Role of Software Tools in Supply Chain Optimization
As businesses are getting increasingly complex, their supply chains have also become very intricate. Almost all supply chains are now global, have multiple modes, have been modeled to avoid wastages, and there is increasing tendency to continuously optimize those to improve service levels and reduce total supply chain cost. The role of new software tools and packages has been very critical in what I call “evolution” of supply chain management. Is everyone convinced? Not really. During my interactions with many third party logistics providers, popularly called 3PLs, or contract logistics providers, I felt they still didn’t want to adopt the latest software tools available in the market. For many of them it was about affordability. But for many of them it was also about “comfort levels”. Even their clients were not really aware about how the latest software tools could help them realize better values. A lot of supply chain service providers still do calculations on MS Exc...