How much collaboration is needed in supply chains?

My previous article shared supply chain traceability has surpassed the proof of technology/pilot stage and needs more than the traditional bi-directional exchange of business documents. The article also covered the most common reasons organisations embark on incorporating traceability into their business systems (systems meaning a set of business capabilities working together as parts of an interconnected network - not just technology).

With all the heightened awareness on traceability these days what is being missed is that it is just one part of increasing the level of digitalisation (converting to digital + innovative process change) across the extended supply chain. An increased level is important for improving #resilience , #agility and #sustainability .

I don’t think anyone would disagree with the fact that COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on our collective vulnerability to systemic disruptions and highlighted a focus on resilience and agility. It’s pretty obvious that paper-based and error-prone manual processes need to be eradicated and inter-organisational business processes and transactions need to be optimised, reducing disputes and reconciliations. For this to happen every physical supply chain event, business transaction and document exchange should be completely digital. This is way more than product/raw materials provenance and chain of custody for the sake of traceability. Organisations ought to be ambitious in reducing business friction to become more resilient and agile.

Perhaps the most important call-to-action is to focus on the last sustainable development goal (SDG 17 - partnerships for the goals), which emphasises collaboration on a global scale for collective benefit. As businesses re-calibrate their operating models, to incorporate the SDGs and become more sustainable, increasing the level of collaboration would be essential. After all, supply chain has always ever been a collaborative business-to-business model. Scaled up efforts can also assist with rapidly establishing new partnerships or bringing together enterprises in new ways to uncover new opportunities and grow market share.

So whilst we might emphasise traceability from time to time, and the importance of team-sport for it to work, it’s really only a part of the overall supply chain digital infrastructure value proposition. It’s not just individual businesses but entire business networks that need to become more resilient, agile and sustainable. BUT, is collaboration on just coordinating physical events, synchronising business transactions and exchanging documents across the extended supply chain adequate?