Recognizing the challenges supply chains have faced in recent years, Sumit Dutta, leader for the Americas Supply Chain Consulting Group of EY, outlines priorities for the next five years for supply chain leaders.

Dutta sees three major “characterizations” of the supply chain today. First, there’s a big push to increase operational agility. Second, supply chain officers must show they're actually leveraging all of the digital technologies available. Finally, there’s a clear need to rearchitect global supply chains. 

“Just to elaborate a bit on the operational side of things — we see supply chains beset right now with issues on a continuing basis: COVID-19, geopolitical threats, climate continues to be challenging, sustainability and risk. So you take all of those, and there's a real need to develop your operations capability on the design side of the supply chain strategy or architecture side of things. Given all of these factors, there's a need for supply chain officers to say, ‘What is my supply chain of the future?’”

In terms of priority, Dutta says he advises building on the three characterizations he mentioned. “One, am I designing my supply chain for agility? Two, have I designed my supply chain in a way that it actually has structural agility, and is structurally responding to the goals of the future? And three, am I leveraging all of the digital technologies available to us?”

And the risk? “The one risk that I see for clients is to implement something that links to where there is value,” says Dutta. “Am I making sure that I do not get stuck in what is called ‘pilot purgatory’? We’re piloting technologies, whether it's a digital factory or autonomous planning. Am I building capabilities internally or within my partner ecosystem to be able to deliver?”