THE FUTURE OF SUPPLY CHAIN AND PROCUREMENT

I am often asked where I think Supply Chain and Procurement will be in the next couple of decades. Perhaps that is because back in the year 2000 I entered a North American contest wherein I identified that in years to come It went something like this

Buyers would be holographic avatars whom we could configure to our liking (George Clooney or Jessica Alba for the guys) and once we identified for them that which we wanted to buy, the would quickly provide all the relevant information for a service right onto your laptop, or in the case of a product provide you with a 3D representation floating in air. Once a decision was made, then the "buyers" would jump back into the portal (somewhat like in Tron) and within seconds come back with the top three alternatives -- pros and cons attached. 

I also though ensured there was a fail-safe, because you see if I could call up George Clooney, perhaps I would do that every few minutes and buy much to much. So if you were trending to purchase above your budget or perhaps wanton buying then Barney the Dinosaur would show up singing "You're buying to much, you must stop now.."etc. etc.

Yes, for that "amazing" piece of insight I won the contest!

So back in 2000 my ruminations were wild...but today, they don't seem that far fetched! With websites like Second Life having the interest of corporations, maybe having an avatar to do your buying with all the algorithms built in is not so out of line!

But what about the rest of the Supply Chain. The warehousing, the distribution etc. Well, eventually you will be able to shop for everything at sites like Second Life. Their marketplace has real stuff.

If you think about all the bricks and mortar that companies have that distribute their own product, quite honestly, I believe that in the future, or at least those who want to be around in the future will start to outsource this to the experts. But even the experts won't be keeping tons of inventory. If you look at distribution behemoths like Amazon, a significant amount of their product is direct from a supplier. Ebay sends nothing direct. And although these sites are mostly consumer oriented (because consumers adopt before corporations do -- not as much red tape), it is only a matter of time that this trend will be accepted as the way to do business. Small bricks and mortar, lots of cross-docking and ship direct. There will still be lots of trucks on the road, so good news for the trucking industry, but they will have to start bringing their price-points in line. In fact the behemoths may very well negotiate on behalf of all those selling through their sites or with those firms that they are aligned with thereby decreasing margins. It will be a much more virtual world of Supply Chain in the future.

Is this going to happen tomorrow? Well, I believe it is going to happen a lot faster than most think. If you think of an example in the publishing industry, a few years ago they were not thinking that people would give up the touch and feel of books and today? Well, Amazon sells more ebooks that "real" books, so hold onto your hats. In a very short time paper books will be a thing that we remember fondly...at least a lot of trees will be saved.

I am not professing to be the Nostradamus of Supply Chain. But change is coming and it is worthwhile for companies to be ahead of the curve.