Blue Yonder has signed an agreement to acquire One Network Enterprise for $839m, the latest acquisition in the supply chain software provider’s efforts to provide an end-to-end supply chain platform and collaboration tool.
One Network provides its Digital Supply Chain Network technology to a number of business sectors including automotive manfacturing and logistics. The cloud platform enables trading partners to plan, execute and monitor business processes along the supply chain in real time. It is also a provider of intelligent control towers. Blue Yonder said the takeover of One Network better positioned it to provide planning, execution, commerce and network services.
“Supply chains have become more complex, and as more and more companies reduce risk by diversifying sourcing of products globally, there is an increased demand for the sharing of information and resources across the whole value chain,” said Duncan Angove, CEO, Blue Yonder. “This, along with increased disruptions and geopolitical risks, have put the pressure on organisations to build more resilient and robust supply chains.”
Blue Yonder said that bringing in the Digital Supply Chain Network platform alongside its own supply chain tools would provide customers with real-time visibility across the supply chain from upstream raw material tier-n suppliers to OEM customers and carriers. The company said that it enabled customers to move quickly from order planning to fulfilment and provided a more complete and actionable data set for supply chain partners by setting up alerts, benefitting from automation and leveraging generative AI.
“Supply chains continue to be fragmented and overwhelmed with disruptions,” said Greg Brady, chairman and founder, One Network. What’s needed is a unified platform that enables multi-tier orchestration, planning and collaboration that accelerates processes with autonomous and semi-autonomous decision-making and execution across trading partners. This is the next step to creating a resilient and collaborative supply chain.
The completion of the takeover is expected in Q2 or Q3 of this year subject to approval. In February, Blue Yonder also bought manufacturing and transport software technology provider Flexis.
Creative AI
At the recent Automotive Logistics and Supply Chain Europe conference held in Germany, Gabriel Werner, vice-president of manufacturing at Blue Yonder, said there was a proliferation of companies offering AI tools but that not all of them were creative in application. Werner explained that by contrast Blue Yonder, which has been offering AI tools for 15 years, is developing its third generation of machine learning algorithms, to avoid the limitations of mainstream and generic algorithms from which anyone can choose. Werner said AI’s potential to supercharge supply chains and logistics is irrefutable, but it can only achieve this potential with the right implementation.
“We believe AI is a highly transformative technology akin to going from steam engines to electricity,” Werner said. “But when steam engines were replaced by electric engines, nothing happened in terms of productivity. It only started to change when we realised that the factory layouts no longer needed to follow the power source and transformed them to follow the material flow.”
Read more about the panel discussion at ALSC Europe on the challenges and promises of accelerating digital, automated and greener supply chains, which also includes Audi’s senior director of supply chain international, Torsten Müller, and Unipart’s director of sector strategies, Adam Jones.
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