GAME CHANGERS
Supply Chain 4.0 innovations are becoming game changers Knut Alicke, Partner, McKinsey & Company, knut_alicke@mckinsey.com Kai Hoberg, Professor, Kühne Logistics University, Kai.Hoberg@the-klu.org Jürgen Rachor, Senior Expert, McKinsey & Company, juergen_rachor@mckinsey.com
The concept of ”Supply Chain 4.0” – or ”digital supply chain” – has clearly taken hold over the past one to two years, with many companies tapping into the new technology possibilities it offers and testing them within their organizations. The first companies have been pushing their digital supply chain transformations, resulting in significant impact on service, costs, capital, agility, and especially on customer experience. Supply Chain 4.0 has tremendous potential. The set of innovative digital technologies it offers could help companies reduce lost sales by 65 to 75 percent and cut transportation and warehousing costs by 15 to 30 percent. Improved planning would make inventory reductions of 35 to 75 percent possible and supply chain administrative costs could be 50 to 80 percent lower. The levers identified for realizing this potential are clear, but to what extent can they already be put into use today? Innovations addressing all aspects of the supply chain are emerging – from robotics and autonomous vehicles in logistics to use of predictive analytics in demand planning to technologies enabling no-touch order management. Although the supply chain community is aware of most of these concepts, few practitioners are sure if they can really be applied today or if the ideas are more visionary, requiring another 10 years before they be used regularly. Therefore, a certain skepticism regarding Supply Chain 4.0 is the result – supply chain professionals are unsure whether to focus on applying these innovations now and have the firstmover advantage or to wait for more stable solutions to be developed.
Supply Chain 4.0 survey shows that innovations are becoming ”real” To better understand the landscape of supply chain innovations – including their maturity, how they are being applied, and what impact can be expected from them – McKinsey &
Company conducted a survey in 2016 with senior supply chain experts from industry, research, and consulting that covered all regions, industries, and supply chain areas. A total of 53 innovations spanning across the entire supply chain were analyzed to determine where to focus now in order to maximize the impact of Supply Chain 4.0. The results are promising: Up to 40 innovations had already been piloted or had even been selectively used, while another 13 were expected to reach this stage within the next five years (Exhibit 1). Furthermore, the survey concluded that 40 innovations will be in broad use within the next four to five years. These results suggest that it’s the right time to move into Supply Chain 4.0. Early adopters can gain significant competitive advantages now by deploying Supply Chain 4.0 innovations that are already proven to work. Innovations in physical flow (warehousing and transport) account for a large share of supply chain advances due to significant progress made in advanced robotics and human-machine 8
EFFEKTIVITET NR. 1 2018