Rapidly evolving technologies are having a transformational impact on supply chains, writes EY’s short new report called Supply Chain: Skills for the Digital Era. Organizations are testing and applying emerging technologies such as robotic process automation, AI, augmented reality, internet of things and blockchain to drive higher performance across their supply chains. This increasing 
digitization and the resulting proliferation of data has provided supply chain professionals with greater insight. Platforms can now bring together data into a single ‘real time’ view while advanced analytics and AI can drive additional insight and automation. Such timely insight significantly improves business forecasting and decision making.
Businesses are trying to cope with shifts in demand, shorter product lifecycles and ever increasing innovation, and these technologies are enabling them to do this better. For example a UK National Health Service Trust used analytics to simulate and scenario model patient flows and staffing models to inform the physical design of a new hospital wing. We now have aircraft assembly workers using augmented reality googles to show them how to build the aircraft and IoT Sensors predicting when a piece of equipment will fail and proactively re-ordering it.
A major force impacting on the profession is the move to ‘always on’ supply chain. It has seen supply chains move from monthly planning cycles, to making multiple decisions and changes throughout the day. Powered by real-time data, it enables scenario planning and informs daily decisions, for example, to change manufacturing schedules, modify an order that has already been dispatched or prioritize delivery to a high value customer.
This shift creates a new way of working for supply chain professionals.. Advances in supply chain technologies and supply chain concepts must be matched by advances in talent management capabilities. This includes accessing new sources of talent through the gig economy.