Gartner has identified its top eight supply chain technology trends in 2019 saying they are all trend that will have a broad industry impact but have not been widely adopted yet.
They are:
Artificial Intelligence: technology that seeks to augment human performance. Through self-learning and natural language, AI capabilities can help automate various supply chain processes such as demand forecasting, production planning or predictive maintenance.
Advanced Analytics: spans predictive analytics — those that identify data patterns and anticipate future scenarios — as well as prescriptive analytics — a set of capabilities that finds a course of action to meet a predefined objective.
Internet of Things: The network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to interact with their internal states or the external environment.
Robotic Process Automation: RPA tools operate by mapping a process in the tool language for the software “robot” to follow. They cut costs and eliminate keying errors.
Autonomous Things: Using AI to automate functions previously performed by humans, such as autonomous vehicles and drones. They exploit AI to deliver advanced behaviours that interact more naturally with their surroundings and with people.
Digital Supply Chain Twin: This is a digital representation of the relationships between all physical entities of end-to-end supply chain processes — products, customers, markets, distribution centres/warehouses, plants, finance, attributes and weather. They are linked to their real-world counterparts and are used to understand the state of the thing or system to optimise operations and respond efficiently to changes.
Immersive Experiences: These include augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and conversational systems are changing the way people interact with the digital world.
Blockchain in Supply Chain: Although supply-chain-related blockchain initiatives are nascent, blockchain has potential to fulfil long-standing challenges presented across complex global supply chains. Current capabilities offered by blockchain solutions for supply chain include traceability, automation, and security.
