Supply Chain Visibility

The complexity of global supply chains and the need to collaborate with a wide range of partners and stakeholders increases the importance of Supply Chain Visibility (SCV). In our Q&A, Ralf Boelicke, Head of Product & Partner Management at Hermes International, explains what is necessary for companies to use SCV profitably and what challenges need to be overcome when implementing a visibility strategy.

In many companies, data from the various phases of the value chain is increasingly being generated and combined for analysis. To avoid confusion and to be able to draw profitable insights from the digital information, it is crucial that the sometimes highly sensitive data is strategically managed and processed. With Advanced Reporting, companies can collect and process the real-time data on their goods movements and receive proactive reporting on the current status of their supply chain processes through appropriate tools.

Supply chains are becoming ever more complex: legal regulations, increasing sustainability requirements and higher customer expectations entail that the individual phases of a product cycle from manufacture to delivery can now no longer be viewed in isolation from one another. To ensure that a product is available at the right time in the required quantity and quality, upstream and downstream processes must interlock seamlessly and smoothly. This requirement is supported by a symbiosis of Supply Chain Visibility (SCV) and Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM), as it not only provides companies with valuable knowledge about their supply chain processes, but also gives them planning security and enables them to benefit from greater resilience to unexpected events.