Inbound Logistics | January 2024

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money currying favors and exemptions from policymakers rather than looking for e–ciencies and the best supply chain partners at home and abroad. –Dr. Darren Prokop, Professor Emeritus of Logistics, College of Business & Public Policy, University of Alaska Anchorage A wve The artificial intelligence inflection point for manufacturers arrives in 2024. Those with modern tech stacks will find it easier to leverage AI to drive true impacts to both top and bottom lines. –Dario Ambrosini, CMO, Propel Software AI continues to be the trend to watch. Despite consumer fears and political debate around regulation, advanced technologies are already crucial for backend operations. Recent research notes AI and automation have already been particularly reliable in helping brands optimize logistics, supply chain, and inventory management. With big tech companies investing in emerging innovations and putting the accessibility of AI on the map, we’ll see accuracy improve with each iteration. For the supply chain, AI will focus on crunching numbers and identifying patterns faster and at a much higher volume than we’ve seen before. –Andy Carrane, Vice President of Product Management, Digital River 2024 will be about AI implementation. With just 9% of manufacturers intentionally designing their supply chain flows, optimizing network flows is an incredible opportunity to dižerentiate from the competition. As a result, companies can better utilize their resources, optimize margins, and drive long-term profit growth. Specifically, AI will help companies synthesize disparate data sets and make sense of increasingly complicated supply chains, helping them manage a growing number of SKUs while having to ožer faster fulfillment to achieve customer satisfaction. –Allan Dow, President, Logility

operational facet of supply chains will be looked at for potential cost control. 2024 promises to deliver an interesting blend of caution and innovation. While economic challenges will naturally require tight financial controls, technological advancements will equip us to navigate these challenges and pave the way for a bright future with exciting new capabilities in supply chain e–ciency. –Gary Nemmers, CEO, Magaya Gop liicl rsk angeen Geopolitics remains a pivotal force in shaping supply chains. As existing tensions intensify and fresh geopolitical challenges surface, organizations face the imperative of recalibrating their strategies. Considerations of onshoring or nearshoring production, optimizing logistics management, and implementing multifaceted measures take precedence to strengthen supply chain networks against geopolitical uncertainties. We will evaluate a protectionist industrial policy . It is one thing when businesses make a risk management decision to nearshore, friendshore, etc. It is quite another when large countries around the world incentivize this through market-distorting tax breaks, subsidies, and production mandates. The ežects of the Inflation Reduction Act and the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act will soon become clear in the United States. The geopolitical risk of multi-country supply chains is being traded-ož for the geopolitical risk of trade protectionism and trade diversion. A good trade-ož? Well, note that it is easier for countries to go to war economically when trade flows stop or slow to a trickle. Free trade, when truly free, is a positive-sum game. Protectionism is, at best, a zero-sum game. But it can also be a negative-sum game when businesses spend time and –Bindiya Vakil, CEO, Resilinc

Supply chain digitization will continue to advance rapidly , particularly with the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). GenAI will drive the next era of productivity with an estimated $1-trillion global impact on the manufacturing and supply chain sectors. Investments in digital logistics technologies are set to increase in 2024. As the digital logistics technology race gathers pace, foundational technology is becoming the absolute minimum needed to remain competitive. While 87% of shippers reported maintaining or growing their technology investments since 2020, 93% plan to maintain or increase their spending over the next three years. Anticipate growing adoption of digital technologies to improve eciency, visibility, and traceability. Companies have made progress toward breaking the barrier of visibility across the layered tiers of supply chains. In fact, 79% of supply chain leaders we surveyed in 2023 implemented or started implementing dashboards for enterprise- to-enterprise visibility. In 2024, we will see an even stronger emphasis on demand and supply planning across the value chain, with 71% of leaders reporting they expect to prioritize data-driven approaches. –Jason D. Li, Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company C st onro d miats An intensified focus on cost control is the trend that I predict will dominate the domains of supply chain and logistics. The recent economic slowdown and diminished shipping volumes have spurred increased financial prudence for logistics teams. From warehouses to shipping lanes, and right down to the last mile, every

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January 2024 • Inbound Logistics 117

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