Study: Planning, resiliency are top supply chain priorities

Supply chain planning is driving better business performance and helping companies realize the benefits of digital transformation, according to a study by supply chain management firm Kinaxis and International Data Corporation (IDC), released this week.

The research polled 1,839 respondents across three regions and six sub-industries within manufacturing, and revealed that 65% of firms view the supply chain as a source of competitive differentiation in today’s marketplace. Supply chain planning is a key factor in building differentiation, and most firms also said that improving supply chain resiliency is their top priority—especially in a disruptive business climate.

“After a long history of being relegated to support status, supply chains are now being perceived as a strategic tool for business performance and growth,” Simon Ellis, program vice president at IDC, said in a statement announcing the findings. “Supply chain planning is at the heart of the modern supply chain and is central to overall transformation. If companies don’t get supply chain planning right, they don’t get the supply chain right; if they don’t get the supply chain right, they risk sales and profits.” 

The study’s key findings focused on resilience, agility, planning, and digital transformation: 

• Supply chain resiliency and agility are top priorities for all companies. Despite 65% of companies rating themselves highly in terms of resiliency, it remains the largest priority over the next 12 months and the next three years. And the ability to adopt new business models or enter new markets was cited as most important when considering  future supply chain capabilities  
• Supply chain planning is a competitive advantage. 65% of companies said they believe that their supply chain planning capabilities are a source of competitive differentiation today. This number falls to 35% by 2023, suggesting that companies either do not view their supply chains as adaptable or they are unconvinced that the resources they have in place today will service them well into the future. 
• Companies with mature supply chains are using some form of artificial intelligence (AI). 76% of the most mature companies are using a form of AI today versus just 1% of the least mature companies . 63% percent of survey respondent companies are still below the transformation maturity midpoint, with lack of supply chain visibility (roughly 16%) and data availability and quality (roughly 15%) as the biggest impediments to improving supply chain planning efforts overall. In addition, more than half of the companies in the survey said they are still using spreadsheets to facilitate their supply chain planning efforts, speaking to the opportunity to improve planning through digital transformation.