For over a century, businesses have honed highly efficient, linear supply chains. Raw materials flowed in one direction, were transformed into a product, used, and ultimately discarded in a waste heap. That approach now puts a firm’s competitiveness at risk.

To ensure supply in an increasingly volatile business landscape, companies need more resilient networks. Fast-changing consumer preferences and customisation require increased flexibility and speed. Also, investors, consumers, and governments expect more sustainable products and processes, with certifications to prove companies’ claims.

Winning in the upcoming decade will require a transparent and circular value chain, one that reduces or reuses materials and remanufactures or recycles products, thereby lowering cost and creating less waste. It is a profound paradigm shift, and the technology is already available to trace each raw material that goes into a product and follow how a product is used and where it is discarded.

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