Web3.0 and Inventory Management
Meet the Experts
Key Takeaways
⇨ Blockchain usage is percolating across many different functions beyond finance and supply chain is one of those functions.
⇨ Blockchain enabled WEB3.0 can help transform the inventory planning and management processes.
⇨ While Web3.0 is far from maturity, organizations can build an internal version of it to transform their supply chain networks.
While Web3.0 may take time to mature enough to replace Web2.0 if an end-to-end supply chain can develop an internal network based on the underlying principles of Web3.0 defined above, it can address the following challenges of inventory management (illustrative examples, not exhaustive):
Information transparency: The decentralization of information between entities will help build trust and significantly enhance collaboration and planning across the supply chain. Stakeholders within the network. With rapid digitalization, every movement in the supply chain today is captured in some form of a transaction within systems. A secure and transparent record of these transactions, accessible to all players in the network, can be leveraged for collaborated supply chain planning. This type of collaboration can go much beyond traceability and quality aspects. There is an opportunity to see consumer-level demand in real-time, which will completely transform demand planning and management. It can truly help build a demand-driven inventory planning and management capability.
Advanced planning and analytics: The same technologies that aim to provide semantic capabilities to Web3.0 can also address data management issues regarding inventory. Algorithms, in conjunction with other smart devices on warehouse floors, can flag if the transaction captures a product that is not being moved in the physical world. There will be no "manual entry" or even "system errors" that can impact inventory data quality. Similarly, AI and ML algorithms can take over many manual inventory planning and management tasks due to access to actual, real-time transactions. With these AI and ML algorithms, Web3.0 can help you build your Inventory planning "smart" digital twin.
Ubiquity: Inventory in any form, whether pipeline, in transit, or on-order, can be traced and tracked, thereby leaving no dark corners when it comes to inventory management and planning. When we talk about real-time visibility in the supply chain from an inventory perspective, it is mostly in the physical location of inventory. But the fact is, many other aspects and transactions need to come together to complete the full picture.
