While it's important to connect the supply chain to finance, all company functions and departments must be linked, says Reggie Twigg, supply chain marketing lead at Anaplan.
Pierfrancesco Manenti, Gartner vice president analyst, says "commercial innovation" refers to the efficiencies that chief supply chain officers bring to the provider and to the customer.
Direct procurement needs to be involved in all of a company's business strategy decisions from the very beginning, says Georg Roesch, vice president of direct procurement strategy at Jaggaer.
The "final mile" benefits from the collaboration of artificial intelligence and machine learning and optimized data, says Mathew Witte, senior vice president at Ortec.
Eric Rempel, chief innovation officer at Redwood Logistics, says the modern fourth-party logistics provider offers a finely honed logistics platform as a service.
Original equipment manufacturers need real-time information on molds that are used to make product parts but often don't have it, says Gabriel Tejada, senior project manager at eMoldino.
Efficiency, flexibility and responsiveness are the key components of a resilient supply chain, says Paul Webb, regional vice president of enterprise supply chain at Coupa.
Artificial intelligence enhances alignment of supply and demand, says Matt Hoffman, vice president of product industry solutions at John Galt Solutions.