Supply Chain professionals have been advised to embrace the 4th industrial revolution in order to remain relevant in their profession.

Experts said the profession has evolved from mere transactional buying to strategic procurement with heavy reliance on technology.

They added that procurement practice has entered into the 4th industrial revolution with emphasis on the application of cyber physical systems in procurement.

Speaking at the just-concluded 2019 summit of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), its Nigeria Country Chair, Uche Gob-Agundu noted that about 70 per cent of companies’ spend passes through the procurement department, hence the need for supply chain professionals to constantly improve their proficiency by acquiring the institute’s certifications.

With the theme, “Raising the Bar: Driving Business Value Through Supply Chains”, Global Category Manager -Technology, Union Bank, Ifeanyi Ojoh, who spoke on Supply Chain Digitisation, said digital talent such as the big data analytics is needed in the supply chain profession to model and engineer the system.

According to Ojoh, talent of been a good negotiator is no longer sufficient as the big data that gives room for smart decisions that would enable organisations respond rapidly to changing business perspective.

“With digitisation taking the centre stage, there is the need for businesses to act very fast delivering services to customers. There must be visibility among the supply chain partners.

“The new area which is the block chain technology, helps every partner visible to it, as it engenders trust and transparency, and these are two words that you need in driving today’s business. With this, it will bring a new era to our supply chain.

“What it means to supply chain professionals, there is a lot of pressure on us today as supply chain professionals to deliver increasing value to the business beyond reducing cost, acting very fast, increasing customer service level. This is where technology will come into play,” he said.

While commending the private sector on efforts made in adopting technology, he urged the public sector to automate their processes.

He said they should look at how they can leverage on technology to improve service as well as curb fraud in the public sector procurement space.
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