Social media is becoming increasingly important to supply chain professionals, speakers at the Extended Supply Chain conference have revealed.
During a panel discussion at the conference, Roger Staplehurst, vice president in strategic supply chain at CSR plc, said: “You are never too old for Facebook or Twitter. Social media is important in the commercial world, more and more gadgets etc are coming out and you end up running blind because no one really knows about them.
“You need to become your own forecaster and research the products on social media websites. Comments you see on them give much more helpful information then press reviews or articles.”
Travis Perkins’ group supply chain director Robin Proctor and Oracle’s EMEA practice director Mo Khurana also spoke about social media being critical nowadays although Khurana pointed out that social media and new technology alone will not improve something, the people have to be able to use it.
Chris Poole, Diageo’s global customer service development director, said: “More savvy pieces of kit are coming out and customers are becoming more demanding.
“Companies and the economy are more competitive than ever and to create a faster supply chain we need the use of new technology, for example 3D images and 3D copy- some will take off, some won’t.”
