Processing orders in Chicago, 1937; image by gallimafry.blogspot.com, CC license

In the most recent annual Deloitte supply chain study only 38% of executives felt they had the right skills in their organizations.

Why? Theories range from supply chain not being cool for new grads, to the predominance of men in the function (scan the room at a supply chain conference and you mostly see ….middle-aged men).

But another reason is that most supply chain jobs are tedious and boring. Ship stuff in. Ship stuff out. Key data into a PC, transfer it from one system to another. Look up stuff in tables. Compare what’s in the system to paper documents. Fix problems in failed transactions, summarize inventory figures, change or fix purchase orders, and create another report using pivot tables. Yawn.

Despite the hype about technology revolutionizing the supply chain, organizations simply haven’t adopted in a widespread way the automation needed to eliminate repetitive functions, because most large enterprises are risk-averse, slow to change, and don’t bother to make the business case.

Companies that have adopted expensive ERP systems still need people to shepherd transactions in and out of different applications. Companies that for years have had extensive EDI networks — which were supposed to automate basic commerce between businesses —  still touch every customer order.

The next generation of supply chain leaders is not drawn to jobs involving  banal tasks performed in 15 year old systems. You can see for yourself in many organizations – bright college graduates with supply chain or business degrees, bewildered at the dumb things they have to do in outmoded systems.

Companies staying on non-automated platforms guarantee that a certain percentage of their work force will never perform at their highest potential, despite the many commitments by nearly every employer to “developing talent.”

Consider logistics claims processing. A company making 75,000 deliveries each year will have to manage anywhere from 7,500 to 15,000 claims, maybe more – these are refusals to pay all or a portion of the invoice because of damage, unsatisfactory service, faulty products, incorrect pricing, late deliveries, etc (there are a million reasons).

In a non-automated environment, firms will staff people to collect paperwork, look up data in systems, copy delivery and invoice documents, investigate claims with warehouse and transportation providers, and assign a status to the claim for future credit (or not) to the customer.

Substitute PCs for typewriters and you have a work environment not unlike the one pictured above, from 1937.

In an automated environment, documents are scanned without human touch, sorted, filtered through business rules, and categorized into a database from which humans glean valuable information, such as which customers have a pattern of making claims for the same reason month after month.

In a non-automated environment, human talent is used to process claims; in an automated setting it’s used to reduce claims. Which role would a young supply chain professional find more interesting?

There are many solutions on the market today for automating these transactions but the best ones go a step further by not only automating but managing processes for you – removing completely from your enterprise the most burdensome non-value added work, yet delivering to you the valuable data needed for management decisions.

Some companies acquire and manage automation software – a viable option but less valuable than outsourcing. Software you acquire has to be configured, integrated with your systems, and maintained via license agreement and user support.

In the end, however, how you automate is much less important than whether you do so. With automation services priced where they are today, an attractive payback is not difficult.

Image: Loaded container ship in the Houston Ship Channel, by Louis Vest, CC license

There’s a debate going on in B2B commerce about “touchless” sales order processing. Touchless just means you don’t need a human to watch, review, check, or do anything else to an order when it’s received from the customer, like making sure product codes and pricing are correct.

On the one side are touchless believers and on the other, advocates of automated checks plus a quick review by human eyes, called “click and go.”

Many companies have already achieved touchless order processing on a very high percentage of their order volume, and you need to look no further than Amazon for a very simple example of completely automated order processing. On any given Saturday morning, you, along with thousands of others, made a one-click purchase on Amazon. That order made its way to a fulfilment center uninterrupted by human scanning because of software.

Getting there is not hard.

Touchless order processing in a B2B environment is best achieved with the right combination of order capture method and algorithmic checks based on your company’s business rules.

The key aspect of order capture is simple readability – a structured, typed form or an electronic form filled out via an internet portal, or the standard EDI purchase order.

Algorithmic checks can be written for just about anything – if customer order date is X, then send order to Y. Many companies, realizing they need these kinds of checks, start building them in their ERP systems using custom code.

But before long the DIY route can mean expensive software modifications as companies seek to automate more and more of their inbound order processing steps. I know of one company whose order checks are so complex that some of their large customer orders can take up to several hours to process.

It is much better, in my view, to outsource the order check process by streaming your orders through a 3^rd party-hosted application. This allows almost unlimited creativity in order check logic because you don’t have to wrestle with your ERP code.

You can also buy packaged software to do order checks, but why would you want to license more expensive software, hire and train people to maintain it, buy a server for it to run on, and manage all the future modifications, upgrades, and integrations with your ERP system? If you’re thinking about using EDI services companies for this function, don’t. Outsourced EDI wasn’t built for this type of work.

While “click and go” may be suitable for a small universe of customers, adopting this method for all orders defeats the purpose of automation, which is in the end freeing up supply chain talent for more valuable work.

Nearly every discussion about the evolution of the modern supply chain is about technology – big data, the internet of things (IoT), analytic platforms, and the tools used to reach digital channels. But little is said about the supply chain talent shortage.

In fact, in a recent study only 38% of supply chain executives felt confident they had the right skills in their organizations.

Why does the supply chain skills shortage exist?

Theories include:

• A negative perception about supply chain work (young people think it’s not cool)
• The fact that there’s a lack of women in supply chain roles
• The exiting of baby boomers from the workforce.

These seem to ring true. When I’ve attended supply chain conferences and scanned the crowd there, what did I see? Middle-aged men.

I have another theory: most supply chain jobs are boring. Ship stuff in. Ship stuff out. Type data into a computer. Transfer data from one system to another. Scan documents and send them somewhere. Look up stuff in tables. Fix problems in failed transactions. Yawn!

Tedious and repetitive tasks are still the norm

Despite the hype about how technology is revolutionising the supply chain, software and other tools that are used to eliminate the numerous tedious and repetitive jobs have not yet been widely adopted. Why? Because most large enterprises are risk-averse and slow to change (a topic for another blog).

The problem with supply chain processes

Two areas that suffer from energy-sapping tedium are order processing and logistics claims processing. These tasks, problems, and processes are the same day-in and day-out.

But while some companies have hundreds of people processing orders and claims, the irony is that these same companies have adopted technologies such as an ERP system and EDI – but they still need people to shepherd transactions in and out of systems. I know of companies who have used EDI for years and still have a human being checking every single EDI transaction for accuracy! (As an aside, just imagine what would happen to your orders if your customer service representatives disappeared!)

Why is all this important?

Read the rest of the blog here to find out why

There’s a debate going on in B2B commerce about “touchless” sales order processing. Touchless order processing just means you don’t need a human to watch, review, check, or do anything else to an order when it’s received from the customer, like making sure product codes and pricing are correct. On the one side you have touchless believers (in part because that’s what they already do), and on the other, advocates of automated checks plus a quick review by human eyes, called “click and go.”

Many companies have already achieved touchless orders on a very high percentage of their order volume, and you need to look no further than Amazon for a very simple example of completely automated order processing. On any given Saturday morning, you, along with thousands of others, made a one-click purchase on Amazon. That order made its way to a fulfilment center uninterrupted by human scanning because of interconnected software.

Getting there is not hard

Touchless order processing is best achieved with the right combination of data capture tools and algorithmic checks based on your company’s business rules and customer master data.

The key element of a touchless order is the format, quality and consistency of the message. In other words, it’s all about readability – regardless of whether it is a structured, typed form (such as a spreadsheet), a fax, or an electronic form filled out via an internet/web portal, or the standard EDI purchase order. Algorithmic checks can be written for just about anything – if customer order date is X, then send order to Y. Many companies, realising they need these kinds of checks, start building them in their ERP systems using inflexible custom code.

But before long these DIY firms end up with a lot of expensive software modifications as they seek to automate more and more of their inbound order steps. I know of one company whose order checks are so complex that some of their large customer orders can take up to several hours to process. As a result, their customer responsiveness declines.

But aren’t human checks better? No.

Read the rest of the blog here to find out why