Supply chain inefficiencies and miscommunication through “Chinese Whispers” are costing UK businesses over £1.5bn in lost productivity according to analysis of industry data from digital freight forwarder Zencargo.

The e-commerce giant could introduce both competition and relief to UPS and FedEx — and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

News of Amazon recruiting small businesses with “little to no logistics experience” for last-mile delivery services threw the news media and stock market into a tizzy. 

The e-commerce giant announced its plan Thursday to provide entrepreneurs with Amazon-branded uniforms and delivery vans along with thousands of dollars in reimbursement to fulfill last-mile deliveries, citing high consumer demand and strained capacity. 

Gartner has coined a plethora of colorful terms for their Hype Cycle methodology. Here’s one that sounds especially relevant: the “Peak of Inflated Expectations.” If the practical benefits of new technology fail to make an impact quickly enough, your business can careen down into the sadly named “Trough of Disillusionment” just as fast. Nobody wants to end up in that trough, eye-to-eye with Eeyore. Especially not the CEO who just spent big bucks on an emerging technology that didn’t deliver.

In the world of supply chain, there’s an abundance of hype around the potential of emerging technologies promising to transform the core of how supply chain professionals work. The trick is to see through the hype and ensure that any new technology makes a real difference in your organisation. Let’s take a look beyond the hype at the potential of several emerging technologies for the modern supply chain.

An international shortage of carbon dioxide gas (CO2) is starting to bite the European food and drink industry.

The common gas improves the shelf life of packaged foods and is used to create dry ice for transporting frozen food.

It is also used in guns for killing farm animals and adds fizz to carbonated drinks.

A critical factor in battling for consumer market share in today’s digital age is how well businesses can integrate demand and supply functions to achieve strategic goals. Real-time digital interactions with end consumers via social media, mobile apps, online ordering and other channels offer new opportunities to deliver marketing offers and shape demand.

Dive Brief:

• Speed of delivery is the biggest concern of consumers shopping online, according to a survey of 3,000 consumers conducted by e-commerce company Radial. 
• About one third of 18- to 24-year-olds in the U.S. said they were frustrated with the time it takes to receive their orders.
• Overall, younger consumers tend to be "more critical of delivery and fulfillment orders than their older counterparts," the survey noted.

Dive Insight:

Europe led the way for deal volumes within the logistics sector in 2017, according to accountancy and business advisory firm BDO’s Logistics and Supply Chain Management M&A Review.

Achieving secure, high-performance supply chains requires the marrying of performance and permissibility with the transparency and trust of blockchain technology, by combining blockchain with a proven network platform, companies today can integrate blockchain with supply chain networks.

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain has traditionally been the technology underlying the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

Omnichannel commerce is the Holy Grail for retailers. In response to changing customer expectations, brands are razor-focused on delivering a seamless experience across every channel, device, and location they serve.

A worldwide study of supply chain, procurement and finance business leaders has found that 55% of organisations are set to make a major investment in artificial intelligence (AI) over the next two years. 

A further 25% also plan to make a minor investment in AI to determine its potential ROI over the next two years.

The research, conducted by Forrester Consulting and commissioned by Ivalua, revealed that finance, supply chain and procurement business leaders believe that one of the biggest challenges to adopting AI is the poor quality of enterprise data.

Almost two-thirds of respondents (59%) said that poor data quality will make it impossible for AI to make accurate and informed decisions, undermining their ability to get value from any AI investment.

“There is clearly a huge appetite for AI and this will only increase as more relevant applications and success stories come to light,” comments David Khuat-Duy, Corporate CEO of Ivalua.

“But when investing in AI, it’s important that organisations address challenges that will otherwise limit value. Driving accurate insights from AI is reliant on having a solid data foundation from which to work, and the findings show that this remains a significant obstacle for most organisations.

“Success requires organisations to simultaneously address enterprise data problems when investing in AI.”

Improving the calibre of data is no easy task, with respondents detailing that their inability to access data (44%), a lack of normalisation between data sets (43%) and inaccurate data (41%) as their biggest challenges to improving overall quality. In addition, 36% cited that information overload and lack of internal skills makes it difficult to make sense of data.

In addition to data challenges, 44% of respondents said they do not have the support of C-level executives regarding AI innovation.

They also claim that they aren’t currently able to get full value from AI due to the immaturity of applications, with 62% citing this as a problem, suggesting AI vendor marketing is far more advanced than capabilities. There is also uncertainty regarding how to apply AI to certain use cases (47%).

In terms of the practical uses of AI, the study details that respondents believe it can have the most impact in alerting the enterprise and suppliers to supply chain disruption (44%), recognising and flagging supplier compliance issues (39%), and quickly identifying instances of fraud (37%).

In addition, respondents think that AI adoption will lead to greater automation of menial tasks, making them actionable in minutes or seconds, instead of hours or days.

Two of the biggest areas flagged by respondents as having the greatest potential for automation is invoice processing (51%) and approval of proposed purchases (35%).

Source: https://www.supplychaindigital.com/technology/half-organisations-set-procurement-and-supply-chain-ai-investment-within-two-years