My top resolution for supply chain professionals to keep in 2019: Resolve to explore digital “multipliers” to solve talent and labor needs. The crunch for talent, both generally and in supply chain, is now at critical levels; there are far more job openings than there are qualified candidates to fill them. That fact, coupled with the possibility for an economic slowdown in the near future, creates a compelling argument for making existing headcount more productive by augmenting operational and administrative processes with both physical automation as well as digital tools such as Machine Learning and Robotic Process Automation. One suggestion is to find ways to utilize digital assistants to multiply productivity and enable activities to flex to scale without the need for adding excessive head count. Managers should begin now to assess the levels of routinized activities that their teams perform on a daily basis and seek to free them up using the assistance of digital tools. The opportunities are there if you look for them and the ROI will surprise (maybe shock) you in a positive way!! #machinelearning #automation #digitization
Ted Stank thank you for sharing. Today, most manual or repetitive tasks or forms can be digitized and optimized with a click of a button. However, I would like to see each organization to identify their Herbies through constraint management! Your thoughts!
Great resolution for #supplychain professionals, Ted! Thanks for sharing your insight and kicking off the series. For supply chain professionals interested, you can see more resolutions for 2019 here: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12112967/
Intrepid Investigator
5yTed Stank - Not to be blunt but let's forget the professionals for a moment and focus on the 19-year-old highly educated frat boy from VA or TN. He is currently undecided in his major but is leaning towards finance or business (maybe law). How do we convince him that he should take a couple hundred hours away from his social life and spend on learning/investigating UiPath, Kaggle, TradeLens or Python? Did I forget Swahili ;)? What type of incentive or ROI argument can we use to entice him? How can we break down the barriers between academia, the SCM industry, IT, in order to #demystify the impacts & opportunities of the 4th industrial revolution on the white-collar labor force? What "digital assistants" do you recommend?