Supercharging Supply Chains With Uber Platforms

In his career spanning 18 years, Michael has held key positions across Caprion Pharmaceuticals, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and A.T. Kearney, prior to joining BCG.

- Michael Hu

Uber-like platforms will soon provide on-demand fulfilment, warehouse, and logistics services everywhere. Are you ready? For companies feeling the pressure to meet rising customer expectations while keeping costs down, uberized supply chains could bring much-needed relief. Uberization, the business paradigm that disrupted the taxicab industry, is about to transform supply chains everywhere as companies increasingly rely on the supply chain capabilities and services of external platform-based ecosystems instead of building their own.

Both sides—the company in need of supply chain services and the one providing them—stand to benefit. In the consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) industry, companies that leverage AI platforms at scale can improve their demand forecasting accuracy by 20-30 percent, while reducing FTEs by 15-30 percent. Similarly, a digital logistics brokerage whose trucks are not filled to capacity can use an AI platform to identify companies looking to ship partial loads and get 10-20 percent more asset utilization.

Three Types of Supply Chain Platforms

Over the next decade, three chief types of platforms are likely to become dominant. Each has a unique source of value creation—as well as a unique set of challenges.

Marketplace platforms match supply with demand, providing companies with access to assets whenever they want it. Companies like Ware2Go and Flexe offer on-de-mand warehousing, which allows a company to rent warehouse space during its busy season or launch rapid, same-day delivery pilots near large urban centers.