Artificial intelligence is among the innovations that will help supply chain managers mitigate risk and boost operational efficiency in the future, says Lionel Agostini, global vice president of sales at Dassault Systèmes.

A resilient supply chain is one that’s ready for the unexpected, be that political shifts, such as Brexit, pandemics or uncertain tariff exposure, Agostini says. “We have seen how those disruptions can simply cripple supply chains that were initially only optimized for efficiency or cost. Today, resilience is about absorbing those kinds of shocks, adapting quickly, and even finding some ways to turn those disruptions into advantage.” 

Such disruptions have made clear that resilience has moved to a board-level priority, he says. “Now, customers are talking about the need for a more flexible sourcing strategy, faster scenario modeling, and the ability to pivot operations quickly when such disruptions happen.”

That ability depends on three things, Agostini says. First, there must be a move toward more advanced modeling and simulation, meaning the ability to create a full digital representation of the supply chain in order to test different scenarios before they happen. 

Second, there must be a digital representation of a product’s entire lifecycle, from design all the way through manufacturing.

Third, “Artificial intelligence enables better automatic decision making, not just predicting the demand, but actively prescribing the best supply, production and logistics strategy in real time.”

If anything, the future of supply chains depends on AI, he says. The ability to anticipate, adapt and survive disruption will rely on a transformation fueled by the technology. “It’s going to drive significant value, not just to automate tasks, but to help planners, operators and executives to make smarter, faster and more connected decisions. This is, for me, the future of the supply chain.”