WELCOME TO THE SUPPLY CHAIN TECHNOLOGY AND INVESTMENT REVOLUTION

The collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 caught many people off-guard, but the foundations of the financial crisis existed long before. Once it all collapsed, there was no turning back. The same with supply chains. Companies can’t undo the current damage, but they can prepare for the future.

The financial crisis was shocking to many and forever changed how businesses and consumers thought about finance. Trusted institutions were shattered and people shifted from prioritizing “big” to prioritizing services and a greater sense of control. As banks redesigned their business models away from brick and mortar, they entered a period of sluggish growth while restructuring their balance sheets and dealing with a new era of banking regulations. Therefore, talent, technology and consumer adoption encouraged a whole new era of innovation.

A commonly held belief among investors and founders is that with a crisis comes opportunity. Shippers have experienced unprecedented pain in their supply chains brought about by ramping consumer demand, shifting demographics, labor shortages and a lack of freight capacity.

Overall, shippers have realized that supply chains can no longer be considered as a back-office function. They have also realized that supply chain information, visibility, automation and intelligence are critical to running a successful and resilient supply chain. Consequently, the term “supply chain resilience” has became a very popular issue for supply chain experts and researchers.

From all of the chaos will come new investments, increasing capital expenditures and further elevation of the roles that supply chain professionals play in their organizations is inevitable.

Source: freightwaves.com