Three technologies — blockchain, the Internet of Things, and analytics — are beginning to offer dramatic advances in supply chain management. They are making it easier to improve customer fulfillment, achieve profitability targets, and make supply chains more resilient and sustainable in terms of the environment and the treatment of stakeholders. This article provides an update on the capabilities needed to exploit these technologies and offers advice on how to build them.
Suppose a firm uses temperature sensors in a fulfillment center to record storage temperature every hour and inventory scanners to track the movement of inventory into and out of the fulfillment center. The firm needs to align these data tables together to learn what units of inventory were stored at what temperature for what duration.
For example, a firm may start recording existing transaction data on a blockchain and using it to trace the movement of units before it invests in IoT devices to collect new data. Alternatively, the firm may start using IoT devices and analytics before acquiring blockchain technology. Indeed, these capabilities are complementary: Each makes it more viable and fruitful to develop the others.