Transparent Supply Chain: These Challenges Companies Must Overcome

Missing personnel resources for more intensive collaboration with trading partners represent an obstacle for more than every second company (53 percent) on the way to a transparent supply chain. This is one of the central findings of the 19th Hermes Barometer, a survey of 150 logistics decision-makers on the topic of "Transparency in the Supply Chain". Continuous data exchange forms the basis for informed decisions, sustainability control, and risk management. However, especially larger companies with more than 500 employees do not yet feel sufficiently connected with suppliers and other stakeholders.

Transparency in the supply chain is increasingly becoming a decisive success factor: A strategic collaboration between supply chain partners, a common communication structure, and targeted technology use not only facilitate compliance with legal regulations but also increase customer satisfaction and responsiveness to potential disruptions in the supply chain. However, the 19th Hermes Barometer shows: Many companies are still approaching the goal of end-to-end visibility rather hesitantly. In particular, the time and cost involved in implementing necessary technologies is one of the biggest obstacles on the way to a transparent supply chain for 53 percent of survey participants. Among companies with 100 to 250 employees, 68 percent see it this way.

These figures are reflected in other barometer results: More than every second company with more than 500 employees (56 percent) confirms that the lack of networking with suppliers and trading partners stands in the way of end-to-end visibility. Apparently, the larger the company, the more complex the supply chain – and thus seamless data exchange between all parties becomes more challenging. For smaller companies with fewer than 100 employees, only 28 percent feel inadequately connected.

According to the 19th Hermes Barometer, missing personnel resources for more intensive collaboration with partners represent another obstacle on the way to a transparent supply chain. Other challenges mentioned by respondents include security concerns regarding data security (41 percent), lack of willingness to change (41 percent), and lack of technical know-how for implementation (40 percent). As a result, more than half of the companies (58 percent) state that they do not yet have a transparent real-time supply chain to digitally map all processes and identify risk factors in the value chain.

For more information and the detailed evaluation of the survey, please find our 19th Hermes Barometer "Transparency in the Supply Chain", here for free download.