Supply chain management (SCM) software is utilized in supply chain transactions. It aids in overseeing supplier relationships and business processes of supply chain members: manufacturers, logistics services suppliers, retailers.  Supply chain management program sector is anticipated to reach $24.532 billion by 2025, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 9.7% from 2018 to 2025 according to Allied Market Research. SCM software market predictions, technologies costs, and trends you’ll find reading further.

According to Allied Market Research Western Europe and North America keep on being the prime supply chain management soft consumers.  It’s interesting to have a look at the slice of a deployment model. The on-premise SCM soft segment kept the leading position at the market in 2016 and is relied upon to keep staying predominant over the next nine years. In the product slice, Supply Chain Planning is considered to grow the most to 2025.

New Technology in Supply Chain Management: What are the Leaders Discussing as Supply Chain Management Technology Trends?

How can technology improve supply chain management? At Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conferences Innovators the Leaders discussed Top 8 Supply Chain Technology Trends in 2019, which are:

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Advanced Analytics
  • IoT
  • Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
  • Autonomous Things
  • Digital Supply Chain Twin
  • VR and AR
  • Blockchain.

How much do Cutting-Edge technologies cost, can a mid-size and small business afford them, and for what purposes?

Technology Approximate cost  Technology in supply chain management
Artificial Intelligence (AI) From $100k for a simple tool.
  • Automatic decision-making without human intervention or control.
  • Machine vision and perception.
  • Speech recognition, etc.
Advanced Analytics

Makes sense with the presence of pre-collected information, on the basis of which it is possible to do either research or solve extraordinary tasks that cannot be executed with the help of relational databases.

 Data scientist average salary is $113,436 per year, according to Glassdoor.
  • Predictive data analytics.
  • Big data.
  • Data mining.
IoT

Interconnected sensors and trackers

 Starting from $18k.
  • Measurement/tracking/monitoring of location, temperature, humidity, light, handling, speed of movement and other environmental factors for storage and transportation control.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Starting from $5K for a simple feature/bot.
  • Bots that execute repetitive, rules-based tasks like gathering and comparing data from multiple systems, reading and writing to databases, or extracting and reformatting data into reports and dashboards.
Autonomous Things By different sources starting from $3K for an autonomous drone to $300K for a driving vehicle (the technology is still under the tests, much time will pass before the mass production)
  • Express delivery of small-size cargoes in megalopolises and hard-to-reach places.
  • Long-haul road transportation
  • In the future, other types of transport – sea, air, and railway.
Digital Supply Chain Twin

A digital model of a physical world object 

 Starting from $20k.
  • What-if tests
  • Real-time analysis
  • Processes optimization, etc.
VR and AR From approximately $50K for an app.
  • For quality and time improvement of loading operations for transportation.
  • For the increase of speed and accuracy of picking in warehouses.
Blockchain  From $5K. 
  • Trace each product to its source and its quality condition through different parties.
  • Tracking all the purchase orders, change orders, receipts, trade-related details.
  • Verifying the validity of the certification. 
  • Link various physical items to serial numbers, barcodes, and tags like RFID, etc.
  • Shares all the information about the manufacturing process, assembly, delivery, and maintenance of products with the different parties in the supply chain.

As one can see from the table above, some cutting-edge technologies are still far from mass implementation for the majority of supply chain participants and are available to a very limited circle of key market players. Fortunately, there are quite accessible technologies to medium-sized businesses and even small businesses. And they will be quickly and massively implemented due to their relatively affordable price. According to Everett Rogers, before Late Majority is ready to accept the use of technology in supply chain management, 50% of all technology adopters are already using it and getting benefits of it.

From this point of view, technology becomes not a market advantage for the most tech-savvy companies, but a standard in the sphere on the whole. Unfortunately, off-the-shelf soft developers are not able to take into account all the specifics of a particular business.

For example, when transporting petroleum, it is necessary to take into account not only standard parameters but also very specific ones. For instance, pressure, temperature, humidity, and level sensors control the level of oil in cargo tanks, its viscosity and other parameters. They are necessary as the state of oil plays a significant role in the transportation process and transfer. Custom logistic software development is considered to be an excellent solution in this case. With the help of IoF, the data is gathered and stored into one cloud-based system. RPAs can extract and reformat this data, organizing it into reports or dashboards. The same data may be used for advanced analytics if it’s not about one tanker, but about a whole cargo fleet of a commercial enterprise.

In custom development, XB Software can use different combinations of cutting-edge technologies within the given budget to find the necessary minimum for working solution implementation. This approach will allow adding new functionality to the system as your business grows. Our team has extensive experience working with previously had experience with the majority of the above mentioned technologies, developing custom software for supply chain management.

Get a free consultation or learn more about our possibilities to empower your business with the upcoming technologies.