Supply chain disruption part 2: Legacy technology just won’t cut it

In my first article, “Coronavirus supply chain disruption: How APIs can help,” I spoke about how the supply chain disruption was testing manufacturing around the world and how APIs can enable a solution.

Months ago, the problem was isolated to certain manufacturing centers facing severe disruption. Since then, manufacturing has faced challenges all over the world.

Addressing the disruption

We are acutely aware that companies are dealing with exorbitant complications from production to distribution and it’s important to have an emergency contingency plan-of-action in place.

Unfortunately, most of those contingency plans at companies are manual and their current integration capabilities are not nimble nor sufficient enough to solve their problems. Companies are unable to have the flexibility that is needed to conquer disruption.

Companies want to address how to better forecast their position for the future, their assets, and accommodate huge swings in freight volume worldwide. This is based on the demand changes from things like industrial to consumer.

Legacy technology just won’t cut it

Legacy technology won’t cut it in today’s supply chain disruption. Even if you have a B2B IT-focused strategy, you may not have the ability to handle the demands of today’s market needs.

Also, when it comes to finding different asset providers such as trucking companies and railroads, this solution will not enable your company to get those providers on board and connected fast enough.

Last, but not least, it is not cost-effective. Using legacy technology to get a new provider to map to your files which takes a long time and is expensive.

Additionally, it is labor-intensive. When you have a nimble strategy built around your API Lifecycle approach, you can implement faster and get the job done instead of having disparate gateways.

Address changes

At Axway, we provide what you need to utilize and address changes in the disruption forecast. It is self-service to an API map. APIs can be on-boarded much faster at a lower cost for customers and their trading partners. The same applies to the supplier side if you’re a manufacturer.

By having your needs met with agile capabilities, you can control the outcome. Your organization can quickly address where you will be sourcing your product or contract manufacturer to make up for demand that you cannot produce because of the capacity constraints of being able to integrate quickly.

Connect and integrate data

The bottom line is you must be able to connect and rapidly integrate data. Contract manufacturers need to connect to order management systems – the fulfillment system.

By having a flexible API Gateway or API Lifecycle management process, you can tackle the supply chain demands from purchase orders, requisitions, release against purchase orders, and invoices onward.

Being able to execute translations and accommodate requirements is what meeting the supply chain demand disruption is all about. The AMPLIFY Platform meets all your needs from AMPLIFY™API Management to API Lifecycle. A sound scalability strategy allows you to address the demands that come with disruption in today’s challenging times.