Building a culture of supply chain transparency and real-time data : Adapting to the living supply chain

Many organisations feel uncomfortable with the idea of visibility as a transformative element that will drive supply chain improvements. While the concept of velocity seems to be widely adopted, there are a great number of excuses around why visibility is not possible within their industry, organisation or business function. Part of this hesitancy may have to do with the massive hype cycle that exists today around ‘big data’, ‘digitisation’, the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). These terms have proliferated to the point where executives are effectively paralysed, not knowing how to proceed and unsure of how to justify investments due to the lack of any return on investment (ROI). Further, the challenges of data governance and integration are causing many executives to halt in their tracks, as the idea of ‘pumping our bad data through the Internet’ is cause for consternation. For instance, a group of pharma executives had a major discussion and were unsure if good manufacturing practices (GMP) data could be shared, if it had not yet been validated. The challenge for many of these organisations is that there is no clear roadmap for adoption of real-time data transformation. The technology is not the challenge — the real issue has to do with the shift in mindset, change management and governance that exists as data becomes more transparent across multiple tiers of suppliers and customers. The legal implications are also causing uncertainty, as are the ramifications of exposing one’s data in the face of recent cyber security breaches. The issue of exposing one’s data to potential legal issues is also a consideration. Most importantly, executives do not have a clear picture of the shift in skill sets, talent, capabilities and new job roles that will be affected by a broader set of technological shifts towards digitisation and real-time living supply chains. This paper proposes that several key cultural components of an organisation are required to adopt to a digital ecosystem.