Top 3 Trends in Supply Chain for 2020
The year 2020 has brought quite a bit of turmoil and change throughout the world. Changing global-political climates, new tariffs, and other legal precedents should be shifting the way we approach our supply chain logistics. This piece zeroes in on some of the top trends that your company should be accessing to stay ahead of the curve.
Trend #1: Go Green
Environmentalism has impacted every aspect of life and businesses are quickly scrambling to make changes towards a greener logistics. Some of these changes involve material change, eliminating pollutants and pollution from the products and the factory plants where they are produced. These efforts are not only affecting the environment but they are also contributing to surplus revenue.
Altering the image of your company to a sustainable business committed to a smaller carbon footprint are saving time and money. This is probably why “going green” appeals to businesses and consumers as a win-win.
Trend #2: AI
AI is a growing trend in every market and it’s definitely not going anywhere. That being said, there does seem to be some disagreement on whether replacing people with machines is the way to go for supply chains. Support for AI typically comes from companies that use AI to solve complex issues, track customer habits, and offer recommendations for other products as well. This type of machine learning and AI is most successful in online e-commerce and B2C businesses.
Some of the pushback tends to originate in the global supply chain and logistics arena where the cost of investing in technology as opposed to people may actually cost more than it is currently worth. The claim then is to put more effort and money into training people to increase productivity and reduce maintenance fees.
Trend #3: Partnering Up
In a recent piece written by Ben Gordon, a leader, and expert in supply chain logistics and CEO of Benjamin Gordon Cambridge Capital, he details eight elements for the future of the supply chain. One of these critical elements he mentions is partnerships, specifically how globalization will be a major driving factor for the future.
With the impact of newly imposed tariffs on China as well as digital growth, different global networks will be forged, across the world with various partners across Asia and Europe. This, according to Gordon will also mean new ways of delivery, more innovation, and pressure to ship like Amazon with same-day and even same hour delivery options.
Read more from Benjamin Gordon Cambridge Capital to discover other future trends impacting supply chain and logistics this year.
Wrap Up
The future is now with AI and machine learning taking over the supply chain and the way we have always done business. To keep up more and more B2B and B2C companies are increasing their environmental considerations to boost their “green” reputation. Although there is a disagreement on how much machine learning should replace human labor, the future is definitely pointing to using more AI in B2C. Globalization will takeover and outrun the single-market of the past.