In a bid to make faster business decisions, improve operations and lower costs, one of the world’s largest fruit products and snack manufacturers said Thursday it was transforming its supply chain management process.
In announcing its adoption of two new cloud-based solutions, Dole Food & Beverages Group said it renewed its partnership with Blue Yonder, the Arizona-based digital supply chain and omnichannel commerce fulfillment specialist.
“Our goal was to enable agile and responsive cross-functional supply chain processes that empower people with data-driven decision-making capabilities based on the foundation of an end-to-end integrated technology platform,” said Fritz Zeh, Dole’s VP of Global Manufacturing.
The new tech investment comes after an unprecedented 18-month span of global supply-chain disruptions and stress that were spawned by the pandemic, prompting Dole and countless other consumer packaged goods companies like to re-evaluate their systems.
As a result, there is a growing need for companies to improve their ability to forecast demand to meet changing consumer behavior, optimize capacities and build adaptable supply chains with end-to-end visualization.
Zeh said the upgrades provided Dole with solutions that would allow it to “make faster business decisions that improve our operations, resulting in lower costs and enhanced planner time.”
The need that drove Dole Food & Beverage Group to adopt Blue Yonder’s Luminate Platform, Luminate Control Tower and Luminate Planning cloud-based solutions has led other companies to seek solutions too.
In the early days of the pandemic, 75 percent of the supply chain managers surveyed said they were experiencing transportation issues in their supply chain. Corporate buyers waiting for these goods to arrive were then challenged when serving their customers. Forty percent of retailers were expecting the pandemic to cause year-long inventory shortages.
As a result of these and other challenges and shocks to the supply chain, PYMNTS noted, businesses can expect more automation in logistics, more use of fine-grain analytics and a raft of new supply agreements that aim to harden against future calamities.
Similarly, the Zika and H1N1 virus outbreaks earlier in the 2000s brought about supply chain changes. COVID-19 is not without precedent, but the scope of the current crisis is greater.
Seeing this, Panasonic agreed in April to acquire Blue Yonder. At the time, PYMNTS reported that the purchase underscored the increased importance of supply chain management in day-to-day digital retailing and operations.
See more: Panasonic Agrees To Acquire Blue Yonder
PYMNTS also noted that this past year has been a study in managing surging demand and the need to make fast decisions to streamline sales, manufacturing and distribution challenges on different continents.
The challenges faced, obstacles overcome and solutions implemented during the pandemic will not soon be forgotten. Like Dole Food & Beverages Group, other companies are implementing solutions that will enable them to make faster business decisions, improve operations and lower costs.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More