Tag: supply chain management

The commercial real estate industry has welcomed a positive upturn since level 3 of lockdown. One particular sector that is making waves and has seen a noticeable spike in activity over this period is undoubtedly industrial real estate. This uptake can be attributed to the both the stringent hygiene measures now required in the workplace and the changing nature of retail.

Business owners could not have known how fundamentally their lives would change only a few months ago. We now know the pandemic has wreaked havoc on cash flows, supply chains, debt repayments and the general financial standing of thousands of companies in South Africa.

For many enterprises, their siloed, traditional Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems are proving to be their Achilles’ heel when trying to operate in unprecedented circumstances, preventing business continuity and resilience.

Manufacturers and distributors are operating in intensely pressured times. Stats SA reported that manufacturing output contracted for the ninth consecutive month in February of 2020 with the full extent of the damage caused by COVID-19 and the nationwide lockdown still unknown.

The scale of the national COVID-19 lockdown is unprecedented in living memory. The repercussions – personal, professional, national and international – will reverberate for years to come. As entrepreneurs, we need to be making the right decisions for right now to ensure that our businesses and our people’s livelihoods do not become another casualty of the virus.

Businesses will have to embed innovation in their DNA to future-proof their operations for the unparalleled pace of technological change in what we refer to in our Tech Vision 2020 as the post-digital era. In the past, businesses with a unique asset could enjoy a competitive advantage and sweat that asset for ten, twenty or even thirty years before their competitors caught on.

There is a distinct lack of good news at the moment, and certainty is in short supply. The coronavirus is spreading rapidly in Europe, the Middle East and North America, and we have to assume it will continue spreading at a rapid rate.

In celebration of DHL’s fiftieth anniversary as a world-leading delivery company, former CEO of DHL - Ken Allen – shares the inspiring story of his journey to the top of the industry in his recently launched memoir, Radical Simplicity. The book demonstrates how simplicity successfully transformed a loss-making mega brand into a world-class performer.

Automation offers the supply chain significant advantages across efficiency, capability and reducing complexity. It can take on the tedium while opening up opportunity, and it can cut costs while allowing for improvements in deliverable and customer engagement. 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the key pillars of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is transforming and digitizing everything from backend customer service centres to procurement and supply chain management. In fact, AI capabilities are increasingly being embedded throughout organisational structures, opening up a new digital frontier that most companies, both large and small, are still grappling with on a day-to-day basis.