On a recent trip to a Nike store, I discovered that Nike offers customized footwear through their NIKE BY You offering. Nike has dozens of shoe styles where multiple features and colors can be customized. Your customized shoes are produced and delivered to your house in a matter of a couple of weeks. I can’t wait to get my Michigan State Spartan themed shoes – “Go Green, Go White.”
The Proliferation of Consumer Packaged Goods
The variety of consumer packaged goods available through a growing number of distribution channels is truly amazing. Competition between brick and mortar and e-commerce retail channels, often within the same company, has led to a proliferation of products and services and a much more complex supply chain.
In addition, it is now common to deliver some consumer packaged goods to a retail store or directly to a home within hours of making a purchase. Manufacturers even sell connected smart devices that have the capability to anticipate the need for a product. Consider the smart refrigerator that orders a gallon of milk based on the quantity of milk in the refrigerator and its average consumption.
Consider the smart printer that orders replacement ink cartridges based on the amount of ink remaining and an average use rate. Furthermore, 3-D printers are becoming more common allowing companies to make their own products on-site. What’s next? Products beamed right into your house. Beam me up, Scotty!
Piecing Together the Supply Ecosystem Puzzle
Back to reality, today’s brand manufacturers face a long list of difficult supply chain challenges, including:
- Increasing demand variability;
- Inventory proliferation;
- Manufacturing capacity constraints;
- Increasing risks both nature and human based;
- More environmental compliance regulations;
Intense global competition; - Increasing customer expectations; and
- A shortage of talent.
On top of all that, more and more consumer packaged goods are being produced by contract manufacturing and packaging partners. To survive in today’s highly competitive global environment, brand manufacturers need to piece together the parts of the supply ecosystem collaboration puzzle to ensure they can remain agile and resilient no matter what disruptions may happen in their extended supply ecosystem.
An estimated 75% of supply chain data originates from outside a single company’s enterprise systems. Supply ecosystem complexity creates risks of miscommunication and service failures, often from inadequate visibility to real-time data and the inability to dynamically collaborate with partners. Current, clean, comprehensive and consistent data is required to harness the power of Industry 4.0 investments in digital twins, advanced analytics, optimization, machine learning, and other advanced supply chain capabilities. A Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Business Network (MESCBN) platform provides consistent, harmonized, standardized and actively managed data from across the extended supply ecosystem that can be used to supercharge investment in existing enterprise systems.
Solving the Puzzle With an MESCBN
Gartner defines Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Business Networks (MESCBNs) as “cohesive technology platforms that support a community of trading partners that need to coordinate and execute on business processes that extend across multiple enterprises”.
Nulogy has been recognized and positioned as an emerging MESCBN technology leader and is leading the market with effective competition and growth strategy execution.
Quadrant Knowledge Solutions, “SPARK Matrix™: Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Business Networks (MESCBN), 2021
These supply ecosystem networks are owned and managed by third-party software vendors, such as Nulogy, that provide fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands and their community of partners with multi-enterprise functionality, services and security. The capabilities offered by a MESCBN platform support the shift from an organization’s enterprise-centric mindset to a multi-enterprise, outside-in approach to network collaboration. Key Capabilities of MESCBN Platforms include:
- Near real-time data visibility
- Plug & play network connectivity
- Easy partner onboarding / offboarding
- Multi-tier and multi-type partner ecosystem
- Centralized information / data hub
- Universal cross-domain apps
- Core supply chain execution apps
- Embedded intelligence (artificial intelligence)
- Intelligent workflow / management by exception
- In-app, dynamic collaboration
- Collaborative analytics, reporting and performance
Research by PwC shows that investments in supply chain visibility generate 8% additional revenue and reduce costs by 7%.
PwC, “Connected and autonomous supply chain ecosystems 2025″
Start Generating Value in Your Supply Ecosystem Today
Leading organizations have shown that near real-time data visibility and dynamic process collaboration enabled by an MESCBN platform drives powerful financial benefits, improves the ability to meet ever-increasing customer demands and enhances agility to adapt and resilience to recover.
Is your organization still trying to fit together the various pieces of your supply ecosystem collaboration puzzle? If so, let Nulogy help you shift to an outside-in multi-enterprise supply chain and achieve the benefits of doing so.
Download our ebook to learn more about how a multi-enterprise platform can prepare your business for the future.
