I N D U S T R Y I N T E L L I G E N C E

Many organisations have not completed comprehensive supply chain mapping and risk assessment exercises, meaning they haven’ t developed alternative options to mitigate risks and problems. Tech solutions host vast capabilities in the mitigation of business risks, from improved supply and demand forecasting to preventing component shortages to improving supply chain agility and minimising the impact of geopolitical disruptions. Key benefits include:

Sue Williams, Managing Director at specialist business improvement firm, Hexagon Consultants

• Critical component stockpiling – In the current market, it’ s crucial for organisations to maintain strategic reserves of long-lead-time or hard-to-source components to ensure availability during supply chain disruptions.

• Risk mapping and monitoring – Supply chain mapping and advanced analytics can effectively identify vulnerabilities and proactively address risks, for example, tracking geopolitical developments or supplier stability.

• Supplier collaboration – Ensure strong communication with suppliers to share demand forecasts, enabling better alignment and anticipation of potential shortages.

Based on your experience reducing inventory in distribution businesses, what strategies can data centres adopt to optimise their spare parts and hardware inventory without compromising uptime or performance?

Identifying constraints, bottlenecks and risks is imperative for business success, as is evaluating your supplier base, production and inventory management. The effective implementation of data presents flexibility improvement opportunities within supply chains, minimising inventory risk and optimising capabilities.

Tech solutions and strategies to reduce and optimise inventories include;

• Part segmentation – Understand the demand behaviour of the organisation’ s spare parts and market demand to align the inventory and supply chain strategy.

• Preventative and predictive maintenance – Utilise IoT sensors, AI and Machine Learning capabilities to determine appropriate preventative and predictive maintenance regimes to minimise the risk of potential downtime.

• Lifecycle management – Understand the changing behaviour of equipment over time to align demand forecasting, maintenance scheduling and parts and hardware inventory planning.

• Leverage the supply chain – Investigate options such as vendor-managed inventory( VMI) to improve availability without inventory holding costs.

Data centre construction and expansion projects are capital-intensive. What cost-saving measures have you seen successfully implemented in large-scale infrastructure projects, and how can they apply to data centre builds or upgrades?

Tech solutions can be used to optimise processes such as material flow planning, streamline systems, improve inventory management and better align with consumer demand, leading to overall cost savings for businesses. Tech solutions which can be implemented in large-scale projects to drive cost saving opportunities include:

• Modular construction – Leverage prefabricated, modular designs that reduce build times and labour costs while allowing for scalable growth.

• Value engineering – Conduct rigorous reviews of project specifications to identify cost-saving opportunities without compromising quality or functionality.

• Energy-efficient design – Invest in energy-efficient cooling systems and power distribution units( PDUs) to lower operational costs over the data centre’ s lifecycle.

• Local sourcing – Source materials and labour locally to reduce transportation costs and benefit from regional expertise( subject to understanding cost trade-offs).

• Phased expansion – Build in phases aligned with demand growth to spread out capital expenditure and mitigate over-expansion.

What lessons from sectors like aerospace and automotive can data centre operators leverage to streamline their operations and improve overall efficiency?

Businesses are becoming more empowered to adopt the transfer of knowledge across industries. This innovative process presents increased capabilities, allowing organisations to adopt proven solutions that can lead to a vast improvement in efficiencies along with the mitigation of potential challenges.

By embracing models from other industries such as aerospace and automotive that have demonstrable results, organisations can increase their bandwidth for new opportunities, as well as drive continued growth in today’ s competitive business landscapes.

By looking outside of its own industry, an organisation is able to implement tested tech to achieve results more effectively to drive tangible benefits with solutions such as:

• Predictive maintenance – Utilise IoT sensors and AI to monitor equipment health, reducing unplanned downtime and extending asset life.

• Standardisation – Standardise components and processes where possible, reducing complexity and costs in future procurement and maintenance.

• Supply chain mapping and risk assessment – Understand each stage

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