January 15, 2021

Supply Chain Digital Asset Management is the Future

In this article:

  • Asset management is the foundation of supply chain, just like supply chain is the foundation of business.
  • Asset records are the lynchpin of digital transformation.
  • When collected on one platform, asset record information will enable aggregate business intelligence that will serve all players.

Until recently, supply chain had been famous for being the invisible business function. That’s been changing in the last few years, especially since the disruptions caused by COVID-19.

There is, however, an invisible function within supply chain: asset management. It’s been invisible because, in supply chain, procurement is sexy. Contract negotiation is sexy. Disposition could be sexier once people realize how much they could be making …but that’s another story. Poor old asset management sounds unheroic by comparison.

Here’s why fully digital asset management is what’s in.

Asset blocks arranged as a chart - concept

Why Digital Asset Management is Needed

But the importance of managing asset life cycles, and the impact this can have on the bottom line of an organization, are becoming clearer all the time.

In the last few years, more and more industry experts are waking up to the potential of asset management. For example, top supply chain educator Daniel Stanton, AKA “Mr. Supply Chain”, focused more on asset management in his new book, Supply Chain Management for Dummies, 2nd Ed. (and even mentioned Requis by name).

The fundamental vision behind Requis was to create the ultimate asset management life cycle platform, connecting all supply chain functions, and enabling businesses to procure, manage, and sell assets online. Asset records have always been the heart of the platform, because they are the entities that move through the supply chain and that are exchanged between businesses.

There are several reasons why asset records are the fundamental components of supply chain. The truth is, when you manage them on a cloud-based platform, they can unlock incredible benefits.

Asset Records are the Key to Digital Transformation

In 2020 digital transformation became even more of an imperative for industry, as disruption put more pressure on businesses to adapt quickly. Executives became fed up with not knowing what’s going on in their supply chains. And let’s face it, up-and-coming technologies like IoT, blockchain and machine learning have been a shining light on the horizon for almost a decade.

Digital transformation can’t happen without some form of asset record collection, however. If you don’t have those records, there is nothing to attach all the information about where the asset is, what it’s doing, etc..

We’ve written a couple of articles about getting started with digital transformation, but sooner or later any approach will necessitate the digitization of asset records in two basic stages:

  1. Finding all the places where the data exists. Most supply chains include information that takes the form of tribal knowledge or is located in spreadsheets and emails.
  2. Cleaning up the data. The data itself is often very inconsistent.

It’s painful, but if you want to enjoy the benefits of digital transformation you have to do the work of data management. Some organizations get around this by putting new items into the digital system as they come in, and then digitizing older information as time permits.

Analytics for All

Another part of the vision for Requis was not only to collect all asset records on one platform, but to give organizations the ability to see industry trends.

This may sound radical to some. Salesforce seemed radical when it started in 1999, because at that time sales teams were managing contacts through Rolodexes, spreadsheets, and post-it notes. The idea that sales contacts and accompanying records could be easily importable and exportable was very new.

Today, no sales team would want to manage contacts and associated activities any other way. The dashboards and analytics that Salesforce provides have helped many teams improve processes and results.

We don’t need to sell anyone on the idea of analytics. We all know that leveraging data science and analytics is one of the best ways to gain new (and often counterintuitive) insights about what’s happening inside the business.

Welcome to the Advantages of Co-opetition

The astronomical benefits of being able to see industry benchmarks aligns with that old saying, “a rising tide floats all boats”.

Imagine that you always knew what the market was doing, in aggregate, and that you could act on demand signals from upstream or downstream in real-time. Individual organizations (and our civilization in general) would benefit to a degree that is so profound it’s hard to quantify. It’s like trying to assess the impact of AI.

To get an idea of the potential, we’ll use the example of the benefit of converting all commuter traffic to driverless cars. Many studies have shown that human drivers make “selfish” choices that cause traffic delays and accidents.

For example, they don’t allow other drivers to merge, or are looking at their phones when they should be paying attention to traffic lights. When the entirety of road traffic is converted to AI-piloted vehicles, however, the AI programs cooperate and everyone gets where they’re going up to 41% faster, and with fewer accidents.

Connecting all the players in supply chain will work the same way. As a supplier, you would be instantly alerted if customer demand rises for a certain product (even though you have no direct connection to them), so you could instantly start stepping up production of components.

As a buyer, you would be instantly alerted if a disruption impacted one of your suppliers, instead of finding out weeks later when you submit your regularly scheduled purchase order.

Competing businesses who could not meet a demand spike individually could team up to fulfill a contract together, with each keeping its share of the revenue. The possibilities go on.

The benefits of aggregated industry trends are unmatched.

Try Requis Digital Asset Management Software

Asset management has always been the ghost in the machine of supply chain. It’s time that ghost materialized and started talking to us. That can only happen with the right kind of platform: one built to manage the entire asset life cycle; one that’s built using the asset record as its foundation.

Try our digital asset management software today.

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