The Supply Chain Year in Stories: January 2024
Deloitte: Pharma Supply Chains in Digitalisation Push
Supply chain digitalisation is now a must for biopharma companies, according to a survey from Deloitte.
The report, from Deloitte’s Center for Health Solutions, explores supply chain digitalisation strategy and investments, current and future capabilities, benefits from digitalisation efforts, and barriers to digitalisation.
The survey finds:
- Roughly half of respondents report improvements in key areas due to digitalisation. This includes better risk sensing (50%), enhanced yields (50%), warehouse efficiencies (48%), and cost-effective sourcing (47%).
- A third of survey respondents say their organisation will likely scale capabilities such as deep learning for product development, machine vision for predictive maintenance, and digital twins for process improvement in the next five years.
- A further third of respondents say their organisation is attempting to completely transform its supply chain using digital technologies.
The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions surveyed 105 biopharma leaders involved in supply chain digitalisation efforts at global companies with revenue greater than US$500mn.
The study explores supply chain digitalisation strategy and investments, current and future capabilities, benefits from digitalisation efforts, and barriers to digitalisation.
Pharma firms scaling supply chain visibility initiatives
A fifth of respondents say their organisation has scaled capabilities focused on supply chain visibility. These include dashboards for real-time visibility into supplier performance (22%), command centres to monitor operational performance (20%), and visibility into product fulfilment and return processes (26%).
Deloitte points out that leveraging digital technologies such as AI and digital twins can help biopharma companies automate supply chain processes while generating actionable insights for greater predictability and faster decision-making.
But it adds that a number of biopharma companies are experimenting with transformative uses of digital technologies.
More than one-third of respondents (34%) believe that, within the next five years, their organisation is likely to scale the use of:
- Deep learning for product development
- Machine vision for predictive maintenance
- Digital twins for process improvement
Ford Leads Way on DE&I in Automotive Supply Chain
Ford's award winning Supplier Diversity and Inclusion strategy "permeates the core of our company", says Travis Spencer, Head of Supplier Diversity & Inclusion at the company.
The programme dates back as far as 1968, beginning life as an Inner-City Supplier Development Program, creating jobs in urban areas of minority concentration.
This initial programme requested by Henry Ford II was designed to identify high-potential minority enterprises and helping them competitive in the automotive industry.
Ford's Supplier Diversity Development Office administers the Supplier Diversity Development Programme, which promotes economic development across both production (direct) and non-production (indirect) forms of procurement.
Diversity and inclusion at Ford Motor Company
Ford's DE&I strategy has benefitted historically underrepresented businesses owned, operated and controlled by ethnic minorities, women, LGBT, veterans and disabled people .
“Diversity & Inclusion permeates the core of our company – from the diversity of our product offerings and global workforce, to our strategic partners, supply base and dealers,” says Travis.
He adds: “Rapidly changing technologies are creating incredible opportunities for growth with diverse suppliers who are able to identify and understand the traditional industry disruptors, grasp the concept of Diversity & Inclusion and develop a forward-looking strategy and plan.
"We remain committed to support, develop, grow and promote our diverse suppliers while expanding the economic impact and growth in the community for a more sustainable future.”
Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, which looks after one of the world's largest auto manufacturer supply chains, says of the company's inclusive programme: “Our employees, our customer base, dealer network and supply chain are a family where we celebrate our differences.
"As we work to modernise across our business, we will rely on our diverse supply base to bring fresh ideas and perspectives. A supply base that reflects the diversity of our customer base will be our competitive edge as we work to deliver must-have products and services for our customers.
"Together, we can leverage our diverse backgrounds and diversity of thought to create a better company and a better world.”
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