It's not a surprise given how quickly the supply chain has changed over the past few years, that companies are investing in new ways to manage their business. A report, Supply Chain and Logistics Innovation Accelerates, but Has Long Way to Go, recently released from Descartes Systems Group, found that 59% of companies surveyed accelerated the pace of innovation investment and deployment over the last two years.
And that spending will continue as 65% said they planned to increase their technology spending over the next two years, the study, which contacts 1,000 supply chain and logistics decision-makers across nine European countries, Canada and the United States.
However, there are still challenges as 87% indicated they still face internal inhibitors to supply chain and logistics innovation.
“The recent past has highlighted that supply chain performance can make or break companies and the need to innovate supply chain and logistics operations have moved to the forefront of many C-suite agendas,” said Chris Jones, EVP, Industry and Services at Descartes, in a statement.
“The study shows that, while efforts in supply chain and logistics innovation are accelerating, many companies are relatively early in their innovation journey in areas such as digitization and especially in the use of advanced computing technologies such as machine learning,” Jones added.
The study also examined other issues such as where supply chain and logistics innovation is considered to be the strongest and the weakest, the degree to which key supply chain and logistics innovative technologies are deployed and innovation focus areas today and in the future.
