A supply chain is a network between a company and its suppliers to produce and distribute a specific product to the final buyer. This network includes different activities, people, entities, information, and resources. It also represents the steps it takes to get the product or service from its original state to the customer.
Efficient management of the supply chain is essential to remain in a commercially sustainable position. Actors from these sectors (such as logistics operators, retailers, industries, food/goods producers, distributors, suppliers, etc.) must continually adjust their operations responsiveness and efficiency as situations and customer expectations change.
Collecting accurate information from their operations and timely sharing them with their supply chain partners to increase internal and external coordination is one of the key drivers to enhance performance, gain more customers and be more profitable. Automatizing parts of their operations is another way to make cost savings and increase responsiveness too.
Ensuring the safety and security of their operations and the goods exchanged along the supply chain is also a major driver, as any incident (such as road accident, interruption of the cold chain, cyber-attack on supply chain management network, etc.) may compromise the full chain, and hamper the credibility of the involved actors towards their customers and public.
