Theme: Resilience
Industry Adoption: ⚫ ⚫ ⚫ ⚪ Fully Integrated
Impact: ⚫ ⚫ ⚫ High

A 2024 Maersk survey shows that decision makers rank Supply Chain Visibility 1st out of the top 15 trends.

In a world of growing supply chain complexity, visibility has become a cornerstone for improving decision-making and managing disruptions. As supply chains expand into new regions of the globe, and involve more diverse transport modes, businesses face challenges ranging from geopolitical shifts and sustainability demands, to labour shortages and unexpected disruptions like strikes or natural disasters. Recognising its importance, 77% of companies in 2022 prioritised investments in supply chain visibility to tackle these pressing issues.

Market data confirms that supply chain visibility is of high importance and has become fully integrated into industry operations. Since 2015, 20+ startups have entered the field of visibility, signalling moderate innovation as this trend matures. Between 2019 and 2023, 5,500+ patents were filed for technologies in the field of supply chain visibility, with 100+ groundbreaking – indicating a strong total output, but limited transformative breakthroughs. Scientific interest is steady with ~2,000 publications, while C-Suite mentions dropped sharply from 1,280+ in 2022 to 530+ in 2024, reflecting a high degree of adoption rather than exploratory focus.

^{Average values of the top ten trends: Startups: 57; Patents 9,327 (thereof 316 groundbreaking); Science Publications: 6,141; C-Suite Mentions 1,376; More C-Suite mentions typically signal that trends are in the early or early adopter stage, while fewer indicate movement towards full integration or the industry standard.}

Top 15 Trends

Share of Key Decision Makers, who consider the trend to be relevant for their company’s logistics

Supply Chain Visibility – Relevance by Industry 

What are the opportunities? 

Supply chain visibility drives efficiency real-time tracking, enabling proactive decision-making and cost optimisation. Innovations such as digital twins technology and control towers, can improve inventory management, reduce losses, and enhance customer satisfaction.

What are the challenges? 

Achieving visibility is costly and in many cases complex. During the implementation phase it can present integration and data consistency issues. If not well adapted, unpredictable transit times complicate planning, while compliance and rising costs strain profitability.

Sources:

• McKinsey (2022). 
• Survey among 500+ global logistics decision makers across various industries, conducted by Statista for Maersk (Q4 2024).
• In-depth interviews with global industry experts, academia, and futurists.
• Unstructured web sources with more than 10,000 search term permutations using AI.
• Curated data from startup databases, patent databases, and analysis tools, as well as Semantic Scholar.