Manufacturing Supply Chains: What Does the Future Hold?

Nobody can predict the future, but some are certainly qualified to make educated guesses. Over the next decade, manufacturing growth depends on successful engagement with consumers, according to IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Supply Chain 2017 Predictions, a new report from IDC Manufacturing Insights.

The report makes the following 10 predictions for the decade to come:

1. By 2019, 50 percent of manufacturing supply chains will benefit from digital transformation. Outdated business models or functional structures will hold the rest back.
2. By 2020, 50 percent of mature supply chains will use cognitive computing/artificial intelligence and advanced analytics for deployment-based planning and to eliminate sole reliance on short-term demand forecasts.
3. By the end of 2018, 90 percent of manufacturing supply chains will use B2B commerce networks as the primary collaboration tool for demand, supply, service, and new product development.
4. By the end of 2017, 35 percent of supply chains will actively use supply chain control towers with expanded use of integrated business planning.
5. By the end of 2020, 50 percent of manufacturing supply chains will have the capability, either in-house or outsourced, to enable direct-to-consumption shipments and home delivery.
6. By the end of 2019, 90 percent of manufacturing supply chains will use cloud applications within supply chain fulfillment to reduce complexity and increase speed and visibility.
7. By the end of 2018, 75 percent of large enterprise manufacturers will have transitioned to capabilities-based procurement processes within their businesses.
8. By the end of 2019, the use of Internet-of-Things sensors for real-time information sharing across organizational borders will boost manufacturing supply chain productivity and efficiency by 30 percent.
9. By the end of 2020, 50 percent of manufacturers will derive business value from the integration of supply chain, plant operations, and product and service life-cycle management.
10. By 2018, technology-enabled risk and resiliency capabilities will have become a key element of value for 75 percent of manufacturing supply chains.

"The coming years will greatly alter the technology landscape for supply chain organizations," says Simon Ellis, vice president of global supply chain strategies, for IDC Manufacturing Insights. "While the predictions offered here largely focus on the near to mid-term, the impact of many of these will be felt for years to come.

"It is worthwhile to note that predictions are not finite but rather occur on a continuum of change within the wider ecosystem of the manufacturing industry and global economy," he says.