A new study has found that companies are looking to accelerate their investments in supply chain technology.
The study, by Descartes Systems Group, looked at how technological innovation changes supply chain and logistics operations. More than half (59 percent) of the companies surveyed for the report said they would be accelerating the pace of investment ad deployments in innovation, while nearly two of every three companies (65 percent) said they were planning on increasing their technology spending over the next two years.
“The recent past has highlighted that supply chain performance can make or break companies, and the need to innovate supply chain and logistics operations has moved to the forefront of many C-suite agendas,” Chris Jones, EVP for Industry and Services at Descartes, said. “The study shows that, while efforts in supply chain and logistics innovation are accelerating, many companies are relatively early in their innovation journey in areas such as digitization and especially in the use of advanced computing technologies such as machine learning.”
The report asked 1,000 supply chain and logistics decision-makers across nine European countries, Canada and the U.S. about their insights into strategies, tactics, and technology, then analyzed the connection between innovation and success.
The study found that companies where innovation was important to senior management were 20 percent more likely to be better financial performers and 13 percent more likely to experience lower employee turnover.
Companies listed lowering costs and improving reliability as their top reason for innovation. And nearly half of the companies surveyed (47 percent) said their pace of innovation was “ahead of the competition.” However, 87 percent of those surveyed said they faced obstacles to innovation.