As most prognosticators acknowledge, predicting the "what" of the future is relatively easy compared to getting the timing close to right. What I am also struggling with is the temptation to paint a picture of a supply chain world in which simply everything is automated - though, indeed, that may very well be a huge component of the future vision.

But here is a question: When do we reach a point in the level of supply chain automation, both physical and informational, that there just is not a whole lot more we can do in terms of supply chain improvements? Is that point likely to come fairly soon, or is it decades away?

Ditto with regard to "integration." It would also be relatively easy to simply paint a vision where we have virtually 100 percent integration both within the enterprise and across trading partners and networks. Much more dicey, of course, would be predicting the timing of this (remembering, for example, the lessons and history of EDI), but even beyond that, does foretelling a world of near perfect automation and integration really tell us much? I don't really think so.

Others have and will continue to take a stab at this. Perhaps the most well known is MIT's Supply Chain 2020 project, started I think in 2003 and initially led by Dr. Larry Lapide. Here we are now just 10 years away from that end date that seemed quite distant back in 2003. Is it time for Supply Chain 2025?

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