Supply chains eye new tech

Firms across the world are increasingly convinced that tech upgrades are needed, especially after the pandemic

When the pandemic arrived in the leafy lakeside town of Holland, Michigan, office-furniture company Haworth Inc. needed more than hustle to avoid a supply-chain meltdown.

Global Logistics Director Crystal Feasby and her team hurried to set up an e-commerce platform to meet surging demand for the $2 billion company's gear. With trucking in disarray, the firm's dealers needed realtime information about their deliveries. So Haworth started using software from FourKites Inc. to pinpoint truck movements to help customers plan around the disruptions.

"Just like you want to know where your product is coming from when you order from Amazon, our dealers want to know when it shipped, they want to know where it is in transit, they want to know if the driver hit weather or traffic or whatever," Feasby said.

The granularity Haworth sought wasn't just a Band-Aid in a crisis-it's now a permanent feature. C-suite executives across the world are increasingly convinced that such upgrades are needed after the pandemic exposed supply chains as rife with tech deficiencies and lagging in their embrace of digital commerce.