The supply chain remains one of the most fascinating areas of business. Just when you think everything is in order, a new challenge, disruption, or innovation arises, keeping you on your toes. Blue Yonder recently brought together supply chain professionals in the Consumer Goods and Life Sciences industries to network on how they are planning for challenges, overcoming obstacles as they occur and embracing technology as they look to the future. Hosted in tandem with Ernst & Young LLP (EY), at MxD in Chicago, the venue was perfect for fostering conversations about innovation. The supply chain industry attracts creative minds and problem solvers, and this event brought them together to think collectively on the path forward.

Taking a step back from a highly informative event with many speakers, we found these main takeaways.

Data is always going to be a key driver

Eric Seip from Ingredion spoke about the importance of taking a step back from solving supply chain problems to understand what isn’t working internally. Taking ownership of data is a key mechanism to ensuring that challenges can be overcome to have a smooth, transparent supply chain.

Generative AI needs to have transparency

Andrew Hanna from Mars Petcare spoke about the journey of Robotics in warehousing and how generative AI plays a significant role. A key takeaway from the discussion was that starting small to develop trust is crucial, as is the ability to augment human tasks. Andrew also stressed the evolving cyber security risks around the potential mining of generative AI queries.

Collaboration outside of your four walls yields great benefits

During the panel discussion with participants from PepsiCo, Treehouse Foods and Bayer, the panelists highlighted the need to get closer to not only their customers, but also their suppliers. The ability to leverage the network to do business with suppliers, customers and carriers drives efficiency and reduces volatility. They all aligned on the importance of investing in change management to drive accelerated on-boarding of trading partners and adoption of collaborative platforms.

Strategic planning achieves business goals

Our customers were able to experience Blue Yonder’s IBP Game, a hands-on way of using our Cognitive IBP tool in the first half of the day. The tool allows for collaboration, scenario planning, streamlined data and S&OP process cadences which can greatly impact profitability, sustainability and revenue. Participants changed variables, such as demand, supply, lead times, sources and service levels. The underlying data was critical to getting the model to work and information from outside the four walls improved the output. The exercise culminated in allowing AI to intelligently run all combinations to provide the best result, while also offering transparency into how the plan was generated, which builds trust in the tool when making changes on the fly.

The power of connecting

In addition to the takeaways above, the power of connecting with other Consumer Packaged Goods, Food & Beverage and Life Science supply chain professionals created meaningful connections that will contribute to more advancements in supply chain, propelling businesses forward to achieve their strategic goals.