Leveraging SCOR to develop future ready supply chains : The digital revolution

Abstract

The emerging and converging of digital technologies is disrupting the market landscape across industries. Business and commerce have been revolutionised with this new wave that connects markets, empowers consumers and incentivises innovation. Internet of Things (IoT) deployed devices now capture information in the fields, in the factory, at the distribution centres and on the transport vehicles and containers, at both the point of purchase and ‘point of demand’, while people are defining the criteria and searching products to make purchasing decisions. These technologies hold the promise and are helping companies across industries to discover key insights about the needs and choices of customers through their interactions in an increasingly omnichannel world. It is not just consumer goods that are being marketed and sold over the Internet. All things and services through distributors, or direct from the manufacturer are being marketed and sold leveraging the Internet. Armed with these insights, companies are able to re-imagine their supply chains and create connected digital supply networks that are smarter and better at responding to customer demands. This paper explores the modern and collaborative relationship companies now share with their customers. It then identifies the need and, leveraging the SCOR framework, the steps to building a demand-driven digital supply network that can sense and respond to real time demand signals, and the implications of such a network on the overall business model and the future of the business. It will also suggest an evolution to SCOR ‘enterprise’ that extends the current supply chain reference framework to include other enterprise processes to break down the constraints of silo management functions.