FEATURE: BLOCKCHAIN
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Gerhard Dinhof, Blockchain
Lead at IBM South Africa,
looks at how companies
can embrace Blockchain
technology and how it
can enhance customer
satisfaction.
of a supply chain and ultimately increases
customer satisfaction.
Organisations that go a step further
and integrate AI into their supply chains
will also benefit from insights that
proactively spot potential manufacturing
disruptions, inventory shortages and other
problems. Cohesion and insight are just
what organisations need if they want to
easily navigate the known and unknown
complications of a global supply chain.
A fruitful tech merger
T
he modern global supply chain
can be the source of endless
insight into the production,
sourcing, procurement,
purchasing, inventory and delivery of goods
and services. But data must flow smoothly
between B2B networks in a supply chain
so that invested parties can quickly act on
information that will improve the quality,
cost or delivery.
Organisations have long relied on the
electronic data interchange (EDI) standard
to swap critical supply chain documents –
and they’ll continue to rely on it, because
the technology is mature and low-cost.
But to effectively manage an increasingly
complex multiparty supply chain ecosystem
that connects disparate systems, processes
and tools, companies should embrace the
future and turn to Blockchain.
Harnessing the many bits of supply chain
information to create a cohesive, transparent
flow of data, Blockchain enhances
collaboration between the many partners
Other systems have come along since its
creation nearly five decades ago, but EDI
still has tremendous value to companies that
want to have frictionless communications
with supply chain partners. Half of all
respondents in a Computer-Generated
Solutions survey said they considered EDI
critical to their omnichannel operations,
while the other half classified it as at least
‘somewhat important’.
EDI remains a go-to resource for peer-to-
peer supply chain connections, but it can
do only so much. It can’t handle advanced
digital input, such as data from IoT sensors
or notifications about a change in the
delivery of parts. While the data exchanged
within an EDI is a critical part of the supply
chain, it’s not the only element in it. The
modern global supply chain needs to reflect
the totality and continuity of every digital
business process.
The next step in supply chain evolution
integrates the many workflows that touch
the process, merging EDI data in addition
to the gargantuan amount of information
from technologies such as IoT sensors and
application programming interfaces (APIs).
Smart,
centralised insights
shape a modern global supply chain
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