Expert interviews: Sarah Burnett in conversation with Dr. Marcell Vollmer
Procurement professionals are facing many supply chain challenges in the pandemic compounded by natural disasters and incidents such as the ship Ever Given getting stuck in the Suez Canal. In this interview, Dr Marcell Vollmer, a procurement transformation expert and thought leader, shares his perspectives on the problems and how to tackle them.
Key points:
- Access to quality data continues to be limited in many organisations and this hampers performance, made worse by the lack of skills to analyse the data. Machine learning can augment human capabilities to provide the insights, to show what friction there is and how to deal with it.
- Processes connect the four main steps in the supply chain: plan, source, make and deliver. It is the insights from the processes that help with agility and better decision-making e.g. to track orders, finished products and deliveries, to find more suppliers to spread risks, and to understand the environmental impact of the chain.
- With new applications of AI becoming available, it is possible to get insights on processes end-to-end and to spot new opportunities for more transformation and automation. It is important to keep up with developments to learn how to get more out of emerging technologies.
KYP.ai Communication 
Sarah Burnett 
Felix Haeser