The Optimal Infrastructure is crucial for retailers to reduce costs, meet rising consumer needs and perfect communication between suppliers and partners. Retailers are adopting a 360-degree view of their entire supply chains—from raw material acquisition to production to last-mile delivery, by adopting intelligent, data driven processes to not only predict inventory and aptly respond to consumer expectations, but synchronize information sharing among all members of the supply chain.
Cloud Synthesis
Retailers are sitting on a wealth of data, but these valuable insights often get lost between disparate teams and solid channels. Data-driven communication channels can help optimize fast and responsive communication between factories, warehouses, stores and other supply chain elements, sharing key information between partners through cloud infrastructures and keeping everyone on pace to deliver excellence.
Three keys to an intelligent supply chain
1.Deliver the right products, parts, resources, and service where and when they’re needed.
Product as a service adds complexity to your supply chain. No longer is the supply chain simply responsible for manufacturing and delivering a product to a customer. Now, it can involve coordinating everything from parts going into products to service technicians conducting predictive maintenance and repairs to software updates on products—and much more. This requires orchestration across multifaceted, dynamic networks that often span the globe.
2.Achieve a balance between customer service level and budget requirements.
The cost-versus-service equation has always been a delicate balance for manufacturers. As you shift to product as a service, customer service levels aren’t just calculated based on how the product performs, but on delivery of purchased services. Providing these services at any cost is not an effective way to achieve desired service levels, yet cutting costs by decreasing inventory, for example, can result in unexpected downtime and financial penalties. You need an intelligent way to achieve balance, so you can maintain optimal inventory levels and manage your cost of goods, while still meeting customer expectations.
3.Enable tighter upstream and downstream collaboration across complex value chains.
With product lifecycles continuing to compress, innovation and speed are critical to success in today’s manufacturing marketplace. That means you need to collaborate faster and smarter across the value chain to innovate and bring to market new products and services, so you can stay ahead of the competition and meet your customers’ expectations.
