Supply management provides an organization with the resources that it needs but does not produce itself. However, intraorganizational needs are not isolated. They ultimately serve to fulfill the demands of external (end) customers. Traditionally, supply management receives information from its internal customers, i.e. from other functional areas such as production planning, logistics, or marketing. Information on (end) customer demands reaches supply management, if at all, indirectly via these other functional areas, which often pass on information after interpreting it. This article discusses how digital twins of (end) customer demands can provide all functional areas with precise, near-real-time data.
