifts their data from on-premise storage to
How Infor Nexus is helping to
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
the cloud, they ensure that all business information becomes globally
accessible. As the global supply chain has to adapt based on the level of
restrictions in place in various countries at any time, this flexibility – made
possible by the cloud – will be vital.
Collaboration
Another key to business continuity for manufacturers is maintaining
collaborative relationships with external partners. Deploying a cloud-based
Page 21 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
platform allows them to improve the contact management relationship between
In this e-guide trading partners if a global disruptive event occurs. With this technology,
partners can continue to monitor and supervise the execution of dual sourcing
Covid crisis shifts supply strategies. It also means they can use the centralised management of all trading
chain management from
partner contact information to quickly establish the post-disruption condition of a
efficiency to resilience
supply chain – providing significant competitive advantage while also leading to
more accurate risk assessment and prevention steps for future disruption.
Achieving supply chain
resiliency: how to adapt to Visibility
long-term global disruption
Manufacturers seeking to adapt their operations and continuously provide
AI, robotics help businesses products and services to their customers should shift towards technologies that
pivot supply chain during provide visibility on data, giving them a better opportunity to speed up and
COVID-19 improve decision-making processes. These companies can better communicate
and secure expanded visibility into their multi-enterprise operations using
How Infor Nexus is helping to integrated third-party data sources. By doing this, manufacturers will be able to
digitalise Asia’s supply chain self-monitor the functionality of critical components that could be impacted by
unforeseen supply chain and operational disruptions.
Insights
Analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning technologies are
invaluable during a period of disruption. A greater focus on data preparation and
integration to bring together information from a wide range of sources is crucial.
By capturing and analysing its entire data set, a manufacturer can derive
Page 22 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
insights which enable greater efficiency, improve operations, drive innovation,
In this e-guide and open up more new business opportunities. For instance, the adoption of a
cloud-based predictive analytics platform enables real time alerts when supply
Covid crisis shifts supply chain issues arise – such as a late delivery or a missed order – and ensure
chain management from
timely human intervention can correct these errors. It also allows for ‘what if'
efficiency to resilience
scenarios to be played out to understand the impact of any disruption or
change, such as introducing a new set of second source suppliers across a
Achieving supply chain supply chain. Essentially, better information management layered with analytics
resiliency: how to adapt to
and machine learning technology can provide the insights required to remain on
long-term global disruption
top of potential issues and maintain workflows – both vital for the viability of a
manufacturer's operations within the larger supply chain system.
AI, robotics help businesses
pivot supply chain during The global pandemic has put a bright spotlight on the challenges manufacturing
COVID-19
companies face, as unstable global markets and shifting supplier relationships
continue to disrupt operations. Any disruption can set a chain reaction of issues
How Infor Nexus is helping to in motion, from shipment delays to limited visibility into delivery status and
digitalise Asia’s supply chain inventory levels. Digital transformation will be key to achieving supply chain
resilience and adapting to long-term disruption. Companies that seize the
opportunity and move to agile and flexible cloud-based architectures will be able
to respond quickly to changes and continue to deliver, operate and excel
despite the constant flux of global disruption ahead.
Page 23 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
In this e-guide
AI, robotics help businesses pivot supply
Covid crisis shifts supply chain during COVID-19
chain management from
efficiency to resilience Shaun Sutner, News Director
Achieving supply chain
AI and robots are transforming supply chains after the COVID-19 pandemic
resiliency: how to adapt to disrupted manufacturing and logistics systems around the world.
long-term global disruption
Many enterprises that already used AI and machine learning-driven robots for
supply chain responded quickly, stepping up investments in the technologies to
AI, robotics help businesses
automate movement of goods from the factory floor to distributors to retail
pivot supply chain during
COVID-19 shelves and consumers' doorsteps.
"As a supply chain practitioner, the one thing that is key to digital transformation,
How Infor Nexus is helping to whether we call it AI ... is this notion that people want to automate a lot of
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
decisions," said Kermit Threatte, director of operations research at online home
products retailer Wayfair. "Automating those decisions will be better than what a
lot of supply chain is based on right now, which is manual decisions."
Threatte moderated a panel discussion on AI and supply chain at the Ai4 2020
conference, a virtual gathering of AI and machine learning experts held Aug. 18-
20.
Page 24 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
Conversation in the session shifted between AI and robotics in the supply chain.
In this e-guide A recurring theme was that reducing human participation in both generating
ideas and performing manual tasks can be faster and cheaper, and, perhaps
Covid crisis shifts supply most importantly in the time of the coronavirus, safer.
chain management from
efficiency to resilience Distancing humans from the virus at work
"When you're talking about pandemics that can occur now and in the future, you
Achieving supply chain
resiliency: how to adapt to want to reduce touch," said panelist Gregory Brown, chief engineer/scientist for
long-term global disruption ATG systems engineering at UPS. "You want to take humans out of the process
if you can, and if you can get to autonomy, that's one way to do it."
AI, robotics help businesses
Brown and others on the panel referred to autonomous machines -- whether
pivot supply chain during
COVID-19
self-driving trucks and vans or whirring drones -- as a key objective in the near
term.
How Infor Nexus is helping to For Threatte, one practical approach, especially with the shortage of human
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
truck drivers, is to automate highway transport and rely on humans to handle
final delivery stages in densely populated cities and suburbs.
Unprecedented events upset machine learning
Machine learning and many predictive technologies rely on historical data to
make next-best action decisions. That approach doesn't work when events like
COVID-19 occur, argued Darko Matovski, CEO and co-founder of CausaLens, a
London-based vendor of autonomous predictive technology. His company's tech
Page 25 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
uses time-series and dynamic systems rather than past events to predict
In this e-guide outcomes.
Covid crisis shifts supply "When COVID-19 or events of similar magnitude happen, essentially what
chain management from happens to the world is the fundamental driver of change," Matovski said.
efficiency to resilience
"Current machine learning relies on past data. It works well when the world is
Achieving supply chain
stable," he continued. "But when the fundamental principles of the world
resiliency: how to adapt to change, the causal drivers change and using this technology leads to worse
long-term global disruption predictions than tossing a coin."
AI uses in pandemic times
AI, robotics help businesses
pivot supply chain during Among the most useful applications for AI in the supply chain for consumer
COVID-19
goods multinational Unilever is its ability to remedy stocking problems.
How Infor Nexus is helping to "Traditionally, for a lot of stock replenishment, we're talking to planners. A lot of
digitalise Asia’s supply chain this is done manually or on a rule-based model. It's very simplistic," said Dave
Marmor, supply chain data scientist at Unilever.
Now, Unilever uses AI algorithms to factor in more dynamic features, such as
ordering patterns in the current manufacturing environment, as opposed to past
economic conditions, and more flexible load pooling -- bundling of stock bound
for a specific region.
Page 26 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
"Traditionally, we load a truck and deliver the truck to the [distribution center],"
In this e-guide Marmor said. "How can we find ways now when we don't have enough and we
need to allocate different stock to different customers? We can't send them a
Covid crisis shifts supply whole truck."
chain management from
efficiency to resilience Juan Aparicio, head of advanced manufacturing automation at Siemens
Corporate Technology, said Siemens uses AI to solidify and tighten its supply
Achieving supply chain chain channels during the pandemic by automatically identifying opportunities
resiliency: how to adapt to for more efficiencies.
long-term global disruption
"It's really seeking things around the world. ... And bringing manufacturing close
AI, robotics help businesses to consumption," Aparicio said.
pivot supply chain during
COVID-19
How Infor Nexus is helping to
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
Page 27 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
In this e-guide
How Infor Nexus is helping to digitalise
Covid crisis shifts supply Asia’s supply chain
chain management from
efficiency to resilience Aaron Tan, Executive Editor, APAC
Achieving supply chain
At the peak of the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, buyers were extending
resiliency: how to adapt to payment terms from 30 days to as long as six months, while more shipping
long-term global disruption firms cancelled scheduled sailings as the amount of cargo declined.
Those were some of the recent challenges faced by companies in the supply
AI, robotics help businesses
chain industry, which saw a decline in business as global trade slowed down
pivot supply chain during
COVID-19 amid the pandemic, according to Cas Brentjens, vice-president at Infor’s Nexus
unit in Asia-Pacific and Japan.
How Infor Nexus is helping to “There was a lot of pressure on suppliers in Asia, so there was a large demand
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
for supply chain finance programmes,” Brentjens said. “Some brands also
reacted quickly by setting up warehouses in Hong Kong or Singapore to support
the direct-to-consumer business model.”
Brentjens said with a substantial amount of global trade being managed through
the Nexus supply chain platform, the company introduced a visibility programme
to provide insights on orders and shipments, as well as a supply chain financing
Page 28 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
scheme to provide buyers and suppliers with easier access to capital from
In this e-guide lenders.
Covid crisis shifts supply “We also helped companies set up warehouses quickly so they can set up new
chain management from operations, but there’s still much work left to do in digitalising the enterprise
efficiency to resilience which Covid-19 has accelerated,” he added.
Achieving supply chain
Digitalisation efforts in the supply chain industry started decades ago with
resiliency: how to adapt to electronic data interchange (EDI), but the presence of multiple technology
long-term global disruption standards meant that suppliers and buyers have had to grapple with different
trading systems.
AI, robotics help businesses
“With multiple trading platforms, it’s important that they can talk with each other
pivot supply chain during
COVID-19 though application programming interfaces”, Brentjens said. “But what’s new
now is that technology enables us to scale better in a global integrated play
through the use of open source technology.”
How Infor Nexus is helping to
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
Brentjens does not think a global EDI standard would emerge given the differing
views around standards and technologies, such as the use of blockchain in
trading platforms.
In 2018, Singapore’s Global eTrade Services launched an open trade
blockchain network to boost cross-border trade between China and the rest of
Asia.
Page 29 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
By enhancing the security of trading documents, such as certificates of origin
In this e-guide and commercial invoices, the network was expected to promote transparency
and trust between shippers, freight-forwarders and customers.
Covid crisis shifts supply
chain management from To Brentjens, however, blockchain might not be the best way to promote
efficiency to resilience transparency and trace goods for now, because of its complexity as well as
performance and cost considerations after Infor tested the technology in some
Achieving supply chain pilot projects.
resiliency: how to adapt to
long-term global disruption “There might be a use case for blockchain in some areas and for certain supply
chains,” Brentjens said. “But traceability and having one version of the truth can
AI, robotics help businesses be achieved through certificates of origin. In fact, the technology we’re using
pivot supply chain during has some similarity to blockchain although it is not blockchain.
COVID-19
“The only part that is different is trust, and where blockchain is providing trust,
we provide that trust by being part of the Nexus platform.”
How Infor Nexus is helping to
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
The Nexus platform also provides cargo tracking capabilities by linking the
location data of vessels to the cargo and individual items being shipped by
vessels, aircraft and trucks equipped with location trackers.
Plus, geofencing and machine learning techniques can be applied to that data
so that the next party in the supply chain can be informed of when the cargo is
expected to arrive at a port, Brentjens said.
Page 30 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
The Covid-19 situation has not dented Infor's traction in the Asia-Pacific region,
In this e-guide with the company seeing double and triple-digit growth in Japan, China and
Southeast Asia, thanks to the growing adoption of cloud, according to Brentjens.
Covid crisis shifts supply
chain management from Infor Nexus operates a global datacentre in the US that hosts its supply chain
efficiency to resilience platform while other Infor cloud services may be delivered through regional
datacentres in Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Sydney to meet performance
Achieving supply chain and data sovereignty requirements.
resiliency: how to adapt to
long-term global disruption According to P&S Intelligence, an India-based market research firm, the global
cloud supply chain management market is expected to reach $11bn by 2023.
AI, robotics help businesses Asia-Pacific will see the fastest growth due to automation and swift
pivot supply chain during industrialisation in the region.
COVID-19
How Infor Nexus is helping to
digitalise Asia’s supply chain
Page 31 of 32Supply chain management balance
shifts from efficiency to resilience
under Covid
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