Several other forms of technology are being used to streamline and improve supply chain activities. Some of these include:
- Virtualization: transforming data into user-friendly visual formats
- Crowdsourcing: leveraging mobile technology and large, diverse databases to access new supply markets, and have “crowds” collaborate on new products and ideas
- 3-D printing/additive manufacturing: quickly making sustainable, on-demand physical objects from digital models
- Cyber tracking: real-time tracking of physical and online activity to provide proactive monitoring of supplier behavior and performance
- Virtual reality: using video, data and pattern analysis to detect events and changes of status, and augment supplier audits
- Cybersecurity: protecting of networks, devices, data and programs in order to mitigate supply chain disruption and fraud
- Industry 4.0: the fourth industrial revolution that is responsible for automating manufacturing and industry through the use smart technology
- Digital twins: digital replicas of assets, processes, systems and devices to allow for analysis of data, monitoring of problems, and simulations
- Electronic shelving: automatic price and information labeling of items on shelves using wireless technology
- Controlled atmosphere containers: technology that adjusts the atmospheric gases within a container in order to minimize spoilage and increase shelf life of agricultural products during transportation
Watch the short video below to learn what more technology means for the future of supply chain.
Download video transcript here.