How is Supply Chain Management Going to Alter the Retail Industry?

By: Retail CIO Outlook | Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Between robots, the ever-evolving cloud, capacity crunch, security, and so on, it is essential to build flexibility into the supply chain to increase visibility, drive efficiency, and lower costs.

Fremont, CA: Retailers are trying to discover ways to speed operations in 2019, and they are highly focused on automation strategies and supply chain visibility as crucial ways to improve. The comprehending factor of retail supply chain management from other supply chain management is the volume of product movement and the fast-tracked nature of the products of the industry. The supply chain has to be monitored closely and free from glitches as the products are forever on the move, and the cycle time is low.

Robot Cause Competition

Autonomous mobile robots (AMR) are changing the landscape of the supply chain for years now. One of the future trends is the emergence of a class of autonomous mobile robots built to optimize the selecting process.

As AMR becomes cost-effective and accessible to the organizations in the mind-market, there is expected to be a rise in the competition. Both AMR and WMS can be helpful for the warehouse managers to optimize their processes. WMS vendors see the threat, and the realization that the only solution is to work with robotics, which means a more considerable effort by WMS companies might be witnessed to ensure that their systems can function with AMR systems in 2020.

Also See: Managing MFG

Capacity Crunch Aftermath

2020 has the capacity to be a significant correction year for the trucking industry. There is also an excess of trucks to compound a contracting market. There are vehicles that were purchased to compensate for rapid growth. This has slowed down the manufacturing of trucks, which also affects the manufacturers that would generally supply the materials.

A declining trucking economy means that the shippers will have more opportunities to dictate prices and the payment cycle. This means that the companies need to keep track of their business processes in an agile way so that they can keep up with the changes in the market. The truck manufacturers will need to invest in manufacturing software, which can help to make up for lost business. Shippers and trucking companies will require a stronger supply chain collaboration systems to navigate a changing landscape which was quite stable in the past decade.

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