Confectionary Holding, the agri-foodstuffs group specialising in Christmas fare, analysed the latest trends in the digitalisation of businesses and their supply chains during its participation in the third edition of E-Logistics Networking held today in Madrid.
According to Andrés Cortijos, Confectionary Holding’s CEO and member of the Spanish think-tank CSCMP Spain Round Table, “companies need to adapt to the Fourth Industrial Revolution with a value chain that focuses on the consumer and by digitalising their supply chain processes.”
During his speech, Cortijos added that “we are at the beginning of what is regarded the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the technology revolution that is causing a shift in socio-economic and cultural patterns.”
In his view, “in this new scenario, it is the consumer who calls the shots”, and he went on to encourage companies to “prevent their competitiveness from being eroded by building 4.0 value-added chains”.
Regarding the supply chains, the CEO of Confectionary Holding stressed how he sees these evolving towards a more integral concept, the Value Chain, on which it will again be the consumer who calls many of the important shots.
He also stressed that there will be a dual aspect to the “Supply Chain”, with the “virtual” or “digital” part becoming increasingly important. According to Cortijos, this is likely to give rise to new (previously unknown) partners, who will play vital roles, such as: technology providers, as guarantors that technology will be incorporated into our day to day in a competitive way, data science as a transformation mechanism for the huge amount of information available via the Big Data sources, in Smart Data, and in Systems and processes related to the cyber security protecting our networks and data, for example.
As an example of successful 4.0 projects in the industry, Andrés Cortijos drew attention to Confectionary Holding’s digital commitment, with its 1880, El Lobo, Doña Jimena, and Imperial Toledana brands. He also underlined the growth opportunities available to those SMEs developing well defined strategic lines accompanied by the mechanisms that guarantee their sustainable implementation.
The third edition of E-Logistics Networking, under the name “Logística 4.0 – Smart Logistics and Big Data: the future of logistics” brought together logistics sector and supply chain experts.