September 7, 2022

The Need for Data Digitization in Supply Chains

TADA provides the industry’s first digital twin-enabled Supply Chain Control Tower designed to solve complex supply chain problems and foster supplier collaboration.

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When COVID-19 hit, manufacturers turned to digital technology because they had no alternative.

They reaped many benefits from the sudden change but stopped moving forward, which is a mistake. Why? Those suppliers who continue their digital transformation efforts will gain a competitive advantage over those who do not.

Manufacturing is a well-established market, one where change traditionally came slowly. Many enterprise supply chains depend on manually intensive processes, like spreadsheets, emails, phone calls, and sticky notes.

This approach creates many inefficiencies:
• No visibility into production runs  
• Manage reactively rather than proactively
• Manual processes increase the likelihood of errors.
• An inability to fix problems: managers cannot run what-if scenarios because spreadsheets do not illustrate all of the dependencies that affect their choices.
• Quality suffers and defects rise
• Difficult to onboard new talent and train people on manual processes.
• Creates frustration rather than satisfaction


Covid’s Impact on Manufacturing

Then, Covid-19 hit and threw supply chains into a tizzy. How massive was the shock? Three to four times more than the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

In response, manufacturers accelerated the digitization of their customer and supply-chain interactions and their internal operations by three to four years. The share of digitally enabled products in their portfolios accelerated by a shocking seven years.

The results were positive:
• Suppliers gained more visibility into their supply chains
• They automated manual interactions
• They streamlined their manufacturing processes


Stopping Short of What is Necessary

But in many cases, they made only the required changes and stopped. Yet, the pace of change continues with emerging technologies, like the Internet of Things, machine learning, and Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality.

As a result, more information is being generated, but what to do with it?

Suppliers need to go beyond digitizing select parts of the manufacturing and supply chain processes and digitize all of their data.  Next, they have to move from having digital content, individual pieces of the puzzle, to digital context, where they understand how every change impacts the entire business.

With that capability, they see and use data like never before. They become responsive and proactive, predict disruptions, and pivot in real-time.

Historically, suppliers managed reactively, responding to supply chain and plant floor shortfalls after they arose. Suppliers gain the ability to track and trace goods from the supply chain to the factory floor to in transit and finally to delivery.

Now, they have a clear snapshot of global inventories no matter what stage of the journey they are on. Greater visibility empowers them to improve transit times, reduce errors, increase productivity, enhance quality control, and lower costs.

Nowadays, knowledge is power. Once you add digital context to your supply chain and manufacturing data, you make better decisions. The results enhance the business by improving quality, lowering defects, reducing waste, maximizing personnel productivity, simplifying scheduling, reducing cost, and increasing profitability.


Where to Turn?

Companies need such solutions but do not know where to find them.

TADA provides the industry’s first digital twin-enabled Supply Chain Control Tower designed to solve complex supply chain problems and foster multi-tier supplier collaboration.

Fueled by Digital Duplicate®, the patented digital supply chain twin technology, empowers supply chain business leaders to gain orchestration, collaboration, and real-time end-to-end visibility across their entire supply chain ecosystem in a matter of weeks.

This technology addresses the needs of Planners, Buyers, Suppliers, Transportation analysts, Executives, and other critical supply chain decision-makers. With secure, customizable persona-based portals, TADA's Supply Chain Control Tower provides powerful reports with actionable insights, built-in collaboration, and workflows designed to optimize day-to-day supply chain operations.

For more information, request a custom demo today.