The Next Big Thing: Leveraging Big Data to Predict Supply-Chain Interruptions
What you’ll learn:
- What Dassault Systèmes believed will be the next big step in supply-chain coordination.
- How big data can be used to mitigate global disasters ahead of time.
"What is the big goal of Dassault Systèmes? Where do we want to go?" SOLIDWORKS CEO Manish Kumar posed those questions in a keynote Q&A at this year's 3DExperience World 2023, titled “The Next Big Thing.” Those questions were submitted in terms of big data; more specifically, the analytics in predicting and mitigating supply-chain disruptions.
Over the last several years, the supply chain has been seriously impacted due to the pandemic. Everything from car parts to the materials needed for processor manufacturing was challenging to acquire. And while those supply chains have been restored to a certain extent, the possibility of further disruptions is a real possibility.
How to Avoid Disruptions?
A report from EY shows that severe disruptions in the supply chain due to the pandemic are driving companies to become more resilient and keep their products flowing with increased collaboration and networking. Dassault Systèmes is one of those companies looking at ways to mitigate supply-chain disruptions using data aggregation and analytics from multiple sources.
Imagine being a car manufacturer that must balance sustainability with regulatory requirements and the possibility of inflation. Raw material prices due to issues such as armed conflicts, health crises, climate change, consumer demands, and other global factors make it difficult to gain a return on investment. This is certainly the case when trying to align a vehicle's price with its parts' cost.
Paraphrasing CEO Manish Kumar’s message, being able to predict the future would be an invaluable tool for any company to have. That’s what Dassault Systèmes has aimed for by aggregating multiple types of data under one roof.
Say you’re a car manufacturer and looking at designing a new vehicle. Engineers will produce a design based on the available parts, while a project manager sources those parts from the cheapest supplier to keep costs low. During pre-pandemic times, companies didn't have to deal with material shortages. They were sure they could acquire the needed parts without much of an issue, save for potential price increases based on the global markets.
Today, trying to predict the cost of those parts and their availability has become a legitimate issue that all companies must handle if they want to survive. For example, a part needed for that new car line is manufactured using aluminum from a mine in Australia. Two years later, a wildfire breaks out near that mine, which must be shut down until the fire is under control. Yes, you can move to a different manufacturer, but it may increase the price based on demand or be impacted by materials shortages.
Collaboration Tools in the Cloud
Dassault Systèmes has developed a set of collaboration tools within its 3DExperience platform on the cloud that aggregates data from multiple sources. The tools combine AI, machine learning, collaborative business processes, and 3D data models of company designs to better manage the impact of market volatility on business. Dassault's 3DExperience provides cross-platform services on a single platform, including those for design and engineering, simulation, governance and collaboration, manufacturing and operations, and even marketing.
Users of 3DExperience, both companies and makers, will be able to use the upcoming tools to go beyond the base platform with the ability to aggregate designs, configurations, historical data, and forecasts. They will also be able to test different design scenarios in a virtual twin to gain insight, anticipate, quantify, and optimize product costs, as well as improve equipment purchasing negotiations by sharing these insights with other stakeholders under a single unified environment.
Virtualized Supply Chain
With the 3DExperience platform, users can generate a virtual representation of their supply chain, simulating any given scenario and identifying problems before they occur. By simulating those supply chains, users can test different strategies and create a course of action if that supply chain becomes disrupted.
Data analytics can also be capitalized on by allowing users to gain real-time insight into those supply-chain operations, which is accomplished by analyzing data from a number of sources, including weather forecasts, social media, and market trends. With that information, users can better plan and protect against any disruptions that might happen at any second.
To put that into perspective, imagine a hurricane is on target to hit a major supply/trade port. Dassault's platform can analyze the real-time data to inform users about the potential impact on their supply-chain operations. They can then take proactive steps to help mitigate any disruptions caused by natural disasters.
That said, supply-chain disruptions are an inevitable part of doing business in today's climate. Climate change, global conflicts, and inflation can all have an impact on the design and manufacturing cycle. However, with Dassault’s big-data analytics tools, companies can gain valuable insight into potential problems and work to take preventative measures to lessen those disruptions.
