In the process of digital transformation of enterprises, the digital transformation of the supply chain is an unavoidable topic. The digital transformation of the supply chain is to use digital technology to empower enterprises and supply chain practitioners to drive business development in a more efficient and intelligent direction. More and more companies are aware of the need to rely on new technologies, and often place great emphasis on the application of new technologies. Despite the support of new technologies, in practice, some companies still do not implement the digital transformation of their supply chains ideally. The reason is often that the scenarios of digital applications are not excavated enough, and the combination of digital technology and business needs is not enough.
Some companies lack a supply chain department with an overall view, and the supply chain practitioners are only scattered in different links of the supply chain. When they put forward digital requirements from their own perspective, it is often a new SRM system, WMS system or TMS system. Focus on a certain business domain. There is no shortage of software service providers with a single system in the market, but the solutions they often provide are business informatization solutions rather than business digitalization solutions, which also leads to enterprises being unable to fully tap the opportunities brought by digitalization, and even mistakenly put all the solutions in the past. The online management of business has become the theme of today's digitalization.
Digitalization is not only a technology, but also a concept. Inossem proposes that digitization is the intelligent connection of people, things and business processes, thereby creating infinite possibilities. We are constantly thinking about mining digital application scenarios in terms of connecting people, things and business processes. Today, we share how to mine digital application scenarios from the perspective of supply chain collaboration.
The SCOR model released by the International Supply Chain Association divides supply chain activities into planning, procurement, production, delivery and return, and connects these activities inside and outside the enterprise to form a supply chain operation model. This definition is very useful for observing and analyzing the supply chain from the perspective of supply chain collaboration. In an enterprise, supply chain departments are mostly divided according to these processes. These departments are not completely independent from the day of birth, but are closely related to each other. Each department receives the input from the upstream department, and completes the output to the downstream department through its own processing.
It can be understood that the supply chain is actually a series of links between input, processing and output. At the same time, the company entities or department entities in the supply chain have invested manpower, material resources, financial resources, systems and other resources to support these operations.
Two words can be extended here: rhythm and density . Input, processing, and output all have their own rhythm. Rhythm refers to the speed. The lack of coordination in the supply chain can be caused by the inconsistency in the speed of different links. Resources have their own density. Density refers to the relative amount. The lack of coordination in the supply chain , can also be caused by a relative mismatch of resource densities.
The coordination of the supply chain can be started from the two perspectives of rhythm and density , and what is interesting is that these two words are related to data and can be measured by data. It means that we analyze the supply chain from the perspective of rhythm and density, which will help us open the window of digitization, mine data in the scene, build a correlation model between data, and apply the value of these data.
First of all, from the perspective of rhythm, the coordination of supply chain should be carried out around the consistency of input rhythm, processing rhythm and output rhythm as much as possible. We can compare the actual work to see some examples of uncoordinated rhythms.
Example 1: The rhythm of demand and procurement is not coordinated
For example, if the demand for a certain material changes from 100 pieces per day to 1,000 pieces per day, the input rhythm of the procurement process will increase sharply. The procurement department needs to improve the safety of the material in a timely manner when the material procurement cycle remains unchanged. Inventory and purchases. If the enterprise has a large variety of materials, it is actually difficult for business personnel to detect fluctuations in the demand rhythm of all materials in a timely manner, and they are often exhausted in daily life. Then monitoring the rhythm of material consumption is very critical.
ERP software can check demand and inventory fluctuations through daily MRP calculations, and provide purchasing suggestions. However, for the purchase orders that have been issued, the business department either cannot change them, or does not know how to change them, which will lead to an actual rhythm imbalance , and will also cause actual shortage alarms or overflow alarms for materials. In addition, the management of safety stock is likely to be a link that the existing ERP software does not achieve intelligent management. Well-done companies will rely on manual monitoring of material demand to regularly adjust safety stock. way, can not really be timely and effective. This means that if we firmly grasp the problem of imbalance between demand rhythm and procurement rhythm from the perspective of rhythm, in fact, relying on existing software and manual methods cannot meet the control requirements. From a digital perspective , we can build a monitoring mechanism for the rhythm of material demand, and automatically trigger changes in the procurement rhythm ( embedding business rules for different materials into the model) according to changes in the demand rhythm (using data collection and analysis tools) , And automatically process purchase orders and safety stocks ( applying the data value of the demand rhythm ), such as automatically increasing the order quantity or setting an earlier arrival date, and regularly increasing the safety stock to make up for the traditional information in the scenario of material demand rhythm growth Insufficient transformation.
According to the above scenario example, what technology do we need to combine with the business scenario to better meet the business needs? As a professional digital service provider, Inossem is good at RPA technology, which can be applied to the above business scenarios.
RPA (Robotic Process Automation) technology is an automation technology based on software robots. It can simulate the behavior of humans operating computers and automatically execute repetitive and regular business processes, thereby improving work efficiency, reducing costs, and reducing error rates.
RPA technology allows us to have a digital workforce, which can automatically execute operations under preset rules according to the scheme we have built, and help us do a good job in the rhythm and collaborative work of different links in the supply chain.
Example 2: The rhythm of logistics and warehousing is not coordinated
For example, the scenario of supplier delivery, which involves collaboration outside the enterprise. From the perspective of rhythm, the rhythm of supplier delivery constitutes the input rhythm of the warehouse, the storage and processing activities of the warehouse constitute the processing rhythm of the warehouse, and the sending activities of the warehouse constitute the output rhythm of the warehouse. If the company has many suppliers, the frequency of supplier delivery is 100 times every morning, and the loading and unloading rhythm of the warehouse is slow in the morning, which can only handle 80 times, which will lead to a backlog of 20 deliveries until the afternoon, resulting in Delivery vehicles waited, and suppliers complained about increased logistics costs.
In fact, the business scenario of the enterprise may be more complicated. The delivery party complains about the slow pace of the warehouse, which is not a simple problem. From the delivery of logistics vehicles to the arrival at the warehouse gate, sign-in and registration, queuing up, loading and unloading, and departure, the whole process involves many small links. Each link has its own rhythm, and inconsistent rhythms are easy to happen. . In the past, even if we applied the numbering system, queuing system, and warehousing system, the problem may not really be solved, because it is essentially a collaborative problem, and a solution needs to be found from the chain.
From the perspective of the chain, the delivery scene of suppliers can be decomposed into appointment rhythm, check-in rhythm, admission rhythm, loading and unloading rhythm, and consumption rhythm. The appointment rhythm is the arrival rhythm of vehicles that we can predict theoretically. Some companies may implement a vehicle reservation system to control this rhythm. And making an appointment does not mean arriving on time, so the check-in may have a different rhythm. Vehicles with an early appointment time may arrive late. After signing in, when to enter the venue may involve queuing outside the venue, and the rhythm of signing in and entering the venue will also be inconsistent. There are 20 admissions per hour, and there may be temporary situations in the loading and unloading link, which can only be dealt with by the loading and unloading rhythm of 15 times per hour. However, the loading and unloading pace is not fast, probably because the warehouse is full and the inventory consumption is slow, and the source may still be in the consumption rhythm of materials.
Looking at it this way, finding the reason from the rhythm can find problems and provide solutions. So how to combine technology with the above scenarios through digital applications to achieve effective collaboration with suppliers?
InLocate intelligent distribution products and InStock intelligent warehousing products created by Inossem integrate technologies such as the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, and can provide leading and convenient tools to coordinate the rhythm of logistics and warehousing. Through the application of the Internet of Things, we can effectively track and manage warehousing resources, and provide resource constraints to control the rhythm of delivery vehicle appointments; we track the location of delivery vehicles, and can predict the difference between the check-in rhythm and the appointment rhythm. Timely adjust the strategy of queuing vehicles to enter the venue; we automatically control the vehicles entering the venue through face recognition and license plate recognition, automatically collect loading and unloading information through RFID at the warehouse end, intelligently predict loading and unloading time and call the number, and automatically analyze the operation of vehicles in the venue; Automatically assess the urgency of the delivery through the joint material requisition plan, etc., and make adjustment suggestions for the logistics plan.
There are many examples of inconsistent rhythms in various links of the supply chain like the above, leading to dissonance. Inossem has the ability to provide customers with customized solutions, and will grasp the upstream and downstream rhythms of the supply chain from a global perspective to help customers find the crux of the problem.
It is very important to pay attention to the rhythm of input, processing, and output, and it is also necessary to pay attention to resource density for supply chain coordination. Improving resource density can bring about efficiency improvements in individual links, but not more is better. If the resource density is too large, it is a waste; if the density is too small, it is a bottleneck.
Example 3: Insufficient warehouse human resources caused by supply chain dissonance
In the warehousing link, skilled business personnel are an indispensable resource for most enterprises at this stage. But in some scenarios, this resource faces a constant or temporary shortage. For example, during seasonal or annual production peak periods, the demand for materials is frequent, and the human response is tight, or the response cannot be met, resulting in the demand for production materials or sales and shipping cannot be met in time. For another example, when an urgent demand for material picking occurs, it is likely that the material demander cannot pick up the material in time because the warehouse personnel have already left work.
These scenarios are due to the lack of coordination in the supply chain caused by the insufficient density of human resources in the warehouse. So what technology can be applied to this scenario to achieve digital empowerment and meet the full-time customer needs faced by the warehouse?
The intelligent storage solution provided by Inossem has the adaptability of software and hardware. It provides enterprises with software such as WMS and WCS, as well as hardware such as mobile terminals, intelligent gateways, RFID, intelligent access control, digital large screens, and AGV. Scenario service capabilities. For example, the unattended picking solution package can meet the 24-hour picking needs of enterprises at any time in emergency situations, and realize automatic registration and automatic accounting of picking in the case of unattended warehouses. Another example is the intelligent weighing and counting solution package, which can automatically collect the weight of materials through electronic scales and wireless communication, upload the data in real time, and convert the changes into inventory quantities based on rules. Another example is the automatic bookkeeping solution package for loading and unloading, through the combination of forklifts and RFID, the automatic completion of bookkeeping for forklifts, reducing manual operations. Our solution also helps customers achieve more efficient and accurate storage operations through automated facilities and equipment such as AGVs and three-dimensional warehouses.
Let's review. From the various links of the supply chain defined by the SCOR model, this paper concludes that the supply chain is a series of links of input, processing and output, and combines the input of resources to support operations. From this, the two keywords of rhythm and density are extended. The input, processing, and output of each link have their own rhythm, and the input of each resource has its own density. These are the points that supply chain collaboration can focus on and analyze supply for supply chain practitioners. Chain collaboration provides a digital perspective to dig out digital application scenarios. Hope the above sharing can provide some reference.
As a professional digital service provider, Inossem provides customers with rich digital products and professional solutions. The RPA digital labor products, InLocate intelligent distribution products and InStock intelligent warehousing products mentioned in this article have been deeply applied in many enterprises, bringing continuous value to customers. In fact, based on the digitization of a single business domain, Inossem has been able to provide SCO (Supply Chain ONE) comprehensive solutions for the overall collaboration of the supply chain . We believe that our thinking and efforts can help the digital transformation of enterprise supply chains.
Intelligently connect people, things and business processes to create infinite possibilities!