If the COVID-19 years taught supply chain managers anything, it was to expect disruption. And while those on the ground deal with disruption almost on a daily basis in 2023, it is not the top item on the minds of supply chain practitioners heading into 2024.
In fact, it isn’t number two either. It is not even in the top five.
You will find a collection of technology-related topics in the top five. Digital supply chain has taken the top spot in the Association for Supply Chain Management’s (ASCM) annual supply chain trends list. Digital supply chain takes over the top spot from big data and analytics, which has dropped to number two on the list for the first time.
Artificial intelligence, supply chain investments (in systems and people), visibility, traceability, and location intelligence round out the top five.
In the sixth spot are disruption and risk management, dropping from number three a year ago, followed by agility and resilience (new to the list), cyber security, which fell two spots to eighth, green and circular supply chains, also down two spots, and geopolitical and deglobalization of supply chains, also new to the top 10, finishing the list.
“These will be the trends for the next three to five years,” Ulf Suerig, director of supply chain operations for Abbott, said during a panel discussion on the top 10 at ASCM’s Connect 2023 North America conference in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday.
Suerig was joined on the panel by Amy Augustine, senior director of network supply chain for U.S. Cellular, and Jit Hinchman, founder of Supply Chain Advisor. The panel was moderated by ASCM’s Matthew Talbert, senior research management and committee liaison with the ASCM Sensing Subcommittee, a global group of practitioners charged each year with narrowing down the top supply chain trends into the annual top 10 list.
The list included six returning trends. Augustine noted that which trend is most important to your company “ties back to your strategy.”
The panelists agreed that while big data and analytics dropped from the top spot this year, it is only because supply chain practitioners have realized the importance of technology infrastructure.
“Analytics by itself will not solve our problems,” Suerig pointed out. “To be honest with ourselves, we need to get our data right and to do that, we need the right infrastructure.”
That infrastructure depends on the development of the digital supply chain. That happens, Hinchman said, “when you understand that big data and analytics is important [but] they won’t give you the insights by themselves.”
