Did you know that only 6% of companies reported full visibility of their supply chain? When you don’t have eyes on your supply chain management, losses can happen without your knowledge.

This is why technological innovations are providing more supply chain visibility improving the overall governance of e-commerce, manufacturing, and retail business.

Keep reading as we explore the top supply chain technological innovations to be mindful of as your business grows and develops - the more you know, the better equipped you are to fend against your competitors.

Why Invest In Supply Chain Innovations?

Some leaders in the e-commerce, manufacturing, and retail industries are reluctant to invest in emerging technologies as they cannot identify a need for them. Here are some of the top signs your business would benefit from supply chain innovations:

• Inventory shrinkage: When you experience inventory shrinkage, you need to know about it. It could indicate employee theft, poor security measures, or poor inventory management. Either way, you will keep incurring losses if you aren’t aware of the situation with advanced security technologies.
• Stockouts: Stockouts occur when you don’t have visibility on your inventory and sales order levels in conjunction with one another. Emerging technologies work to close this gap and prevent stock outs for e-commerce and manufacturing companies.
• Lengthy delivery times: If your systems are not aligned and integrated, this can lead to complications, including increased wait for delivery. By investing in developing technologies, you can ensure that your company receives and fulfills orders in a timely and mindful manner, without any gaps in their knowledge.
• Poor BOM data: When your company has outdated BOM management, this can often mean errors in restocking BOM components, leading to halted production and potential losses for your business. Investing in more advanced management technologies is thus in your best interest.
• Inefficiencies: Spotting general inefficiencies in the way you manage your operations is more challenging without unified data insights. By investing in modern, cloud-based technologies, you can ensure your data is unified on a single, user-friendly platform. When something goes wrong, it's not as difficult to spot.

Top Supply Chain Technologies And Innovations

What are the top supply chain technologies and innovations to invest in as your competitors grow? Let’s discuss how you can stay on top of your game in the supply chain sphere.

Inventory Management Software

Inventory management solutions are the perfect choice for companies struggling to stay on top of sales orders, stock counts, and fulfillment retrospectively. By investing in this solution, you will gain the following incrementally advantageous features:

• Automated order processing: When you receive a sales order, inventory management software automatically reflects the sale in your stock levels.
• RFID barcode stock counts: RFID barcode tracking is the best way to eliminate the potential for human error in the stock count process, ensuring all of your inventory information is precise. It does not allow the same code to be scanned twice, and so you'll never have overcounted items again.
• Automated reorder points: One of the biggest challenges in the e-commerce and manufacturing industry is the potential to miss reorder points, leading to stockouts. By automating reorder points and ensuring your stock is replenished without manual intervention, you can enable smooth operations and avoid stockouts that let your customers down and harm your business long-term.

These are just a few examples of the top-tier features inventory management solutions can offer, in conjunction with open API integrations that allow you to encourage smooth data transfer between your supply chain software solutions.

Production Reporting Software

Production reporting software is like a bird’s eye view for managers and senior staff in a production environment, allowing them to understand where more staff, materials, and equipment are required to speed up the manufacturing process. With production reporting software deployed, progress can be seen in every facet of manufacturing, along with any faults, errors, or delays that could affect operations at large. The software monitors the following elements of production:

• Machine downtime
• Overall equipment effectiveness
• Progress data collection
• Machine utilization

By reducing manual data entry for these processes, leaders can make decisions instantly with completely accurate information. Spotting issues as soon as they arise leads to immediate intervention and reduced production delays.

Cloud-Based Security Infrastructure

A cloud-based security infrastructure allows manufacturers to reduce inventory shrinkage with the integration of AI and security cameras. Security staff simply cannot observe security threats 24/7. To spot potential security threats, you can implement AI with behavior recognition. The solution will provide you with an alert when it spots theft or intrusion, allowing you to act quickly and never miss an incident. This is the antidote to inventory shrinkage in the supply chain.

Summary

The manufacturing and e-commerce industries are thriving, which means competition is out of this world. To maintain a competitive advantage, it’s in your best interest to invest in solutions that speed up your processes and make them more reliable. Consider which of these technological innovations would best aid your business in such a cutthroat supply chain industry.