Report: 51% of supply chain leaders will sacrifice profit to improve sustainability outcomes

According to the results of a new study on supply chain resiliency conducted by IBM and process mining company, Celonis, 51% of supply chain leaders are willing to sacrifice profit to improve sustainability outcomes, which equates to $22 billion for U.S. Fortune 500 companies in a single year.

Furthermore, these companies recognize the critical role that technologies like hybrid cloud, AI, process mining and execution management play in helping them overcome the unexpected disruptions they’ve faced over the last two years. In fact, 87% of chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) surveyed are implementing execution management and 77% are implementing process and task mining to modernize their operations.

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Through 2025, 83% of CSCOs plan to introduce AI-enabled real-time inventory management; another 83% expect to introduce self-monitoring, self-correcting assets; and 81% are looking to AI-enabled processes and workflows for real-time demand sensing.

Furthermore, in an effort to modernize their supply chain operations, 87% of CSCOs plan to use execution management in their day-to-day workflows.

The study’s findings indicate that organizations are searching for ways to modernize their supply chains by embracing data and hybrid cloud strategies, as well as prioritizing sustainability.

For example, supply chain leaders are reinventing processes by leveraging the latest, data-infused technologies via the cloud — 69% are planning to accelerate cloud adoption to enhance real-time data access. The report also shines a light on the role of the CSCO, as well as the various ways they are setting themselves apart from peers and competitors who are only focused on addressing present issues.

The report, titled “The resilient digital supply chain: How intelligent workflows balance efficiency and sustainability,” was conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) together with Celonis and Oxford Economics. The group surveyed 500 Chief Supply Chain Officers across industries to gain an in-depth understanding of how recent disruptions in global supply chains are affecting their short-term tactics, longer-term strategies and business performance. 

Ten industries are represented in the study, including banking, consumer products, healthcare, electronics, telecommunications, insurance, industrial products, manufacturing, automotive and life sciences. The revenue size of companies surveyed ranges from $500 million to $500 billion.
Read the full report.