Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Report: 51% of CSCOs would sacrifice profit for sustainability

Business leaders will turn to data and new technologies to make supply chains more sustainable and resilient; say they’d give up 5% of profit to improve sustainability outcomes.

continents-gdc0ab3f72_640.jpg

Business leaders are determined to make supply chains more sustainable, and many say they’d sacrifice profits to do it, according to a recent IBM study.


IBM’s Institute for Business Value and technology firm Celonis surveyed nearly 500 chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) and found that more than half said they’d sacrifice an average 5% of profits to improve their company’s sustainability outcomes. That equates to $22 billion for U.S. Fortune 500 companies in one year, according to the report, which polled business leaders on a range of issues related to supply chain resiliency.

The CSCOs surveyed identified key actions they plan to take over the next three years in pursuit of their “circular economy” goals:
  • 47% said they are initiating full lifecycle design of their materials and products to expand re-use and reduce waste;
  • 44% said they plan to improve the energy efficiency of their products and services;
  • 35% said they plan to develop new products and services based on renewable energy componentry;
  • 30% said they expect to engineer new zero-waste products and services.
The top benefits CSCOs expect to gain from those initiatives are: complying with environmental regulations, reducing reputational risk, and driving new innovation areas. To get there, 55% of CSCOs surveyed said that over the next three years they plan to incorporate real-time monitoring and reporting on environmental and social sustainability within their companies–tasks that will depend on implementing new technology strategies. This is part of a broader effort to digitally transform supply chains, placing greater reliance on technologies such as hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), process mining, and execution management, according to the study.

“The Confluence of post-Covid-19 challenges, inflation and supply issues, security, and sustainability has led to the most complex operating environment in modern business. This has forced organizations to rethink and rebuild their supply chains to be more agile, efficient, and sustainable,” Jonathan Wright, managing partner, finance and supply chain transformation, for IBM Consulting said in a statement announcing the study’s results. “Technology and data-fueled automation and intelligence are key to not only evaluating current workflows and inefficiencies, but in identifying new opportunities as well.”

According to the study, 53% of CSCOs said digital supply chain transformation will be the most significant area of competitive advantage in the next three years. Nearly three-quarters said hybrid cloud integration is crucial to accelerating and enabling that digital transformation.

See the IBM website for access to the full report.

Recent

More Stories

gartner chart of survey on procurement risk

Gartner survey: supply disruption ranked as top procurement risk

A hefty 42% of procurement leaders say the biggest threat to their future success is supply disruptions—such as natural disasters and transportation issues—a Gartner survey shows.

The survey, conducted from June through July 2024 among 258 sourcing and procurement leaders, was designed to help chief procurement officers (CPOs) understand and prioritize the most significant risks that could impede procurement operations, and what actions can be taken to manage them effectively.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

Logistics services continue to “go green”

Logistics services continue to “go green”

The market for environmentally friendly logistics services is expected to grow by nearly 8% between now and 2033, reaching a value of $2.8 billion, according to research from Custom Market Insights (CMI), released earlier this year.

The “green logistics services market” encompasses environmentally sustainable logistics practices aimed at reducing carbon emissions, minimizing waste, and improving energy efficiency throughout the supply chain, according to CMI. The market involves the use of eco-friendly transportation methods—such as electric and hybrid vehicles—as well as renewable energy-powered warehouses, and advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) for optimizing logistics operations.

Keep ReadingShow less
An audience views a presentation given by man in a sport coat against a backdrop that says "Becoming a Real-Time Busines."

Peter Weill of MIT tells the audience at the IFS Unleashed user conference about the benefits of being a "real-time business."

Ben Ames

Real-time data flows can provide competitive advantage

Companies that integrate real-time data flows into their operations consistently outperform their competitors, said Peter Weill, the chairman of MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), in a session Wednesday at a conference held by IFS, the Swedish enterprise resource planning (ERP) and artificial intelligence (AI) firm.

These "real-time businesses," according to Weill, use trusted, real-time data to enable people and systems to make real-time decisions. By adopting that strategy, these companies gain three major capabilities:

Keep ReadingShow less
exxonmobile oil field with pumps in texas

Kinaxis and ExxonMobil will design supply chain planning tools

Supply chain orchestration software provider Kinaxis today announced a co-development deal with ExxonMobil to create supply chain technology solutions designed specifically for the energy sector.

ExxonMobil is uniquely placed to understand the biggest opportunities in improving energy supply chains, from more accurate sales and operations planning, increased agility in field operations, effective management of enormous transportation networks and adapting quickly to complex regulatory environments,” John Sicard, Kinaxis CEO, said in a release.

Keep ReadingShow less
hurricane milton rainfall forecast map florida

Supply chain networks prep for delays as Milton storms in

Hurricane Milton was just beginning to unleash its slashing wind and pouring rain on Florida’s western coast on Wednesday, but the supply chain disruptions caused by the enormous storm have already been unfolding for days.

For example, millions of residents and workers in the Tampa region have now left their homes and jobs, heeding increasingly dire evacuation warnings from state officials. They’re fleeing the estimated 10 to 20 feet of storm surge that is forecast to swamp the area, due to Hurricane Milton’s status as the strongest hurricane in the Gulf since Rita in 2005, the fifth-strongest Atlantic hurricane based on pressure, and the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane based on its peak winds, according to market data provider Industrial Info Resources.

Keep ReadingShow less