Strong Growth of SCM Software in the Cloud
The use of cloud-based supply chain software continues to show strong growth, especially in the areas of transport management, Sales & Operations planning and order management. Besides that, more and more manufacturing companies are starting to use software for demand-driven MRP. These are the key developments in supply chain software in Europe, as visualized on Supply Chain Movement’s SCM IT Subway Map Europe 2018.
by Martijn Lofvers
August 8, 2018
Ever-more companies are using supply chain software in the cloud. According to a recent study by research firm Gartner among companies in manufacturing, wholesale and retail, 54 percent of the respondents utilize or plan to use a cloud-based Transport Management System (TMS), and the percentage for both Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) and Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) is 48 percent in each case. Software solutions for collaboration and for supply chain visibility score 59 percent and 56 percent respectively, which is entirely understandable in view of the need for various applications to be interconnected.
In Supply Chain Movement’s research for the annual SCM IT Subway Map, TMS suppliers lead the way indicating that the majority of their European implementations are in the cloud, followed by solutions related to global trade management, risk management and order management. The implementation of cloud-based WMS significantly lags behind. For S&OP it varies strongly from one software supplier to another; Anaplan, E2open (with its Steelwedge solution), Orchestr8 and Relex Solutions implement virtually exclusively in the cloud.
DDMRP on IT Subway Map
The new approach to production planning, demand-driven material requirements planning (DDMRP), is increasingly being applied as an alternative to the more traditional Manufacturing Resources Planning (MRP) – the basis of ERP – with fixed lead times. Numerous software vendors, such as AGR Dynamics, Anaplan, Camelot IT Lab, E2open, Orchestr8, Optimity, SAP and Solventure, have already implemented it for various customers.
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