Labor productivity levels are historically low and stalled out largely due to a lack of investment in workforce innovations. One clear symptom is that turnover is 33% higher in supply chain organizations compared to pre-pandemic levels. While that may paint a discouraging picture, it also provides an excellent basis for supply chain leaders to experiment and rethink how they unlock, mobilize and augment the workforce to greater productivity.

To keep the global supply chain running, small and mid-sized organizations often get caught in a tough squeeze between large trading partners on the buy-and-sell side of the equation. It is not unusual for large trading hubs (large multinational corporations) to adopt varying practices and technologies that result in unique requirements, adding costs and complexity to the business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce process.

The next few years will find retailers across the country focusing on significant business model innovations by harnessing technological intellectual property to build resilient digital supply chains that ensure the delivery of high customer experiences at scale. Technology and business leaders will be challenged to demonstrate greater agility and continuity in a market that will continue to be volatile and unpredictable. So say Scott Ernst and Kayla Broussard, executives with IBM’s cloud advisory and cloud architect practices, in a podcast interview with BizTechReports.

Industry suppliers from truck and trailer OEMs to commercial telematics providers continue to feel the pain of delayed semiconductor shipments alongside rising growth opportunities. The commercial transportation industry is facing significant semiconductor shortages through to at least the end of 2021 leading into 2022.

Driven by significant chip shortages, up to 1 billion payment cards are at risk of not being issued over an 18-month timeframe, with 347 million at risk in 2021 and up to 740 million in 2022. Supply cannot currently keep up with increasing demand and the payment cards industry is by no means immune from this situation.

A global Gartner, Inc. survey found that 87% of respondents plan investments in supply chain resiliency within the next two years. The survey, conducted from September 2020 through November 2020, showed that even more supply chain professionals (89%) want to invest in agility (see Figure 1).

Nontraditional competitors – especially digital giants, such as Amazon and Alibaba, as well as startups – are reshaping industries through disruptive innovation, the ability to uncover and address unknown customer needs and very agile supply chains.,