Accelerate Your Digital Transformation in Sourcing and Supply Chain Management

Today’s supply chains are incredibly complex, each containing a digital thread of information, data, and established processes. The global landscape is ever-changing, and organizations can no longer react to emerging trends. They must digitally transform to become proactive in their approach to risk. 

Discussions around digital transformation and supply chain resilience are common, but reaching these goals is a unique journey for each organization. Read on to discover how innovations in digital twin technology and real-time intelligence are paving the way forward. 

Cross-organization Collaboration and Transparency in Global Supply Chains 

Today’s digital solutions are redefining visibility in logistics by simplifying the interaction of all the players in the process chain. From suppliers to carriers, service providers, and customers, digital technology makes end-to-end supply chain visibility possible through interconnected systems and collaborative feature sets. 

The modern automotive industry is transitioning from traditional combustion vehicles to electric, autonomous designs. This evolution creates its own unique challenges and adds unparalleled complexity to both product designs and global supply chains to support them. 

Siemens control tower solutions offer supply chain management and real-time monitoring features that help organizations avoid unplanned changes or disruptions in their design, sourcing, manufacturing, and shipping processes.

Realizing Efficiency, Cost Reduction, and Sustainability in Digital Logistics

Digital Twins are a perfect example of this technology in action. It allows for the precise replication of physical assets and processes, providing the opportunity to test and validate real-world concepts in the digital space. 

In the automotive space, digital twin technology is used to test, verify, and improve the performance of vehicles. For example, the Oracle Read Bull Racing team leverages the integrated toolset of Siemens Xcelerator solutions to harness a digital twin of their vehicle design. 

“We have a digital process that runs from concept to track, and that process relies on that digital twin of the car,” 

– Daniel Watkins, Head of CAD and PLM at Oracle Red Bull Racing

A digital twin is provides an exact digital replica of a design, providing unparalleled insights that allow teams to make precise adjustments with reliable expectations of the outcomes. Today’s organizations that leverage the comprehensive digital twins from Siemens in product, production, and logistics can anticipate issues before they arise and proactively address them. 

These apply to multiple areas within digital logistics as well: 

• Product Design and Validation
• Production Design and Optimization 
• Manufacturing
• Supply Chain and Logistics 

Today, supply chain and logistics teams are not involved in discussions about product viability, operability, and Design for X (DfX). But at this point in time, during the product design phase, 80% of a product’s environmental impact is determined. 

A digital twin allows organizations to “Shift-Left,” meaning include analysis and complete visibility into all the supply chain implications already in the product design phase. This way, all parties get the same understanding of potential downstream costs, know with certainty that components will be available when and where needed, and achieve their sustainability goals.

In conjunction with digital twin technology from Siemens, Supplyframe also offers access to real-time intelligence that leads to better decision-making. Whether organizations seek to enhance and streamline their BOM validation or identify alternate parts based on risk factors like pricing and lead times, Supplyframe’s DSI solutions connect sourcing and engineering professionals to the intelligence they need. 

These solutions also encourage cross-functional collaboration, with the ability to work from a single source of truth, track changes within a BOM, and send messages within the platform. 

The Modern Design-to-Source Ecosystem 

Today’s consumer products are more complex than ever, creating highly sophisticated supply chains. As complexity increases, so does the risk associated with factors ranging from lead times to pricing, geopolitical uncertainty, and more. 

Supplyframe’s Design-to-Source Intelligence (DSI) solutions leverage a global network of over 12 million sourcing and engineering professionals whose daily activities fuel commodity and component-level insights through an AI-powered DSI Platform. 

According to Supplyframe data, 80% of a product’s lifetime risk is “locked in” during the design phase of a product, creating a significant opportunity for organizations to mitigate all issues proactively by choosing better components from the beginning. 

Organizations with access to real-time intelligence and reliable forecasts will reap the rewards of a more stable, efficient, and sustainable supply chain, thanks to better decision-making across the entire product lifecycle. 

These advantages are part of a broader ecosystem facilitated by Siemens Xcelerator, an open digital business platform. As a recent addition to the Xcelerator open digital business platform, Supplyframe offers real-time intelligence to make better decisions and proactively mitigate risk from the beginning of the product lifecycle. 

To learn more, visit our booth at the Automotive Logistics & Supply Chain Digital Strategies Conference in Munich from November 6-7th. You can find us at the SZ Tower in Booth #7. We look forward to seeing you there!