Automazione News, a leading magazine for automation, logistics, and the manufacturing industry published by Tecniche Nuove, dedicates an extensive feature in its January 2026 issue to the second edition of the Quin Group’s Supply Chain Excellence Observatory, set within a broader context of deep transformations reshaping industrial models, strategic priorities, and skills.

The starting point is a production system shaped by structural disruptions. Geopolitical tensions, market volatility, energy shocks, and growing sustainability pressures have turned change into a permanent condition. In this context, the supply chain becomes the space where complexity and decision-making converge, directly affecting companies’ ability to remain competitive.

The Observatory, developed by the Quin Group and promoted in collaboration with the MADE Competence Center in Milan, offers an interpretation that goes beyond a purely technological perspective. The analysis connects strategy, organization, governance, and data usage, identifying four maturity profiles – Traditional Player, Process Master, Digital Pioneer, and Champion of Excellence – showing how excellence stems from the overall coherence of the operating model.

The article clearly highlights the drivers that currently guide decision-making in manufacturing companies. Digitalization and automation as operational enablers, sustainability and circularity as structural elements of the production model, and visibility and traceability as prerequisites for supply chain control. Alongside these factors, the feature points out widespread critical issues, often linked to organizational fragmentation, governance limitations, and difficulties in turning data into effective decisions.

The research findings were presented during the event dedicated to the Observatory, organized by Quin and QGS and held on November 11 at Confindustria Bergamo – Kilometro Rosso. The roundtable discussion with entrepreneurs and industrial managers brought the insights into an operational perspective, linking strategy, organizational choices, and tangible impacts on the factory and the supply chain.

The feature also addresses artificial intelligence, with a specific focus on AI agents. QGS’s contribution explores the evolution toward systems capable of supporting complex operational activities, improving decision quality, and reducing information overload, provided that solutions are properly governed and aligned with business processes.

A clear message emerges: supply chain maturity does not depend on individual technologies, but on the ability to integrate strategy, processes, data, and people across the entire value chain.

Read the full article: https://quinlive.it/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/AutomazioneNews-Gennaio2026.pdf

The third edition of the Supply Chain Excellence Observatory is already underway. Take part in the survey and receive:

• A full report with aggregated data and the key trends emerging from the sample.

• Personalized feedback: your company’s positioning against the national benchmark and your industry, highlighting strengths, gaps, and priority improvement levers.

• An invitation to the event presenting the results of the 3rd edition (Fall 2026).