Morgan Swink Ph.D.
The Intelligent
Supply Chain
Copyright © TCU Neeley Center for Supply Chain Innovation (2017). All Rights Reserved.
James L. and Eunice West
Chair of Supply Chain
Management
Executive Director, Center
for Supply Chain Innovation
Neeley School of Business,
Texas Christian University
One morning, in the not too distant future …
Copyright © TCU Neeley Center for Supply Chain Innovation (2017). All Rights Reserved.
The Order
One morning in the not too distant future, you receive a text message at 7:00 a.m. from your toaster
oven as it browns your morning slice of cinnamon bread. The text says that a sensor in the oven has
noted that one of the heating elements is about to burn out, and given the predicted remaining useful
life of the oven’s other components, it would be best to replace the oven now, rather than to repair it.
The text actually came from ODI, your “Online Digital Identity,” which is connected to all your devices.
ODI immediately sends you pictures and brief descriptions of 2-3 new toaster oven options and prices.
Because ODI has interacted with you for years, observing your toasting habits as well as other aspects of
your life, it can select oven styles (size, shape, color) and features (number of heating elements, settings,
etc.), that you are likely to find appealing, while also optimizing a value algorithm (benefit/cost). To
develop these recommendations, ODI worked with Megazon (an online retailer). It took 15 milliseconds
for Megazon’s design engine to receive the design parameters from ODI and respond with
recommended configurations.
You can select one of the options, or use a drop down menu to add or change any of the features, with
immediate price updates. Megazon provides the prices using its demand planning system, which
instantly combines information about you (income, location, reward status, and other demographics)
with its own internal operating data (e.g., current delivery capacity, forecast of suppliers’ production
utilization levels, etc.). Once you are satisfied with a one-of-a-kind toaster oven design and price, ODI
places the order with Megazon, which logs the transaction on a “blockchain” (where it is authenticated
and funds are immediately transferred) and then replies with a thank-you message, a receipt (which ODI
stores for you), and a notice that the oven will be delivered that afternoon. Meanwhile, you place your
old toaster on your front porch for recycling. It’s now 7:05 a.m.
The Response
Megazon immediately sends the toaster oven design out for bid to several vendors that have fulfillment
centers located within four hours travel time from your home. Each vendor bids on the job using its own
“cost-to-serve” calculator, which incorporates data on the availability of materials and production
capacity both in-house and at suppliers. In less than one second, an auction is completed, a vendor,
Printhub.com, is selected, and the order is transmitted.
At one of Printhub’s fulfillment centers (selected based on proximity and current workload), the order is
scheduled by the manufacturing execution system (MES), and 3D printers immediately begin printing
unique structural parts for the oven, while robots pull and kit the needed standard components from
inventory. By 8:30 a.m., a completed kit is conveyed to an assembly area, where robots assemble, pack,
and deliver the oven to the shipping area. It is picked up there by Megazon’s delivery service, either by a
drone (air or land) or by one of your neighbors who is making a few extra bucks working for SuperLift
home delivery. Megazon’s transportation management system (TMS) chooses the delivery mode and
timing based on its evaluation of traffic patterns, availability of drone or driver capacity, and cost. The
oven is delivered to your doorstep or nearby lockbox, based on your recorded preference. The deliverer
also picks up your old oven and delivers it to a nearby refurbishment/recycling center, which happens to
be located next door to Printhub’s fulfillment center.
Implications/Predictions
• From disconnected and fixed to
intelligent and adaptive
Sense
Respond
Analyze
Intelligent Supply Chain
Visibility
- Standardizing
- Sensing
- Capturing
- Reporting
IoT
- Combining
- Filtering
Analytics
- Structuring
- Visualizing
- Diagnosing
- Predicting
- Prescribing
- Cognifying
Predict
Inter/Intra Organizational Integration
- Systems - Structure - Roles
Copyright © TCU Neeley Center for Supply Chain Innovation (2017). All Rights Reserved.
Intellectual Capital
Talent - Knowledge - Skills
Responsiveness
- Messaging
- Orchestrating
- Automating
- Flexing
- Giging
Enabling Technologies for the Intelligent Supply Chain
Type of Technology
Decision support technologies
Capabilities
Processing technologies
Automate data and material
processing to provide 24/7
resource availability, faster
processing, improved
consistency, utilization, and
cost.
Communications technologies
•The Internet (of people and of things)
Create greater connectivity and
•Mobile apps and wearables
speed flows of richer forms of
•Electronic data interchange (EDI), global data synch network (GSDN)
information.
•Communications satellites, radio (RFDC), fiber optics, microwave, etc.
Integrative technologies
Provide computing power,
intelligence, and data
management, making higherquality decisions faster.
Combine data management,
communications, decision
support, and processing
capabilities.
Copyright © TCU Neeley Center for Supply Chain Innovation (2017). All Rights Reserved.
Examples
•Advanced planning, scheduling systems (APS)
•Supply chain network design
•Management and execution systems (TMS) (WMS) (MES) (YMS) (OMS)
•Forecasting and demand management
•Advanced analytics and machine learning
•Sensors, scanners and radio frequency identification (RFID)
•E-procurement, Blockchain/virtual currency
•Computer-aided design and machining, 3D printing
•Industrial robots, flexible manufacturing systems (FMS)
•Drones and driverless vehicles
•Automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS)
•Cloud computing and services
•Augmented and virtual reality, global positioning systems (GPS)
•Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
•Product life cycle management (PLM)
•Relationship management (CRM) (SRM) (CPFR)
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