Automation, improved data ‘vital’ in securing supply chains, says WiseTech’s Richard White

Covid-19 has shed light on the fragmented nature of the logistics and supply-chain technology industries, says WiseTech Global boss Richard White.

WiseTech Global CEO Richard White: ‘People are realising the data sets being used in logistics have been poor and very fragmented and inconsistent for many years.’ Picture: Britta Campion

WiseTech Global boss Richard White says while Covid-19 constraints and shortages are hitting global supply chains, that is being offset by players pushing to become more efficient and improve their harnessing of data.

Speaking at the Macquarie Technology Summit, Mr White said the logistics software maker had seen “vast change” during the pandemic, and firms were stepping up automation efforts and moving away from legacy systems.

He expected the industry would navigate more mergers and acquisitions and said it had seen 10 years of technological change in just 1½ years, as Covid-19 triggered faster decisions and a need for real-time data.

“There’s a lot of moving parts because of the pandemic and supply chains have become much more efficient during the pandemic, but equally there are a lot of constraints that are occurring because of change away from services and entertainment and towards goods,” Mr White said.

“The amount of goods moving in the supply chain is being met by very fundamental constraints in availability of equipment, vessels, containers, aircraft.”

In the past three months, many Australian businesses had reported having trouble getting parts or products they needed, ranging from semiconductors to construction inventory, due to the pandemic disrupting supply chains. Mr White said Covid-19 had shed light on the fragmented nature of the logistics and supply-chain technology industries and a need to bolster data use and automate more processes.

“People are realising the data sets being used in logistics have been poor and very fragmented and inconsistent for many years,” he said.

Mr White said he believed that over the next two decades paper would be removed from all parts of the supply chain, as the take-up of automation, machine learning and data utilisation increased.

“That’s going to continue for probably another 10 to 20 years. With the advent of increasingly capable machine learning and other types of automation, I think the supply chain is going to continue to become more and more efficient,” he said.

WiseTech is a member of the WAAAX ASX technology stocks.

Overhaul co-founder and chief executive Barry Conlon said real-time and relevant data would drive “better managerial decisions” and collaboration with vendors on supply-chain management, which would minimise risks during the pandemic.

“The problem is there is too much data, not too little … trusting the data is the greatest challenge,” he said.

Mr Conlon said filtering data was the key to solving supply chain issues.

Texas-based Overhaul is a supply-chain solutions and risk-management firm.

Adam Driussi, co-founder and chief executive of data and analytics firm Quantium, said retailers were increasingly looking to make better use of data to manage supply chains and stock levels.

“A retailer needs to predict the demand from customers and, increasingly, they are trying to personalise the experience for customers, so they want to make sure they have right item on the shelf at the right time,” he said.

“I ultimately think it’s companies that drive that change and maybe consumer expectations continue to increase along the way.”

In April, supermarket giant Woolworths signed off on a deal to increase its stake in Quantium to 75 per cent from 47 per cent, as part of a bigger data and analytics push.

Quantium has also worked with property companies and health departments during Covid-19.