Supply Chain Management For Dummies

Chapter 14

Managing Digital Supply Chains

IN THIS CHAPTER

Driving toward digitalization

Exploring digital supply chain technologies

Building an omnichannel supply chain

Virtually every supply chain transaction boils down to a three-step process: A customer gives a supplier some money, the supplier gives the customer a product or service, and the customer and supplier exchange some information. That’s why it’s common to think of a supply chain as three flows: money, material, and information. (See Chapter 2 for a description of this approach.) Advances in information technology are changing all three of these flows and generating new opportunities to create value with digital supply chains.

Your digital supply chain consists of all the information about your products, transactions, and locations that is stored or shared electronically. Warehouse management systems, transportation management systems, and all of the other systems discussed in Chapter 12 are part of your digital supply chain; each of them helps your business operate more efficiently.

But there are three trends that are redefining the role of digital tools in supply chain management:

• The evolution of products from analog ...