Materials account for more than half of project costs in manufacturing, infrastructure, CPG and other industries. This might lead you to believe that managing these materials would be a finely measured process. However,the murkiness of upstream supply chains has forced those who manage projects to develop tracking processes that are more art than science. While some data from the upstream process is commonly collected (and plugged into spreadsheets), the overall lack of data and visibility has made materials tracking a guessing game for those in charge. Now, with supply chain uncertainty at an all-time high, experience isn’t enough.
Seasoned project managers would agree that delays, errors, theft and quality issues in the materials tracking process have eroded profits for years. Just how much money is wasted is hard to define, because there simply is a lack of complete data. While this has been a costly problem for decades, recent trends make the pain more acute. For example, a worldwide shortage of skilled labor across a variety of trades and specialties is bearing down on organizations in just about every industry. Crews are expensive and hard to find. So, when a team is onsite and ready to work, it can be a financial tragedy if materials don’t show up on time — or if the materials are incorrect or damaged.
This is why the statement that “all companies are software companies” rings true. The solution to materials tracking problems from construction firms and other project-oriented organizations is centered on digital transformation. Gaining full visibility and control over materials — through every step of the supply chain — has become a necessity.
Many forward-thinking organizations predicted the need for digital transformation in their materials supply chains and tried to get there by piecing together individual automatic identification and data capture (AIDC) technologies. While these point solutions sometimes provided scattered benefits, some serious shortcomings — including integration issues, insufficient data and a lack of real-time analytics — diminished their ability to solve the problem and provide value.
This has led to the development of solutions that provide construction companies with a ‘control tower’ view of the entire materials supply chain, as well as real-time analytics that enable fast, effective decisions.
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