Nearly two thirds of companies plan to accelerate supply chain and logistics innovation investment, according to a study by Descartes.

The study examined how technology innovation is changing supply chain and logistics operations and executives’ plans for continued investment.

The report found that 59% of companies surveyed accelerated the pace of innovation investment and deployment over the past two years. Moreover, 65% plan to increase their technology spending over the next two years; however, 87% indicated they still face internal inhibitors to supply chain and logistics innovation.

The study of 1000 supply chain and logistics decision-makers across nine European countries, Canada and the USA provides supply chain and logistics organisations with insights into the importance of innovation and differences in the strategies, tactics and technology decisions of top financial performers and those companies whose senior management thought innovation was very important.

“The recent past has highlighted that supply chain performance can make or break companies and the need to innovate supply chain and logistics operations has moved to the forefront of many C-suite agendas,” said Chris Jones, executive vice president at Descartes. “The study shows that, while efforts in supply chain and logistics innovation are accelerating, many companies are relatively early in their innovation journey in areas such as digitisation and especially in the use of advanced computing technologies such as machine learning.”

The study analyses the connection between innovation and business success, the drivers of supply chain and logistics innovation, the expected benefits of innovation to companies, and the obstacles inhibiting the pace of innovation and innovation investment. The study also examines where supply chain and logistics innovation is considered to be the strongest and the weakest, the degree to which key supply chain and logistics innovative technologies are deployed and innovation focus areas today and in the future.

Lastly, it provides insight into how the importance of supply chain and logistics innovation changes on a geodemographic basis.

Descartes provides on-demand, software-as-a-service (SaaS) focused on improving the productivity, performance and security of logistics-intensive businesses. Its modular, software-as-a-service can help route, schedule, track and measure delivery resources; plan, allocate and execute shipments; rate, audit and pay transportation invoices; access global trade data; file customs and security documents for imports and exports; and complete numerous other logistics processes by participating in a collaborative multimodal logistics community.

Descartes is based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and has offices and partners around the world.

• Research by Interact Analysis shows the warehouse automation software market was valued at just under $2.4bn in 2021 and will grow with a CAGR of 16% to 2027 when the market is predicted to be worth just under $6bn. Warehouse automation software is defined as software used to control, execute and manage the operations of automated warehouses.