A CHANGING GAME

IOT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO CONNECT VIRTUALLY ANYTHING AND ACCELERATE DATA-DRIVEN LOGISTICS. EVERYDAY OBJECTS CAN NOW SEND, RECEIVE, PROCESS, AND STORE INFORMATION, AND PARTICIPATE IN LOGISTICS PROCESSES.

- MOLLY R

RECENT TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS have changed the face of the supply chain and logistics industry. During the early days of the pandemic, the rise of e-commerce has played a huge role in shaping the way warehouses operate, as have consumer expectations for speed of delivery, customization, product availability and much more. With the growing complexities of customer demands and the globalization of many retailers due to e-commerce, warehousing trends have shifted to keep up with the ever evolving and increasing demand of customers.

Amrit Bajpai, COO, WayCool Foods, says, “A successful supply chain ensures free and seamless realtime flow of material, information and money across all stakeholders from the source to the customer. Supply chains of the future should use technology to improve visibility end-to-end. This will support companies' ability to resist external shocks, such as the pandemic or any other future black swan event. The first technology bouquet transforming supply chains is digitization, which ensures that distribution systems are intelligent, autonomous, and automated. Big data analytics and machine learning will be the additional layers sitting on top of digitised supply chains.”

The second technology set that will transform supply chains is automation. Automation will dramatically transform productivity of different parts of the supply chain, reduce effort and errors and bring controls to prevent leakages. IoT, Smart Sensors and robotics will be critical, from the large bouquet of emerging technologies on offer, in the push for supply chain automation.