2019 MHI Annual Industry Report
The recently released 2019 MHI Annual Industry Report, “Elevating Supply Chain Digital Consciousness” revealed some interesting trends and expected future developments, including:
- The digital innovation that has become part of the supply chain industry over the past few years will continue to have a substantial effect on supply chains over at least the next ten years, with many of these innovations having the power to disrupt existing supply chain methods and give companies that embrace them a major competitive advantage going forward.
- Adoption rates of several technologies, techniques, and practices are expected to soar over the next few years. For example:
- Cloud Computing and Storage – 91% (currently 56%)
- Inventory and Network Optimization – 90%
- Predictive Analytics – 87%
- Sensors – 86%
- IoT (Internet of Things) – 80%
- Wearables – 73%
- Blockchain – 62% (currently 10%)
- Artificial Intelligence – 62% (currently 13%)
- Key challenges faced by the industry remain:
- Hiring qualified workers (workforce shortage makes it hard to find, hire, and retain talent)
- Increasing customer demands for better, faster, more efficient supply chains (more digital adoption can address this)
- Most organizations surveyed (57%) plan to increase their investment in supply chain innovation over the next two years. Planned spend is:
- >$1 million – 57% (+10% on 2018 report)
- >$5 million – 34%
- >$10 million – 34%
- This money will be spent on:
- >Robotics and automation – $20 million (highest)
- >3D printing – $10 million (lowest)
- >Other technologies – $10-14 million
Overall, investment in supply chain innovation seems to be heading for an important turning point, with an anticipated 95% increase, reversing the trend of declining investment from 2015 -2018.
In our opinion, this is a vitally important point – keeping your supply chain up to date and investing in new technologies and innovations is key to staying competitive in the modern marketplace.