Supply Chain

Discover how our Process Mining software can improve your Supply Chain processes

What does Supply Chain mean?

The supply chain encompasses all flows and interactions from the purchase of raw materials to the delivery of finished products.
It is a complex process involving internal teams and Third Party Logistics (3PL) (partners, transporters, producers, etc.) and different types of information and flows (products, financial, services, etc.)

It is more than ever a strategic subject at a time when the volume of orders on the Internet is exploding and transforming (unit and personalized orders for example) : the supply chain must always be more efficient, more flexible, more precise and capable of managing an increasing amount of information that is linked to it.

Livejourney usecase supply chain warehouse management

What are the Supply Chain challenges?

Supply chain processes are often cross-functional and involve many internal company departments: purchasing, production, finance, as well as external stakeholders: suppliers, third-party delivery services, etc.

This plurality of stakeholders coupled with a compartmentalized management of data due to the different information systems (ERP, WMS, OMS, etc.) makes the supply chain processes very complex to monitor and, therefore, to optimize.

The supply chain challenges are of several kinds:

Anticipate supply needs

Coordinate teams and production equipment

Ensure traceability of flows in real-time and from end-to-end

Limit risks (supplier failure, unexpected order peaks, etc.)

Respond to CSR issues (limit climate change, fight against corruption, etc.)

Satisfy customers

The supply chain is therefore a set of physical, financial and administrative flows that require a continuous visibility of the process. This real-time and end-to-end vision allows a better control of the value chain while guaranteeing customer satisfaction.

Process Mining in Supply Chain

In this context, Process Mining is of great interest. Indeed, it is a technology that allows to put under control the business processes of a company. By capturing the logs present in the information systems, it allows to reconstitute what happens in the field at a global level but also and above all to visualize for each unit (pallet, product, etc.) the passage of the various stages of a process.

This visualization is done in the past (analytical), in real time (immediate reaction in case of process deviation). Thanks to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Process Mining also allows you to project into the future and predict the different flows of this Supply Chain. You will be able to predict a precise date and time of delivery according to different characteristics of a given unit.

Benefits of Process Mining for Supply Chain

The benefits of using process mining on a supply chain process are numerous. Here is a non-exhaustive list:

Identify anomalies in your supply chain flows: loops, reworks, bottlenecks, etc.

Once identified, you can analyze the root causes to optimize your business process.

Find automation opportunities by identifying recurring and low value-added steps.

Process Mining will also allow you to analyze the return on investment of the implementation of these automations.

Design your happy path and compare it to the reality in the field

This comparsion will highlight non-compliances which can affect the quality of the products at the end of the chain and generate a loss of earnings, or even dissatisfaction among customers.

Anticipate the resources required for production or manpower needs in the future.

This benefit is enabled by Predictive Process Mining, powered by machine learning. The more historical process data you have, the more reliable and accurate the AI algorithms will be in making projections.