Global supply chains are growing and becoming more complex as consumer demand increases. As businesses and consumers are becoming more aware of where their products come from and how they are packaged and distributed comes the responsibility of businesses to ensure their supply chain is sustainable.

So, how can we develop more sustainable supply chains? One way that organisations can help to reduce the environmental impact of the supply chain is through the smart use of technology.

There are many aspects of the supply chain that need to be looked at from production, packaging to distribution and logistics. Each of these disciplines can be broken down, again and again, to see how different aspects impact the environment and again how technology and process can improve sustainability. It should be an ongoing process within the supply chain arm of the business.

Misalignment between supply and demand can result in too much or too little production of raw materials, manufacturing of goods or distribution of products. This creates rework and waste that all impact the environment.

Maintaining quality data and accurate analytics is just one of the ways technology can help a supply chain become more sustainable.

Here at Orderly, we play our part in that within the food and beverage industry. Our technology utilises a range of techniques including AI-driven innovative scorecards, focussing on gamifying stores to reduce waste. The scorecard surfaces 3 things the store is doing well, 2 things they can do better and on 1 score. By making incremental improvements week-on-week at a store-level these results mount up over time. If you multiply them across an entire store network you can how powerful these scorecards can be. Together, we can influence responsibility to reduce waste and increase store profitability.

Our scorecard concept was just one of the reasons the Orderly Inventory management application won the 2018 Restaurant Innovation Award for Best Restaurant Management Tool. The panel was also pleased with how smoothly Orderly Inventory integrates with customer POS and ERP systems to support store inventory management activities.

Our system manages stock on hand control, goods receiving, transfers, counts, waste management and bill of materials which were designed for reducing operational effort in inventory control and increasing visibility to information, which supports store profitability. It integrates with any supplier, point of sale and ERP.

Businesses around the world are undergoing a digital revolution. As the pursuit of sustainability in business becomes more mainstream, it is intersecting with burgeoning and cutting-edge technologies that are transforming the way we interact with our planet.

We owe it to both our generation and future generations to continue to influence more ethical and sustainable supply chains. Technology has a huge part to play in this and the reduction of food waste.