In the 1920s, the introduction of mass production along assembly lines laid the foundation for the supply chain management. It was first enforced by Ford, the thought of making consistent products on an exceptionally large scale with increased efficiency changed trade and supply chains. Mass production and therefore the concept of interchange of parts originated within the 18th century with weaponry in America and ship pulley production in England however had not earlier been combined with the division of labour, continuous workflow, and specialization.
By the mid-1950s, this concept was extended to containerization, or container shipping, which not only increased the quantity of available space for goods but also increased the speed of the freights movement while decreasing the cost. By transportation management with the development of intermodal containers together with ships, trains, and trucks to handle these containers. This was a prerequisite for the availability chain globalization that was to return much later. Although the terms “warehousing” and “materials handling” were not able to describe many of those efforts.
After the invention of the personal computer, the supply chain industry start booming with the emergence of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), by installing ERP, companies start seeing tremendous improvements in data availability and accuracy ERP, the software also dramatically increased recognition of the need for better planning and integration among logistics components. Now a days, IoT and AI are helping the supply chain tremendously with its help many software sensors and technology are embedded for the purpose of connecting and exchanging data with other devices and systems over the web. Company can easily track and locate, check the quality of products, monitor storage capacity, improve contingency planning and helps in Inventory Management.
For many suppliers and manufacturers, online sales are expected to increase drastically. It means that suppliers and retailers must find ways to be more profitable, to remain viable in the future. Surprisingly, the biggest take away is that IoT has changed the entire process. The supply chain is no longer cost centric and focuses on customer experience by providing real-time tracking data. To reinvent the supply chain, businesses will need to be forward looking and focus on technology.
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