The consulting firm Accenture and enterprise software vendor SAP SE are teaming up to build a “supply chain nerve center” that can help organizations reinvent their supply chains by reducing risk, enhancing visibility, and supporting sustainability goals, the companies said.
Targeted at the consumer products, high tech, industrial manufacturing, and automotive industries, the supply chain nerve center will use cloud, data, artificial intelligence (AI), and analytics to provide n-tier transparency. That will allow organizations to identify risks beyond tier one and tier two suppliers by giving deeper visibility into their network of suppliers and subcontractors. It will also turns data into actionable insights and improve decision-making by sensing factors such as whether suppliers align with an organization’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals, Accenture said.
The supply chain nerve center also includes a supply chain resilience stress test, developed by Accenture and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to identify potential points of failure, assess related financial exposures, and define appropriate mitigation strategies and actions. Additionally, digital twin simulation software from Cosmo Tech helps organizations see the vulnerabilities in their supply chain, simulate the behavior of their supply chain under heavy loads, and build robust mitigation plans throughout their planning process.
In addition, the partners also plan to co-develop new capabilities for the SAP Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain (SAP IBP) solution to help further enhance an organization’s ability to quickly and cost-effectively respond to changes in supply, demand and inventory.
