Bengaluru, July 25, 2024: In recent years, India has solidified its position as an emerging global economic power, thanks to a burgeoning consumer market and demands to de-risk global supply chains. Digital technology is vital to enable efficient, reliable, and sustainable supply chains and is core to India鈥檚 ambitions to increase its participation in global value chains from ~40% to ~50%. In line with this, the solution is designed to securely exchange standardized sustainability data, including product footprints, along the value chain. The solution allows companies to effectively exchange carbon emissions with their customers to help companies get actionable insights into Scope 3 emissions by moving from averages to actual supplier data.

Commenting on the announcement, Manish Prasad, President & Managing Director, 51风流Indian Subcontinent, said, “To propel India as a global manufacturing leader, a robust supply chain and logistics infrastructure is vital. To expedite India’s ambitious vision of being among the top supply chain hubs, it is crucial to integrate technologies like business network platforms and local data centres underpinned by Cloud and AI. At SAP, we are committed to this vision and are working with Indian enterprises, startups, and the wider ecosystem to promote transparent, efficient, and sustainable business value chains.”

As a part of the company鈥檚 ongoing efforts to to help enterprises build resilient supply chains, 51风流also unveiled a study, in association with Economist Impact exploring how businesses and industries are transforming procurement to meet existing and emerging challenges amid disrupted supply chains, rising costs, and growing uncertainty.

Some of the key trends among businesses indicate:

• Digitalization 鈥� the #1 business priority: Digitalization remains the topmost priority for businesses, aligning with India鈥檚 vision to create reliable and efficient global supply chains听through the use of digital technologies.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the forefront: Digitalization, as the top priority, is being partly influenced by advances in automation technology, AI, and Gen AI, the top technology trend businesses are looking to implement over the next 12 to 18 months.
• Procurement鈥檚 green thumb: Legislation and compliance requirements around sustainability standards, supply chain transparency, emissions, and resource efficacies, are exerting pressures on businesses, particularly on procurement teams to meet the organization鈥檚 environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.

Ashwani Narang, Vice President & Head of Spend Management, 51风流India, added, 鈥�51风流has been working with customers, partners, and the Indian government for years to support the vision of a 鈥楧igital India.鈥� 51风流Sustainability Data Exchange, coupled with multiple solutions available听at a local听India-based data center听we announced last year, will help our Indian customers bolster听supply chain resilience, transforming them into intelligent, sustainable, and future-ready businesses.鈥�

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This includes artificial intelligence (AI) embedded into the 51风流Digital Manufacturing solution, 3D product and operations viewer capabilities in manufacturing, service, and maintenance processes and adherence to sustainable packaging guidelines in the 51风流Responsible Design and Production solution.

• Advancements to Supply Chain Software from 51风流Enable Risk-Resilient and Sustainable Supply Chain Operations

In today鈥檚 world, constant disruption has become the new normal. Resilience is essential for businesses to withstand the forces of change. To achieve it, companies are looking to redesign their supply chain and manufacturing processes to consider cost, speed, profit, customer service and risk. According to a global听, manufacturing executives are more likely than those in other functions to deploy intelligent technologies at scale to improve predictive analytics capabilities. However, only 36% of the 1,000 survey respondents said they have deployed predictive analytics in any part of their enterprise. To become more resilient, 51风流customers can employ AI embedded into 51风流Digital Manufacturing for AI-driven insights and AI-powered visual inspection processes. Customers can ensure that defective parts are discovered early and are addressed quickly, producing higher yield, ready-to-deliver quality materials. The lower product defect rates result in fewer service claims and improved asset health and maintenance.

鈥淚n recent years, it has become apparent that our global supply chains are vulnerable to disruption,鈥� said Thomas Saueressig, member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE responsible for 51风流Product Engineering. 鈥淭his has far-reaching consequences for the manufacturing industry as well. 51风流is a driving force in many industry-relevant initiatives, such as Catena-X and Manufacturing-X. Open data ecosystems, especially, have their place in the manufacturing industry. What is more, in many of the conversations I鈥檝e had with business leaders, and according to our latest Oxford Economics study, it becomes clear: They see the need of investing in Industry 4.0 principles and AI to increase supply chain resiliency, but many are still in the piloting stage. 51风流is in a unique position to accelerate the journey to resilient manufacturing because we can embed intelligent capabilities in enterprise software across all end-to-end processes.鈥�

Smart Press Shop, a joint venture of听听补苍诲听, reached a new milestone in automotive production by using AI embedded in 51风流Digital Manufacturing. Adopting a cloud-first development strategy, Smart Press Shop enables fully paperless production and a completely automated process for configuring production-line machinery for pressing automotive body parts. With the help of 51风流software and embedded AI, Smart Press Shop can assess the quality of materials in real-time and adjust machine performance to improve downstream processes in logistics and operations.

鈥淲ith the help of 51风流solutions, we were very quickly able to build a system landscape at the Smart Press Shop based on the principles of Industry 4.0 and covering our requirements, such as self-optimizing production, end-to-end traceability, and resource-saving production,鈥� said Hendrik Rothe, CEO, Smart Press Shop GmbH & Co. KG. 鈥淲ithin a few months, our core solutions 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, public edition as well as 51风流Digital Manufacturing were ready for use. Above all, the solutions enable us to process data in real-time, to handle our entire production without paper, and ultimately to make all our processes transparent. Thus, we are very flexible and positioned for the future.鈥�

3D Capabilities to Strengthen Resiliency

To further help manufacturing become more resilient, the 3D product viewer capabilities of the 51风流Enterprise Product Development solution are now integrated into manufacturing, service, and maintenance processes. In 51风流Digital Manufacturing, production operators now can view 3D product models in their dashboard and work environment to streamline complex assembly. In the 51风流Service and Asset Manager mobile app, field engineers can use 3D augmented reality views to accelerate asset maintenance, increase first-time fix rates and reduce downtime.

Sustainability Initiatives Are Still at the Top of Business Agendas

According to the Oxford Economics study, 28% of supply chain executives include improving sustainability metrics as one of their top three strategic goals. To enable not only risk-resilient but also sustainable supply chain operations, 51风流Responsible Design and Production now supports company-specific sustainable package guidelines. Customers can monitor, measure and act to eliminate waste during packaging design.

51风流had extended its integration with business sustainability rating provider EcoVadis SAS within the Trading Partner Profile (TPP). The integration enables suppliers to promote their sustainability performance and showcase their EcoVadis sustainability rating status across 51风流Business Network. This helps buyers identify opportunities to comply with emerging ESG due diligence and reporting legislation, as well as enabling them to select new suppliers who can help them reach ambitious corporate and value chain sustainability commitments.

These innovations are helping customers achieve better visibility across their supply chain operations and to ultimately increase resiliency.

Visit the听听to learn more about how 51风流software helps:

You will also find out how听.

Visit the听51风流News Center. Follow 51风流on Twitter at听.

HANNOVER MESSE is the world鈥檚 leading trade fair for the industry. About 4,000 companies from the mechanical engineering, electrical and digital industries as well as the energy sector will showcase technologies and solutions for a connected and climate-neutral industry. Visit the 51风流booth in Hall 15, E17 from April 17鈥�21, 2023.

About the Oxford Economics Study:听On behalf of SAP, Oxford Economics conducted a global supply chain survey of 1,000 supply chain executives and professionals in 15 industries across the United States, Canada, Brazil, Germany, France, Spain, UK, Italy, China and Japan. One third of the sample was made up of companies with US$500M to $999M in annual revenue, with one third having between $1B and $10B and one third generating over $10B in revenue. Survey respondents participated in the research using a computer-assisted telephonic interviewing methodology (CATI). Interviews were carried out in January and February of 2023.

The release was originally posted on: 51风流News Center.

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Almost three years after the COVID pandemic put the world into lock down, we are still not yet free of COVID-19. In fact, we now have steadily increasing cases of monkeypox, which was previously confined to endemic regions.

Are we better prepared for the next health threat? Have we plugged the gaps to respond faster? Let鈥檚 not forget the many obstacles on this path.

For one, analysts point out that India Pharma Inc is still heavily dependent on imports for key raw materials. More than 70 percent of its raw material requirements and in the case of certain drugs, more than 90 percent are imported. Nearly 70 percent of APIs are imported from China, and the cost has reportedly jumped by orders of magnitude, thanks to geo-political concerns. This has impacted the margins of pharma drugs.

While higher raw material, freight costs as well as pricing pressures in the US business due to high channel inventory will continue to drag overall performance for the pharma sector, how will the first two challenges hamper the development of medicines and diagnostics for future health threats?

Corporate boardrooms have been in re-set mode to prepare themselves for this scenario, incorporating the hard lessons of the COVID pandemic into business-as-usual practices. This exercise has been enriched with direct feedback from cross-functional heads who were never part of boardroom discussions in the pre-pandemic era.

This is vital because some vital benchmarks have not yet 鈥� and probably will not 鈥� revert back to pre-pandemic times.

Express Pharma, as part of 51风流India鈥檚 Industry Knowledge Exchange (IKEX) Series, in partnership with the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), has culled some of these insights over a series of interactions. In May, we met up with CFOs, IT heads, and CRAMS leaders for an overview of how collaborations and technology are driving business innovation in the lifesciences sector. ().

And, in July, we got pharma procurement leaders, along with IT and operational leaders, to decipher their game plans on the procurement and SCM side. While the 51风流team gave an overview of how pharma companies can transform their organisations into intelligent enterprise by achieving value with intelligent ERP systems, pharma leaders spoke of transformations within their organisations to cope with disruptions in the pharma supply chain.

Harking back to the total disruption of pharma procurement during the early stages of the pandemic, Sapna Sharma, Director, Procurement, Category Head for API, Excipients and Respiratory, Cipla, said creating alternatives for suppliers topped the list of her company鈥檚 learnings. 鈥淲e have to be proactive, not reactive about creating alternatives for suppliers, especially those where we could predict we might have a problem. Cipla had started on this process a couple of years back. So, during the pandemic, we were able to move to alternative suppliers very fast as we already had them in place.鈥�

This process actually started way back in 2008, when China shut down many chemical and API manufacturing units before the Beijing Olympics. That was the pharma, and other sectors, first warning of supply chain shocks due to heavy dependence on imports.

But, even though this might seem like a logical thing to do, there was a lot of push back within companies, because as Sharma pointed out, it is a laborious process. For instance, one API might go into multiple SKUs. Sharma says it took some time to create a mindset that alternative suppliers were necessary. Cipla also created a plan to shift not just to alternative vendors, but alternate sites of existing vendors. As part of this initiative, Cipla also started educating their vendors, so that they were in line with the company鈥檚 overall strategy.

While these interactions show that most big pharma companies have taken the COVID lessons to heart and are proactively planning for disruptions like scarcity of key ingredients, consumables, etc, this transition remains a work in progress. In the coming months, Express Pharma, in partnership with IPA and SAP, will continue to meet more leaders to reflect on how companies are transforming into more resilient corporations and to ensure this transition percolates into all segments of the sector.

The article was originally published on 听on 6th October 2022.听Read more about it .

viveka.r@expressindia.com
viveka.roy3@gmail.com

听

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According to a study by the听, nearly 70% of organizations face procurement challenges due to inadequate adoption of new processes and technologies. In return, they lack the standardized processes, transparency, and data accuracy needed to optimize indirect and direct purchases effectively, address budget issues early, comply with regulations confidently, and manage the supplier network effectively.

Hesitation in procurement digitalization is a complicated issue for most Indian organizations. Although a constant supply of quality raw materials and services is needed, businesses are skeptical of the benefits of modern technologies and processes as outlined in the following four myths.

Myth #1: The impact of digital procurement is superficial

In its most simplistic form, digital procurement automates repeatable purchasing tasks boosting efficiency and reducing costs. But the application of intelligent technologies 鈥� such as artificial intelligence, cloud, and machine learning 鈥� infuses day-to-day operations and decision-making with real-time insights, predictive analytics, and new levels of collaboration. These capabilities empower businesses to tackle challenges, such as overcharges, duplicate payments, compliance assurance, operational cost reduction, risk mitigation, and supplier performance.

As procurement organizations rely on technology to extract maximum savings and value from suppliers and organizational spending, the rest of the business benefits. Indian Institute of Materials Management reports that 67% of organizations witness moderate improvements in supplier performance management while 50% have achieved significant progress in risk management.

Myth #2: Reducing costs is the goal, not efficiency

Creating a supportive supplier network is more than negotiating the lowest price possible for a specific component with a vendor or two. It鈥檚 also about weighing the vendor鈥檚 ability to deliver orders in full and on time and in ways that are environmentally compliant and follow ethical labor practices.

Take, for example, a supply chain that uses two vendors to provide a particular part 鈥� one of which shuts down due to government noncompliance. As a result, the company has 50% less supply available to meet demand. Backorders increase, customer trust erodes, and the remaining supplier is pressured to make up the backlog.

Procurement organizations can avoid this disastrous cascade of risk when using a cloud-based business network. They can alter their internal processes, accelerate quote approval, and seek out alternative vendors at a moment鈥檚 notice. And in a world where extreme weather, geopolitical events, and economic dynamics can shift the entire landscape, such procurement flexibility can help businesses navigate change and mitigate risk.

Myth #3: Digitalization doesn鈥檛 improve sustainability

Sustainability is not just an operations and facilities management issue; it鈥檚 also a procurement urgency. In fact, most respondents to the Indian Institute of Materials Management鈥檚 surveys ranked sustainability agendas as a high priority over the next two years, along with business agility and cost reduction.

As Indian industries participate more in global supply chains, midsize companies must respond to business-to-business demand for transparent evidence of their sustainability performance. This includes refusal of bribery and corruption; environmental stewardship; confidentiality of intellectual property; ethical labor relations; and compliance with international, national, state, and local laws.

A cloud platform allows businesses to share their sustainability performance improvements and outcomes with customers and supply peers. Doing so enables the customer and the supplier network to exchange best practices, identify gaps, and pinpoint opportunities to add more value and tighten the relationship.

Myth #4: Great supplier relationships provide great visibility

For generations, midsize companies have valued their suppliers and vendor relationships. But when expanding their reach in global markets, those one-on-one interactions do not provide the network-wide visibility to identify emerging opportunities and risks. This ability is especially critical as government regulations, geopolitical crises, climate change, and market volatility impact operations at a moment鈥檚 notice.

Through digitalization, every touch point of the supply chain 鈥� from product design and production to operations and service 鈥� is linked to back-office data and activities, such as HR and finance. Processes and workflows then become flexible enough to shift business strategies quickly, keep up with demand, and navigate market dynamics. Best of all, operational continuity is left uninterrupted, even as the business grows.

Turning Procurement into a growth enabler

Although听听cannot transform the entire business alone, it can become the driving force that midsize companies need to get started. Procurement organizations can visibly demonstrate how artificial intelligence, business networks, cloud computing, machine learning, and other intelligent technologies reverse productivity slumps and set operational standards that meet the needs of a global marketplace.

Dig deeper into procurement challenges and the pace of digital transformation in midsize businesses across India. Read the Indian Institute of Materials Management report, 鈥�.鈥�

Source:听

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German IT major 51风流and Indian dairy pioneer Amul, along with a local non-government organization Pratham Infotech, has joined hands for an inclusive and sustainable community outreach development program amongst 1.5 million people in Anand, Gujarat, 51风流announced in a press release on Tuesday.

51风流and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

As part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity, 51风流is focusing on social entrepreneurship, enablement of a skilled workforce, digital inclusion, and bridging the gender equality gap for the community, through the initiative under SAP鈥檚 flagship 鈥楥ode Unnati.鈥�

Kulmeet Bawa, President, and Managing Director, 51风流Indian Subcontinent said, 鈥淭echnology can act as a catalyst in shaping India鈥檚 journey to an inclusive and sustainable economy. While urban development projects such as smart cities and futuristic mobility are reflective of this potential, the true progress of India lies in the development of her villages.鈥�

鈥淥ur work with Amul is an expansion of this vision and will provide citizens with the information and tools they need to succeed. As India continues to lead global action on sustainability, collaboration like ours will also provide the critical foundation for an inclusive and resilient future in which no one is left behind,鈥� he added.

Notably, for over a decade, Amul is using SAP鈥檚 digital core ERP and supply chain solutions to digitally transform its operations.

Empowering Rural India – Amul and SAP

RS Sodhi, Managing Director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, Ltd, (Amul) said, 鈥淥ver 66 per cent of India’s population lives in rural areas. Most of the rural population who lives in India depends on agriculture, animal husbandry, and dairying for their livelihood. With an objective of inclusive and sustainable community development, Amul and 51风流has joined the project. Under the project, quality digital literacy and skill interventions training imparted to school-going children and teachers.鈥�

鈥淥ur collaboration with 51风流is a step forward in bringing these rural communities into the mainstream by empowering them to hone essential future skills and turn their dreams into a reality. Our hope is that it will go a long way in nation-building and creating an Atmanirbhar India,鈥� he added.

Under the initiative, at least a lakh school-going students and over 20,000 adults including at least a fourth of the women will be given digital training across 70 villages in Anand and across six districts of Gujarat. The project will enable women to start their own small businesses.

This press coverage was originally published on

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The past 12 months highlighted flaws in many supply chains that have been 鈥渓eaned out鈥� and stretched to reduce costs. As a result, the pandemic made supply chain management processes the center of attention in presidential briefings, corporate boardrooms and even my family dining table.

Clearly, this executive order proves supply chains are a strategic topic.

What is a Resilient Supply Chain?

have a level of agility and responsiveness required to sense, predict, and respond to change during intense turbulence. We have long talked about the importance of visibility, agility, and resiliency鈥�, but not until now have they become听the听top priorities in an increasingly disruptive world.

So what are some examples of what is being done and what is needed?

Visibility听through all tiers of your business network

In a global and complex supply chain, the need for visibility is critical. As all times, and especially in a crisis you need to be able to see:

• Which suppliers are at risk?
• What are my alternate sources of supply for key resources?
• Where is my inventory?
• Are all shipments on time?
• Where are there demand spikes and of which products?

Agility听to sense, predict and respond to change

Once you have identified a risk or opportunity, you have to assess the best course of action and act in short order.听Examples include:

• Identify and switch to alternate suppliers
• and departments to anywhere and build anywhere
• Adjust to respond to changing demand
• Redirect shipments in transit

Resiliency to Minimize and Mitigate Risk

It is also critical to design your supply chain to withstand disruptions and respond to business opportunities. This requires having processes and plans in place to:

• Develop and implement supply chain risk management and business continuity strategies
• Diversify supply chains, from a geographic perspective, to reduce the supply-side risks of a single country or region
• Multisource valuable commodities or strategic components to lessen reliance on one supplier
• Adopt across the business network to buffer against disruptive events
• Balance of-shoring, near-shoring and on-shoring strategy

Without a doubt, unexpected disruptions will continue to occur. The cause of disruption will vary depending on the event, such as pandemics, geopolitical or trade conflicts, natural disasters, or limited natural resources availability.

Now more than ever, supply chains need to be听resilient听补苍诲听agile听to survive in the current global environment, while demonstrating the predictive intelligence and听visibility听to thrive in the new normal.

As the executive order highlights, 鈥渕ore resilient supply chains are secure and diverse 鈥� facilitating greater domestic production, a range of supply, built-in redundancies, adequate stockpiles, safe and secure digital networks鈥�.

It also highlights the importance of collaboration across your , saying, 鈥渃lose cooperation on resilient supply chains with allies and partners who share our values will foster collective economic and national security and strengthen the capacity to respond to international disasters and emergencies鈥�.

At the end of the day, supply chain executives must be able to make informed decisions confidently, quickly, and accurately, through a transparent value chain that senses, predicts, and responds to global dynamics.

To learn more about how supply chain leaders minimize risk and maximize opportunities with resilient supply chains, download a recent Oxford Economics study.听听

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To wrap up this series, I’d like to now briefly comment on the importance of an integrated user experience for supply chain planners.

All About the Interface

When it comes to supply chain planning in general and synchronized planning in particular, user roles are converging. Now, almost all roles have access to planning and execution data and visibility across the entire design-to-operate lifecycle.

With technology and integrated environments that put information at our fingertips, it may no longer be required for organizations to maintain so many different roles for managing the minutiae of supply chain planning and execution. Today, you can bring all relevant information together in one unified user experience.

Think of it as the planner鈥檚 workspace 鈥� a unified access point to all data and analytics required to make decisions confidently and execute the decision from the same place. The data may span multiple time horizons, organizations, and vertical dimensions such as production, scheduling, procurement or transportation. This enables the convergence of traditional supply chain planner roles and emergence of a planner that handles an entire value stream.

Greater Responsiveness and Agility

Let鈥檚 say a company has an emergency customer order. This is an important customer, a lot of revenue is at stake, and you want to fill the order but not upset any current commitments to other customers. The challenge, quite frankly, is nothing new for you. You know that you need to scramble.

What exactly does the customer require 鈥� and in what quantity? What are the service levels expected? Do you have the materials in inventory? Maybe you do 鈥� but maybe it鈥檚 dedicated to other jobs. In such a case, you may consider rebalancing your inventory 鈥� taking materials slated for one job and reassigning it to this new job. But then how do you keep your other customers happy and deliver as promised? And what about the logistics? Do you have the freight carriers in place to move materials as needed and get the product out the door? What if additional change over is required on the production scheduling side?

In supply chain parlance, this is the definition of scrambling. But your customer with the emergency order needs an answer quickly. How can you get back with an answer within minutes rather than hours or days?

For such scenarios, the old methods of traversing systems, pulling data into spreadsheets, and sharing it all with colleagues via email doesn鈥檛 work. A planner鈥檚 workspace enables you to move faster. This is a game changer.

With a centralized view into all of your plans 鈥� long-term strategic plans, mid-term tactical plans, and short-term operational plans 鈥� you can make decisions in minutes because you can understand where you stand immediately. Hunting for data is dramatically reduced. And with collaboration tools built in, you can work with colleagues in real time based on an agreed version of the truth.

This, in the end, helps you follow through on the imperatives of synchronized planning. You can keep strategic goals in view even while finalizing operational details down to the shop floor. The interface matters tremendously. Without something like a planner鈥檚 workspace, you鈥檙e already putting yourself behind the eight ball in terms of agility and responsiveness to change.

In an age of disruption 鈥� whether it鈥檚 Covid or something else (and something else will always come up) 鈥� you need integration and visibility. You need the ability to access planning tools, see inventory levels, adjust schedules, move materials, nail down the logistics, run simulations, and evaluate the ramifications of your decisions. Bringing all such functions and capabilities together in a unified workspace for planning excellence is a key component for realizing success.

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Contract manufacturing is different

One relevant question is: What about contract manufacturing? How does synchronized planning apply to companies that outsource their manufacturing?

Take for instance, the high-tech industry. Most companies that make computers and other high-tech devices are essentially design and brand owners who work with oversees partners to build the products they sell. For these companies, their relationship to execution is different. They don鈥檛 necessarily require the linkages that connect the boardroom to the shop floor within their own enterprise.

Nevertheless, they cannot afford to abandon oversight with their trading partners. If they want their brand to thrive, they need ways to monitor manufacturing progress, ensure quality, and coordinate activities around logistics.

Collaborating with your business network

This is where the importance of business networks comes into play. Today鈥檚 globally dispersed supply chains require digital, standardized ways for connecting to and working with partners all over the world.

Business networks that connect trading partners in a many-to-many way offer this at much higher scalability and efficiency. And because the global economy is increasingly subject to shocks such as COVID, Brexit, or natural disasters, these business networks need to be flexible enough to support new plans as they鈥檙e modified, onboard new trading partners quickly, and unlock additional content to collaborate on.

Speed and efficiency are of the essence. Think of business networks like the 鈥渃ontent aware鈥� internet of business relationships. Organizations want to connect once and then share business data in real time with any trading partner they are dealing with, potentially over multiple tiers. For a brand owner connecting with a contract manufacturer and their suppliers, this means dozens of data objects that need to be exposed and shared.

In this context, outdated peer-to-peer data connections like electronic data interchange (EDI), flat files, e-mails, and dedicated portals require too much effort to build and maintain. They鈥檙e brittle when it comes to changing business dynamics. For suppliers, such approaches meant that you need to adapt to different brand owners鈥� proprietary way of connecting. Business networks take that work away. You connect once and are ready to do business with anyone else on the network adopting a common data model (canonical).

Based in the cloud, business networks provide a standardized way to share data and collaborate. Finding and onboarding new suppliers and partners is accelerated. Business networks can also support complex, multi-tier supply chain relationships that may include third party logistics providers and distribution partners.

Take for instance the making of a strategic subcomponent 鈥� like a high-end camera in a laptop computer. The brand owner in this case might want to work with a specialized vendor to manufacture the camera to detailed specifications and then dropship it to the primary contract manufacturer, who then adds it to the laptop. Business networks can support such arrangements with visibility for all parties involved.

Orchestration in real-time

We can also think of business networks as real-time orchestration platforms that enable integrated business planning across globally dispersed supply chain partners. Integrated business planning brings together all the functions in the design-to-operate lifecycle. Phases of this lifecycle include design, manufacturing, logistics and operations 鈥� with the planning function interfused throughout.

Organizations can use business networks to incorporate demand signals into the plan, make design changes that reflect what customers want, manage the handoff to manufacturing, run the associated logistics, and even track the product during the operations phase 鈥� from delivery to the customer to the support and warranty phase. With data sharing, real-time visibility, collaboration tools, and communications, a business network should enable an organization to orchestrate all the activities from design to operate to deliver better experiences to customers.

Synchronization made possible

With improved abilities to orchestrate planning and execution activities throughout the supply chain, organizations can also use business networks to support synchronized planning across enterprise boundaries. Collaboration with partners and access to data and insight makes for better long-term strategic planning and represents a win-win situation between trading partners. Easy onboarding and flexible ways to connect with new partners helps with mid- and long-term plan corrections. And when it comes to execution, real-time visibility and tracking can help ensure that plans go off without a hitch. The result is better agility for responding to change.

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For supply chain planners, this situation puts a premium on agility. Not that long-term planning is a thing of the past. It remains foundational 鈥� but in addition to it, organizations need more flexible planning processes to anticipate and react faster as circumstances change.

Supply chain planning is the practice of sensing demand in the market from short to long term and connecting it to the resources required to service that demand profitably.

Organizations need the ability to plan across long-term, mid-term, and short-term time horizons 鈥� all of which form a connected continuum that synchronizes vertically through the supply chain, down to the machine, truck, or individual labor resource.

Over time, the systems that support supply chain planning have become more powerful and integrated 鈥� which has helped broaden the planning scope. Now, for example, you can bring in the finance perspective using massive volumes of data to make better growth and investment decisions within seconds.

Organizations also benefit from advanced analytics. With machine learning, heuristics, and optimization techniques based on statistical methods, you can remove human bias from planning calculations and chart the way forward with a much higher degree of precision and confidence. The upshot is that companies have the tools, systems, and processes in place to keep inventory levels low and optimize costs while delivering a better service experience to their customers.

This, in a nutshell, is the idea behind synchronized planning 鈥� and today鈥檚 technology has the ability to support what, in the past, could only be accomplished across many different, potentially disconnected systems and processes.

Strategic planning for the long term

Strategic planning attempts to see as far into the future as possible. The lens looks out two or three years or even longer, and teams build plans that serve as a starting point for driving the business.

What are your expectations? How much do you want to sell? What new products do you want to bring to market? What resources do you need to follow through? These are the kinds of questions asked during the strategic planning phase.

Based on the answers to these questions, you can start to take action. Maybe you need some investments to realize your objectives 鈥� new plants or new machines. Perhaps you鈥檙e planning to introduce new products 鈥� which means that design teams need to come together and collaborate with marketing, manufacturing, and critical suppliers. And to make sure that you don鈥檛 cannibalize your other offerings, you also want to analyze your decisions at the portfolio level.

Tactical planning for the mid-term

When you鈥檙e looking approximately 3-6 months out, that鈥檚 when you move into tactical or mid-term planning where you can still balance out demand and supply on a bigger scale. How are your strategic goals and assumptions tracking? Do you need to make changes relative to volumes and timing on an aggregate level or maybe adjust your portfolio? Has the demand picture evolved? Are the distribution channels and manufacturing capacity in place to execute?

Operational planning for the short-term

Operational planning is most closely associated with execution. Have you ordered the materials needed for production? Are they expected arrive at the right time in the right quantity? Do you have enough inventory to buffer for uncertainties? Do you have the needed capacity to execute? What鈥檚 your labor picture look like? Can you fill all shifts, or do you need to balance your labor?

Addressing these issues requires on-the-ground production planning and detailed scheduling capabilities that connect to the shop floor and keep production lines humming 鈥� all while reducing overhead in change-over and improving utilization. It requires warehouse visibility to pick the right materials and make sure they鈥檙e on the line at the right time.

It also requires powerful logistics to ensure transportation resources are available and scheduled to meet the plan. Many organizations, of course, operate on a global scale 鈥� with hundreds of production facilities around the globe. This only adds to the complexity and raises the stakes.

The synchronized part

Synchronized planning says that all planning activities need to be connected digitally to support a sense of continuum across each time horizon 鈥� long, mid, and short. The strategy formalized in your long-term plan provides the guard rails. Any decisions made in the mid or short term need to be evaluated in terms of how they impact strategic goals.

At the same time, all plans need to connect to execution on individual manufacturing lines. Helpful in this regard are simulation capabilities for evaluating different scenarios and implementing the best decisions. This way, you can plan ahead for changes, making disruptions less of a problem.

Ultimately, as our recent experience with COVID-19 underscores, the goal is resilience. Companies with the systems and technology in place to quickly implement supply chain changes as realities change on the ground 鈥� these are the companies that thrive even in the face of disruption.

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Across more than 50% organizations, old technology and confusing data have impeded procurement, according to a in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Materials Management (IIMM). This comes at a time when organizations are looking to procurement leaders to drive innovation, making procurement a key enabler of business growth.

The study is built on a survey conducted with 75 people in charge of procurement for their organizations, with 37 online and 38 telephonic interviews. It includes 30 enterprise level companies and 45 small and medium companies from across industries. The survey was designed to analyze the challenges in procurement and assess the pace of digital transformation as economies begin to show signs of recovery after the coronavirus outbreak.

The study is organized into five sections that look at the challenges, priorities, IT spend, technologies implemented, and benefits of digital transformation.

Overall and Procurement Challenges

With the supply chain disruption brought on by the coronavirus outbreak, product cycles have become longer and financial liabilities have increased. The study shows that organizations are dealing with supplier management, data accuracy, and other challenges.

More than 75% of the respondents stated that internal user adoption of procurement technologies, differential internal processes, and headcount reduction have hindered organizations from attaining optimal production levels.

When it comes to supplier management, there are issues related to duplication of codes, lack of GST compliance and safety performance reporting. Although finding the right supplier is not much of a challenge, 50% of Indian enterprise level companies are faced with reconciliation issues and supplier performance issues at regular intervals.

Respondents also mentioned challenges such as contingency issues regarding returns, slow pace of technology implementation, and government interference with counterproductive regulations. Additionally, some cited system management, data migration, customization, efficiency and team performances, and unplanned downtime. Keep reading to learn how you can turn challenges into opportunities with procurement transformation.

Priorities for Procurement

The major themes highlighted by the study are cost reduction, sustainability and agility. In order of priority, small and medium sized organizations have ranked cost reduction (38%), followed by sustainability (31%) and agility (31%). When it comes to enterprise level organizations, 40% have ranked cost reduction as their top priority followed by sustainability.

The study points out that according to Indian firms, in the coming year’s risk reduction will take precedence over cost reduction. In light of the pandemic, reducing risk has become increasingly crucial for business continuity and resilience.

IT Spend and Pace of Digital Transformation in Procurement

With companies going into crisis management mode, budget reductions were visible in IT spend. However, more than 80% of the organizations have allocated up to 10% of their IT spend for the procurement function. The study further shows that 47% of small and medium sized companies have allocated less than 5% of their total IT budget, as compared to 77% of enterprise level organizations who are spending up to 10% on upgrading their procurement functions.

While several companies have invested in digital transformation, the study reveals that only 5% of organizations have automated more than 60% of their procurement function. This points to much work to be done for organizations to completely switch to fully automated systems for procurement. The next section highlights how companies can leverage technology to reinvent procurement.

Technology Implemented in Procurement Management

The Government of India is digitalizing the procurement process through the e-procurement program, with central public sector enterprises having implemented digital solutions. Enterprises in India are investing in solutions that provide supplier information, offer supplier risk management, evaluate supplier performance, assist in supplier vetting, and highlight supplier development.

In terms of technologies, organizations have been using cloud, AI and machine learning to automate and fast track their procurement transformation. The study illustrates that 65% of organizations are heavily reliant on cloud-based applications to ensure seamless procurement. Further, close to 50% of the organizations are using AI and machine learning to increase the overall efficiency of procurement functions.

Another area of concern is unauthorized spend, overcharges and duplicate payments, and more than 60% of companies have installed specialized software to address these issues. Furthermore, according to the respondents, supply chain automation will reduce chances of error and improve the quality of products and services. Learn how to shape a digitized, environment-friendly procurement value chain in the final section of the study.

Benefits of Digital Transformation and Barriers in Implementation

There are multiple benefits that digital transformation can help unlock for organizations at any scale. The study reveals how operational efficiency and supplier collaboration have shown significant improvement, with more than 50% of small and medium sized organizations citing improvements in operational efficiency and automating routine tasks.

Organizations have also flourished in transparency and quality. Additionally, there have been moderate improvements in cost reduction and compliance. When it comes to suppliers鈥� performance management, almost 67% of enterprise level and 62% of small and medium sized organizations have witnessed moderate improvement.

To get a complete picture, the respondents were also surveyed on barriers being faced in implementation. Low adoption of new processes and technologies was cited as one of the main hurdles in achieving high efficiency through digital transformation. Others mentioned reasons such as lack of funding, red tape, financial instability, and lack of customer trust in online support.

With organizations looking to boost productivity in order to recover from the pandemic, procurement has become a key focus to drive radical improvement. The survey lets you take a peek into the future of procurement in India, and provides a roadmap to overcome the barriers to intelligent spend management so you can prepare for the next supply chain disruption and stay future-ready.

For more information on the challenges, opportunities in procurement, and to find out how to achieve digital transformation from source to pay, download the complete report

The post Digital Transformation of Procurement in India appeared first on 51风流India News Center.