Supply chain industry: biggest challenges 2018| ��ƽ��

What is the biggest challenge you are facing in your supply chain?

Characteristic	2017	2018
Inventory management	14.5%	13.2%
Available talent	14.5%	9.2%
Coordinating operations across multiple sales channels	14.5%	11.8%
Fluctuating consumer demand	13.3%	19.7%
Visibility	12%	21.1%
Risk allocation*	7.2%	-
Keeping pace with technology	7.2%	6.6%
Data management	3.6%	1.3%
Data governance*	3.6%	-
Manufacturing	3.6%	4%
Sourcing	3.6%	5.3%
Ensuring an ethical supply chain	2.4%	5.3%
Other**	-	2.6%

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Source

Release date

April 2018

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

2017 and 2018

Number of respondents

104 respondents

Special properties

supply chain executives from retailers, manufacturers and brands.

Supplementary notes

The source doesn't provide the age of the respondents and survey method.
2017 Benchmark: 105
* Answer not included in 2018 survey.
** Answer not included in 2017 survey.

Citation formats

A 2018 survey found that the biggest challenge for global supply chain executives was visibility, with 21.8 percent of respondents selecting this response. Fluctuating customer demand was second, with 19.7 percent, while data management was lowest with 1.3 percent.

Visibility

The nature of the challenges generated by visibility differs depending on whether a company is a producer or a supplier of goods. Producers were most concerned with having oversight on how materials were provisioned to their production facilities, while suppliers were concerned with visibility over the quality and availability of the products they intend to sell. Both producers and suppliers though were concerned with being able to trace the flow of materials and/or goods through their supply chain process.

Supply chain management

Given the concerns producers and suppliers have over visibility, supply chain management (SCM) software has been a growing industry over the last decade. One sub-segment of this industry expected to see very strong growth is supply chain analytics, whereby the data captured in a SCM system is used in more sophisticated ways (for example, to identifying the main causes and predict the risk of supply chain disruptions). A 2016 survey found that advanced analytics was the technology manufacturing executives expected to impact their supply chain the most, while some analysts expect the size of the supply chain analytic market to almost double between 2018 and 2023.