A veteran supply chain analyst picks the brightest ideas for 2020
15 January, 2020 // ARC Advisory Group’s Steve Banker has posted his Forbes list of “2020 Supply Chain Technology Trends.” As usual, the article is a good roadmap for its combination of industry outlook and thoughtful opinion.
Banker splits emerging supply chain technology into categories for “hyped,” “promising” and “high ROI but not widely adopted.”
Hyped technologies, Banker writes, “are getting a lot of publicity but have little proven value. These seem like technologies in search of a solution.” Despite industry buzz, Banker still places blockchain, 5G, artificial intelligence and transportation autonomy in this category.
That’s not to say these won’t eventually become transformative for supply chain—just that they are not there yet. For instance, “we have continued to ask blockchain providers for the names of customers that are using their technology on a daily basis as part of their entrenched way of business,” Banker reports. “Blockchain providers cannot provide these references. That is a sure sign that the technology is still in the hype stage.”
Banker’s promising technologies for the coming year are machine learning in WMS and TMS platforms, along with robotic automated storage and retrieval. Among his hidden gem “high ROI” solutions are real-time location solutions and Internet of Things (IoT) data for transportation. We agree with Banker’s assessment of location and transportation IoT data; those are integral to our own ChronosCloud visibility and analytics platform.
Banker’s analysis shows that even revolutions proceed in steps. To be sure, there’s never been a more exciting time than 2020 to be contemplating transportation transformations. Still, though Morgan intends to remain at the forefront of future technologies like blockchain and AI, we also understand that the best optimizations are the ones you can deliver now. As U.S. General George Patton famously observed, “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week.”
-- Marcos Eloi, Chief Procurement Officer, KraftHeinz Company
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