How cognitive computing systems can help to synchronize supply chains?

Hello Team,

We believe that there are four imperatives that consumer products manufacturers must address in today’s new era in order to win the marketplace:

·         Deliver a differentiated brand experience throughout the path to purchase.

·         Collaborate more effectively with channel partners to meet evolving consumer shopping preferences.

·         Optimize supply and distribution networks by integrating demand and supply signals.

·         Reinvent processes and accelerate organizational agility to enable new growth.

Consumer products companies need to execute around a new understanding of consumers and their preferences regarding brand engagement in today’s modern, digital world. They can do this by segmenting their consumers into cohorts, based on relevant attitudinal and behavioral characteristics to understand who wants to be engaged (and who doesn’t), when they want to be engaged and how they want to be engaged—throughout the path to purchase.

Regards,

Saiyid

Agree with  Ghada Eweda <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

"Supply chains are a highly-complex, yet very necessary, ingredient to nearly any successful business venture," asserts Keith Peterson, President and Chief Executive Officer at Halo Business Intelligence, Inc. "An efficient supply chain requires detailed knowledge of the minute mechanics behind each step of a product's journey, plus a big-picture understanding of how those mechanics effectively support the process as a whole — which is where supply chain management comes in."

For many companies, creating a successful global supply chain is a difficult challenge.  Fortunately, technologies like cognitive computing are maturing at a time when global supply chains are becoming so complex that traditional approaches to supply chain management no longer work. Cognitive computing systems, like the Enterra Solutions Enterprise Cognitive System is a revolutionary approach for coordinating data throughout an organization   are able to analyze the massive amounts of data necessary to provide actionable insights that can help business executives overcome paralysis through analysis. Several studies have found that, companies that embrace an efficient supply chain management system are more likely to see larger returns than companies with unorganized methods.  Cognitive computing systems can help bring order out of chaos and can even make routine decisions so that executives are free to concentrate on more important challenges.  Analytics power the heart of any supply chain management solution  assisted by tools for facilitating collaboration and optimization in a workplace. Fundamentally, businesses should think of the network of processes, facilities, and people involved in the manufacture of a service or product as an unbreakable chain   rather than a group of interrelated separate tasks.

The folks at Supply Chain Network believe there are seven activities that companies should focus on to improve their supply chain management. In an extreme act of alliteration, they call them "the seven S’s of SCM." They are: Synergy, Standards, Semantic, Serialization, Synchronization, Sustainability, and Social.

First: Synergy 

 Synergy is an elusive thing. It is sometimes difficult to identify and even more challenging to capture, this is even more true when it comes to the search for synergy in complex global supply chains. Synergy means savings. ... Think overlap, offset and many other forms available once multi-company data sharing and active collaboration commences. One of benefits of a good cognitive computing system is that it can ingest and integrate both structured and unstructured data and make sense of it. As a result, companies can operate from a single version of the truth which helps generate both synergy and corporate alignment.

Second: Standards 

 When it comes to successfully implementing advanced supply chain management models, standards are like oxygen. They are a prerequisite for success without which no scalable multi-company solutions can be built or rolled out in any sustainable manner. Standards [are required] for product numbering and data sharing, identification, location numbering, communications, RFID and now emerging standards for semantic data formats. Standards certainly help with data integration. Unfortunately, in multi-tiered supply chains, few companies are going to find standards that reach into all tiers.

Third: Semantic 

 Transparent and simplified data sharing is the key to unlocking the latent synergies that exist in all supply chains, due to the many forms of siloization, as well as the cultural issues that have often prevented access to the data needed to identify and begin the capture process." Cognitive computing systems really shine when it comes to mining gold from unstructured data. They all use natural language processing in one way or another. Enterra's solutions generally involve the use of the world's largest common sense ontology; which adds a semantic sophistication not found in all enterprise cognitive systems.

Fourth: Serialization 

 Traceability, e-Pedigree, carbon tracking, RoHS/WEEE/REACH, consignment and item level RFID are all emerging reasons why serialization is rising in importance in supply chain management.  With product recalls taking an increasing bite out of profits, companies are going to find that traceability is going to be a "must have" in the years ahead.

Fifth: Synchronization 

 Synchronization is where the rubber meets the road in terms of bringing together all of these component methods and systems to deliver a future state end to end supply chain network. Supply Chain Synchronization is not as simple as it may sound, in fact there are at least eight different dimensions across which supply chains can be synchronized. With so many moving parts, it's no longer possible for manual processes to keep track of what's going on in real time. An enterprise cognitive system, based on the principle of management by exception, can help keep things synchronized and can alert decision makers whenever an intervention is required.

Sixth: Sustainability 

 There are many unfamiliar with the direct correlation between supply chain performance and carbon footprint. In most cases a company’s supply chain represents 75% of the carbon footprint generated by the organization. ... Those companies which recognize this and take preparatory actions will see direct competitive advantage in supply chain costs for perhaps one to two years before those not taking action can catch up."

Sustainability, of course, is about more than a company's carbon footprint. It's about reducing waste and procuring resources in a way that is both good for the company and good for the world. Done correctly, sustainability activities are the result of good business decisions.

Seventh: Social 

 Social is the most recent development in supply chains and in our opinion the one factor which will most differentiate the performance of both end user operations and IT products over the next several years. The application of social networking based technologies in the supply chain will be at a number of different levels including employee engagement, innovation, continuous improvement and a number of others in operations and supply chain planning/forecasting." I suspect that social dimension of supply chain management will be tied closely to the Internet of Things, which is going to have a major impact on most of the areas discussed above.

 On conclusion,  cognitive computing will provide the “ultimate long-term solution” for many business challenges that cognitive computing will be found at the heart of every digital enterprise. Nothing can be more central to digital enterprise than the digital supply chain.