If the vision of Industry 4.0 is to be realized, most enterprise processes - manufacturing, product development, customer relations, and the workplace itself - must become fully digitized. A critical element will be the arrival of the digital supply chain.

Analyst Insight: The impact of omnichannel fulfillment requirements and growth of e-commerce have altered the way companies plan and design distribution facilities. The plan and design processes themselves haven't changed as much as the number of variables that must be considered. Today's distribution facilities require greater flexibility to adapt rapidly to changing customer requirements. - Phil Quartel, senior director of operations design, Fortna Inc.

Analyst Insight: End-to-end supply-chain visibility is one of the top five pain points facing executives in modern global supply chains. It allows supply-chain trading partners to visualize, share, collaborate and manage every aspect of supply chain processes, from raw materials to end customers. While businesses put resources towards improving supply-chain visibility, they find it is difficult to attain without connection to a value network that fosters sharing among stakeholders and good, quality information. Simply put, for a business to sustain growth in the current volatile business environment, executives need end-to-end supply-chain visibility to gain insights into activities they don’t control. - Cindi Hane, vice president of product management, Elemica

Analyst Insight: For the past 13 years we've studied metrics used in DCs across the U.S. During that time we've shared benchmarking data, reporting how some of the best firms use metrics to improve performance. Yet, gaps still exist - and bridging them can lead to greater performance gains. For the past two years, we have been examining how companies are using metrics to align to the strategic objective. The results have been surprising! - Donnie Williams, assistant professor of logistics and supply chain management, Georgia State, and Karl Manrodt, professor of logistics and supply chain management, Georgia State