Data-Driven Transformation - 2022 Supply Chain Digitization Trends

Never has flexibility and technology moved hand in hand as much as they do now. The greater the flexibility of a business to adapt to the ever changing technology of today’s times, the greater its chances of success. One such change in technology over the last few years is supply chain digitization. And this change is almost inevitable if you want your business to thrive! 

So what exactly is supply chain digitization?

The term supply chain digitization refers to the employment of digital technologies to transform a business model that enables:

• Product traceability
• Quality & inspections management
• Testing management
• Compliance
• CSR & environmental audits
• Raw material traceability
• Timely flagging and mitigation of risks
• Centralized access to data & real-time insights

In short, supply chain digitization aims to turn resilient supply chains to more agile supply chains.

One of the trends for supply chain digitization in 2022 is its data-driven transformation.

A data-driven approach

A data-driven supply chain starts with a quality and compliance management tool that allows the flow of information from every essential point of production to one platform.

Brands & retailers that utilize this can reduce defects, better mitigate risk, increase efficiency and, most importantly now, track sustainability through the supply chain ensuring ESG goals are met.

Emerging trends

Here at Pivot88 we have noticed the following trends:

1. True End-to-End Visibility

There’s been a huge acceleration in the adoption of our quality solution at earlier stages of the supply chain – starting from raw materials.  By implementing raw material inspections, defects are drastically reduced before materials go into production providing greater manufacturing optimization. This, combined with the introduction of our Returns module collecting feedback from end consumers, closes the loop, targeting quality issues and providing visibility at every stage of the supply chain.

 2. Focus on Sustainability

We’ve seen an increased demand from our clients to use our compliance modules to track sustainability with T1/T2 and further upstream when able. We’ve also seen an uptick in them partnering with third party organizations to verify their sustainability goals.

 3. Mapping the Chain of Custody

Traceability is becoming the name of the game – our clients are significantly investing in our AI driven traceability module to gain better visibility upstream.

 4. Further Desegmentation of Data

Brands and retailers are experiencing the constant headache of switching between platforms, fumbling through emails and re-creating corrective action plans.  Through system integration, all your data is under one roof, enabling actionable data capture and allowing your entire ecosystem to collaborate directly within the same platform.

What’s next?

Today, quality and sustainability both start with the voice of the consumer and their expectations aren’t lowering any time soon – they expect sustainable products that have the best quality and performance.

Achieving a full 360° view of  supply chains will set apart the market leaders. This means connecting various solutions with machine learning to deliver actionable insights to key stake holders, including the end consumer, all from one dashboard.

It all starts with data, and this can only be achieved with collaboration among the supply chain partners, as early as possible. All parties will benefit from this end-to-end visibility that will translate into valuable insights directly impacting on-time performance and customer retention.

 We are confident that this will be the future of a truly data-driven supply chain.