Our discussion
about ERP under week 7 topic, Role of
Technology in Supply chain Management got me curious to learn more about
ERP. Being skeptic by nature, I am still
not sure if ERP could actually be an answer to all kind of supply chain
inefficiency related challenges. I came across this article, “Farm to Fork- Big Data and the Agriculture
Value Chain “written by Hiral Chandrana, Global Head of Consumer Good,
Wipro.
According to
United Nations, by2050 many of the countries will lack enough arable land to ever-growing
population. Consequently, the shift in eating habits towards westernized meat
based diets leading to increased cost of food production and demands from
consumers for affordable food stuffs will ring a loud alarm about the urgent need to maximize efficiency.
ERP is what comes to everyone’s mind
as answer to this challenge of
maximizing efficiency. But that is not true.
Supply chain
from farm to fork generates volume of data from a variety of sources including weather
reports, soil conditions, water resources, market demand etc. Unfortunately,
this data is highly unstructured or at the best semi-structured. Supply chain
efficiency, inventory optimization and high level of critical decision making
are the key benefits that incentivize distribution companies to implement ERP
systems. However, companies have realized that ERP works best for the standard
volume and uniform data. Data along farm to fork supply chain is highly
variable in nature. That restricts ERP
capability to actually increase efficiency and on contrary, decreases the flexibility
and prevents business from adapting to fluctuations.
Big data may be
an answer to this challenge. We just need to unlock its potential. Data from
soil samples can be useful to (a) measure the potential yield of their farm
land,(b) allow efficient and appropriate use of fertilizers (c) strategic use
of pesticides and bring down costs (d) increase awareness around which produce
will fetch the best return and inventory and logistics.
Big data analytic
has the tremendous potential to improve farm to fork supply chain efficiency.
It is just waiting to be tapped! Are you ready for it?
Learn more
about how to use big data for supply chain optimization
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