- This new supply chain application will help businesses better manage their inventory and coordinate their networks of manufacturers, suppliers, distribution facilities, and transportation providers.
- The application offers automated alerts and recommendations about inventory rebalancing, lead times, and potential risks, such as backlogs or low-stock warnings.
- AWS offers an extensive explanation of the pricing options on their website, but businesses can get started with a free trial.
As companies try to get tighter control over the flow of goods from factories to consumers, Amazon recently launched a supply-chain management service to its web services business.
The cloud application, AWS Supply Chain, adds Amazon to a growing list of software suppliers, such as Manhattan Associates and Blue Yonder, that help merchants juggle increasingly complex cargo flows and inventory demands. Amazon has a ready audience for its software with the thousands of small- and medium-sized businesses on its third-party marketplace.
How it Works
This new supply chain application will help businesses better manage their inventory and coordinate their networks of manufacturers, suppliers, distribution facilities, and transportation providers. Now available for preview, it offers a real-time visual map of a company’s entire supply chain network. It aggregates data from other enterprise applications and suppliers into a single system. Based on that information, the application offers automated alerts and recommendations about inventory rebalancing, lead times, and potential risks, such as backlogs or stocks that are running low.
Continued Supply Chain Disturbances
2022 saw its fair share of supply chain disruptions like continued COVID lockdowns, shortages, labor strikes, and the Russia/Ukraine war. Over the past two and a half years, businesses have certainly become more aware of the fragility of their supplier networks. As we head into 2023, while congestion in the global supply chain has improved from the worst levels seen during the pandemic, managing logistics remains a pressing problem facing entrepreneurs.
“In general, supply chain disruptions have been on the rise the past three years. We saw an increase of disruptions between 30-33 percent prior to the pandemic. But from 2020-2021, there was almost a 67 percent increase. This year, there was almost over an 80 percent increase year-over-year,” Bindiya Vakil, CEO of Resilinc, said.
To help combat the disruptions, modern supply chains require a unified view of data, as well as the ability to independently verify production and transport updates. AWS Supply Chain aims to help provide the end-to-end visibility that today’s supply chains need to track and trace their entire production process with efficiency.
How to Get Started
AWS Supply Chain is a pay-as-you-go cloud application offering a data lake, insights, and demand planning capabilities. Companies only pay for what they use and there are no upfront licensing fees or long-term contracts. AWS offers an extensive explanation of the pricing options on their website, but businesses can get started with a free trial. For the first 60 days of your initial AWS Supply Chain deployment, you receive:
- 1,000 product SKU location combinations to be used for AWS Supply Chain Insights and Demand Planning
- 10 GB of data storage
Businesses should be aware that even if they sign up for AWS Supply Chain, they should still expect supply chain disruptions and logistical problems in the new year. The causes are not going away anytime soon. Still, Amazon, which ships 1.6 million packages a day, could be uniquely situated to help companies feel less of an impact. Their homegrown tool harnesses Amazon’s own expertise and data.