With Halloween coming up, there are cheap thrills and familiar frights everywhere you go right now. But the scariest thing of them all? A supply chain that’s been Frankensteined together from bits and pieces of not-fit-for-purpose tech. It’s aliiiiivvvvee! Sort of.
The truth is that cobbling together an assortment of different software to accomplish all of your supply chain goals is hindering you in more ways than you might think. These patchwork tech stacks are cumbersome to use, expensive to maintain and, usually, still aren’t getting the job done. So why do so many supply chain leaders still end up doing this?
What leads to Frankenstein supply chains?
Frankenstein supply chains (unlike their monstrous namesake) aren’t created deliberately. Instead, they happen because well-meaning people in supply chains come in and fix individual problems. Which is not always a bad thing. Sometimes, problems need fixing fast and we don’t always get time to plan out how they might impact the grand scheme of things.
Not being able to address challenges holistically can mean that, when new problems arise, additional tech solutions can get slapped on top of one another. When this happens over and over again over the lifespan of your supply chain, you suddenly end up with a tech stack that is unwieldy and doesn’t work the way you need it to.
What are the challenges with piecemeal supply chain tactics?
Unfortunately, as all of these single solutions start to build on one another, they create their own web of complications. From communication between the different pieces of software to getting real visibility, a supply chain tech stack created in this manner can become host to a wealth of issues.
First, new updates and versions of the software that you already have are not created with your particular range of technologies in mind. Which means there is a good chance that something will break with each new update that any piece of software has. If your supply chain has been added to for a long time, you can see how just this problem could spiral quickly.
All of this leads to big problems with data visibility. That means your tech stack is actually getting in the way of you using your tech stack efficiently. And it means that you are, at best, getting incomplete data and, at worst, having to jump into several different pieces of software to get that incomplete data. This lack of visibility can impact every part of your supply chain, making you miss delivery targets for timing or temperature, putting both revenue and customer outcomes at risk.
How do I simplify my supply chain tech stack?
One of the first steps to simplifying your supply chain tech stack is to review your existing software. How many different pieces of tech are you relying on? What are you using each of them for? And, importantly, are there any that have developed new capabilities since you first implemented them that might make other software unneeded? This can happen with technology that is in such a tight niche as supply chains. Use this as a basis for letting go of any tech that has outlived its usefulness.
After that, you can start looking at bringing in new tech to help you with visibility. For example, 7bridges can integrate with most supply chain software and pull it all together. So you don’t have to go into multiple programs to find what should be straight answers. Instead, it gets brought into a single, easy to use platform that can see all of your data at once.
As you can see, having a Frankenstein supply chain can really slow you down. Luckily, there are ways to streamline your tech stack and start taking control of your data again.
Want to find out how 7bridges can do this for your supply chain? Talk to one of our experts.