Future of Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management as a field of research and practice has grown and developed substantially from its origins as a for-profit, manufacturing-oriented, firm-based endeavour. As an academic field SCM now includes research in profit and not-for-profit, public sector and private sector, service and manufacturing. Future challenges facing SCM will be increasingly dominated by the climate crisis and its impact globally. There is a wave of sustainability legislation and regulation approaching. Additionally supply chain managers face challenges arising from global pandemics and wars, shortages of critical materials, reshoring, increasing forecast volatility, increased demands for greater supply chain visibility and accountability and changes in labour availability. The future SCM landscape will require engagement with a greater, more heterogeneous set of stakeholders, demanding new forms of governance and styles of leadership with greater involvement of governments and society. New and emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, Internet of Things and resulting access to big data will enable more rapidly changing, agile supply chain decisions to be made, encouraging more experimentation and fluidity. Systems thinking will become more important in our understanding of SCM as a multi-level endeavour, incorporating social and environmental perspectives as well as economic. Integration of the sub-groups of SCM in academia, typified as operations and SCM, purchasing and supply management, logistics, humanitarian SCM and public procurement will enable clarity, learning and the formation and strengthening of a cohesive, legitimate, academic discipline.