The pandemic brought hidden supply chain vulnerabilities to light, underscoring the need for rebalancing, digitization and resilience
Boston, Mass., October 28, 2020 – Companies across most industries have been slow to adapt to digitization and supply chain innovations, but the pandemic – coming on top of multiple other global disruptions – has caused companies to dramatically increase the pace at which they undertake digitization and transformation of the supply chain. Global supply chain and operations consulting firm Maine Pointe, in its effort to safely guide and accelerate companies through this unprecedented time, has released a new perspectives paper titled, “The resilient, agile, and digitally enabled supply chain and operations of the future.â€
The new paper answers nine of the most pressing questions faced by company leaders in the face of today’s disruptions and business challenges and provides a pragmatic, results-driven way forward. It discusses why executives are often unclear about the business case for digital supply chain transformation, the stages of the implementation journey and where to begin.
“This paper drives home the message that the challenges being faced today are not just short term,†said Steven Bowen, CEO of Maine Pointe. “Many companies are discovering vulnerabilities throughout their supply chains that have been there all along. The appropriate response has to go beyond addressing those short-term disruptions, and ensure a greater level of visibility, resilience and optimization in the future. With the right strategy, a company can emerge stronger, and better prepared for the next major unexpected disruption.â€
Supply chain digitization efforts have long been underway, albeit at a slow pace, according to the paper. “The race to digitize has shifted up a gear,†said Nathanael Powrie, EVP, Data Analytics at Maine Pointe. “The pandemic has directly changed the pace of adoption of new technology and digitization. But along with that, leaders have to realize that it’s not just a pure technology fix. Leveraging that technology must be accompanied with the right process, people and culture to deliver consistent value at lower risk for the long term.â€
The perspectives paper addresses in very specific ways how company leaders have responded and will continue to respond to the pandemic-driven disruption and other global risk events, including:
- Overcome resistance to change and risk aversion, and focus on process, people and culture
- Establish a greater degree of collaboration, not just internally where operations, logistics, marketing and IT may have operated in silos in the past, but between all supply chain partners
- Build in greater visibility and resilience in the supply chain on a long-term basis to prepare for the future
With new vulnerabilities becoming more evident as a result of new and ongoing global risk factors, executives are increasingly seeing the need to speed up their digital initiatives across the supply chain to improve their competitive advantage and position themselves for a successful future. The paper, available on the Maine Pointe website, will serve as a useful starting point for navigating towards digitization, de-risking, and emerging from the current challenges as a stronger company.
About Maine Pointe
Maine Pointe, a member of the SGS Group, is a global supply chain and operations consulting firm trusted by many chief executives and private equity firms to drive compelling economic returns for their companies. We achieve this by delivering accelerated, sustainable improvements in EBITDA, cash and growth across their procurement, logistics, operations and data analytics. Our hands-on implementation experts work with executives and their teams to rapidly break through functional silos and transform the plan-buy-make-move-fulfill digital supply chain to deliver the greatest value to customers and stakeholders at the lowest cost and risk to business. We call this Total Value Optimization (TVO)â„¢.
Maine Pointe’s engagements are results-driven and deliver between 4:1-8:1 ROI. We are so confident in our work and our processes that we provide a unique 100% guarantee of engagement fees based on annualized savings. www.mainepointe.com
About SGS
SGS is the world's leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company. SGS is recognized as the global benchmark for quality and integrity. With more than 89​,000 employees, SGS operates a network of over 2,600 offices and laboratories around the world.
View the press release on PRWeb here.