Report: 51% of supply chain executives sacrifice profit to improve results

According to the findings of a new supply chain resilience study conducted by IBM and process mining firm Celonis, 51% of supply chain executives are willing to sacrifice profits to improve sustainability outcomes, which translates to $22 billion -Dollars for US Fortune 500 companies in a single year equivalent.

Additionally, these companies recognize the critical role that technologies such as Hybrid Cloud, AI, Process Mining and Execution Management play in helping them overcome the unexpected disruptions they have faced over the past two years. In fact, 87% of Chief Supply Chain Officers (CSCOs) surveyed are implementing execution management and 77% are implementing process and task mining to modernize their operations.

By 2025, 83% of CSCOs plan to adopt real-time AI inventory management; another 83% expect the introduction of self-monitoring, self-correcting assets; and 81% are looking for AI-powered processes and workflows for real-time demand gathering.

Additionally, in their quest to modernize their supply chain operations, 87% of CSCOs plan to use execution management in their day-to-day workflows.

The results of the study show that companies are looking for ways to modernize their supply chains by leveraging data and hybrid cloud strategies and prioritizing sustainability.

For example, supply chain leaders are reinventing processes by embracing the latest data-driven technologies via the cloud – 69% plan to accelerate cloud adoption to improve real-time data access. The report also highlights the role of the CSCO, as well as the various ways they differentiate themselves from peers and competitors that are only focused on tackling current problems.

The report, titled The Resilient Digital Supply Chain: How Intelligent Workflows Balance Efficiency and Sustainability, was produced by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) together with Celonis and Oxford Economics. The group surveyed 500 chief supply chain officers across industries to gain an in-depth understanding of how recent disruptions in global supply chains are affecting their short-term tactics, longer-term strategies and business performance.

Ten industries are represented in the study, including banking, consumer goods, healthcare, electronics, telecom, insurance, industrial products, manufacturing, automotive and life sciences. The revenue size of the surveyed companies ranges from 500 million to 500 billion US dollars.
Read the full report.