Blue Yonder vs. ERP Giants: The Battle for the Network

Warehouses play a vital role in the supply chain, but but they need to be tightly managed with significant visibility within.

Global supply chains have many moving parts in them, but warehouses are their own ecosystem within. With inventory movement, alignment of plans and the need to meet demand with real-time changes, they need to operate as a well-oiled machine.

Blue Yonder's warehouse management systems beat out traditional ERP systems, as it bridges the gap between planning and warehouse execution. 

Reducing fragmentation

Blue Yonder utilises a series of supply chain management solutions, warehouse management systems and warehouse execution systems. These are built to orchestrate tasks and automation in real time, making it easier for business leaders to plan their operations.

Blue Yonder is not replacing traditional ERP systems, but outperforming them through its highly-specialised, AI-powered and cloud-native solutions. The supply chain is a deeply complex system, particularly in today's volatile market. 

Traditional ERPs were designed for a much more simple supply chain network, acting as singular system for a much more basic operation. Instead, Blue Yonder considers more modern demand and utilises real-time intelligence in order to optimise the supply chain. It is is an intelligent system which sits alongside the traditional ERPs in order to strengthen the network.

Where previous systems operate in a siloed fashion, with separate solutions across functions such as finance, HR and marketing. This traditional way of operating is no longer enough to help businesses operate in a resilient manner throughout today's turbulence. Instead, there is a deeper understanding that there needs to be cross-functional collaboration and communication. 

Blue Yonder, as a result, offers deep and functional solutions for:

• Demand & Supply Planning - this includes granular forecasting, inventory optimisation and concurrent planning
• Warehouse Management (WMS) - this makes use of warehouse robotics, labour and more
• Transportation Management (TMS) - taking care of route optimisation, real-time visibility and carrier management
• Retail and Commerce - focuses on category management, dynamic pricing and merchandising.

Blue Yonder looks at where the inventory needs to be, when and how to get there in order to meet demand, rather than simply just stating where the stock is.

"How can you actually orchestrate inbound and outbound if you can't see what's inbound," asks Duncan Angove, Blue Yonder CEO.

"A truck is late, you've got demurrage fees, it's got frozen product in it. All the chaos that happens at the dock. When something's coming in, it's not just changing the dock schedules. It's understanding which truck you actually want at which door, because of the lane inside the warehouse where it's going to be put away."

AI use and visibility

Blue Yonder utilises a modern, cloud-native, multi-tenant SaaS solution which is built on Microsoft Azure, rather than old and slow architecture of legacy systems.

As a result, it is more scalable across datasets and complex operations. It can also ensure continuous updates through innovative solutions, rather than taking long periods of time to process one upgrade.

The platform makes use of AI in order to analyse external signals, such as weather, trends and local events. This allows it to create much more accurate demand forecasts which in turn means it can help business leaders plan their operations much more effectively. 

Through its AI capabilities, Blue Yonder can recommend solutions, utilising real-time data such as traffic. As a result, businesses can better plan for risk, or undertake different routes – allowing them to save money, fuel and emissions. 

Blue Yonder's range of ERP strategies ensures it can build organisational resilience, utilising a concurrent planning system. Through this, organisations can have stronger collaboration with deeper insights into each function. As a result, there is greater end-to-end visibility and less fragmentation throughout a business.