By Dan Farrell

Copyright scotsman

As the world grapples with trade volatility, climate pressures, and new customer expectations, the business of supply chains is experiencing a fundamental shift. A recent Accenture report reveals that by 2035, around two-thirds of companies plan to advance their supply chain autonomy. While autonomous systems are in early stages, supply chain leaders anticipate that the benefits are substantial, with expectations they could reduce lead times by 27 per cent, spur productivity improvements of 25 per cent, and reduce carbon emissions by 16 per cent. In the past, supply chains were largely optimised for cost and later tested on speed and sustainability. Then came the pandemic, geopolitical volatility, and skills shortages, all forcing companies into strategies focused on resilience and adaptability. They’ve learnt a lot from being in a near-constant state of endurance. The study finds that two-thirds (66 per cent) of global companies plan to make significant advances in supply chain autonomy over the next decade. Companies see them as a potential antidote to faster recovery from disruptions – the new currency in today’s world. But what does ‘autonomous supply chain’ mean? Autonomy in supply chains goes beyond automation. It involves combining automation and delegation to create systems that can make decisions, sense disturbances, adapt, and continuously improve. This requires a secure digital core, investment in critical AI-enabling technologies, and finding new ways for people and machines to collaborate. It’s important to understand that technology alone cannot solve for change on its own. Leaders must simplify processes and have clean and robust data foundations to fine tune technology and people together. Humans should be present at key milestones in the process, like designing, testing and checking. While autonomous systems will sense and respond, its humans that will provide feedback and optimise outputs. Scotland is uniquely positioned to capitalise on this change. For example, as the energy industry continues to invest to meet decarbonisation goals – AI-driven supply chains can offer predictive maintenance, real-time visibility into raw materials, more resilient and localised sourcing, and smarter coordination between energy generation, grids, storage, and demand. Leaders must take decisive action across three areas: Build a Digital Core: Standardised data platforms, shared visibility across the supply chain, and consistent governance and cybersecurity are essential. Pilot and Scale AI-Enabled Technologies: Focus on areas such as demand forecasting, predictive maintenance, optimisation of storage, and smarter logistics. Redesign Roles and Ensure Governance: Ensure human oversight and expertise always works with autonomous systems, with a focus on skills development, trust, and transparency. Supply chain and operations is an industry already driven by data. Planning, logistics and maintenance-focused tasks are going to be significantly different in the future, with autonomous warehouse robots, intelligent scheduling systems and predictive analytics already changing the game. With the right investments and strategic planning, Scotland can position itself at the forefront of industry transformation, driving innovation, sustainability, and economic growth. Ongoing supply chain disruptions have taught us important lessons, but it could also be the start of doing things differently. ​Dan Farrell, Accenture’s Manufacturing & Engineering Lead, Industry X, in the UK