AuthorManual Torres, RUSCA Blog Committee The supply chain industry constantly seeks implementations towards wanting to stay up-to-date and remain competitive. By doing so, there’s a huge focus on staying innovative, and a major usage for artificial intelligence has come to life. It’s beginning to be a norm for each company, and an essential that can do quite a hefty amount of work that wouldn’t have been imaginable decades ago. At first artificial intelligence had specific functions for companies such as coding. However, in today’s world there’s another level of importance and key role it plays in almost every company. If there’s a company that doesn’t have it then there has to be a strong consideration for it. The article, Companies Are Seeking Real-World Supply-Chain Gains in New AI Tools, goes in-depth with the implementation of artificial intelligence toward supply chains and companies overall. It reveals the current trend of the overall development of artificial intelligence throughout the years, and what its purpose was compared to now. Author, Liz Young, asserts that “-the development technology tool that can quickly sort through large amounts of information, make predictions and respond to questions in a humanlike voice” (Young, 2024). Furthermore, we can assume that some of the functions of artificial intelligence are groundbreaking for companies and can see the benefits behind this like cost savings. Is artificial intelligence implemented in everyday tasks for companies today? Yes, and relating to supply chain industries. There are many examples of companies already using artificial intelligence to their advantage, and their everyday uses. Diving into the impact it had on logistics is game-changing. The article, The True Role Of AI In Logistics, greatly explains the strong influence artificial intelligence has had in logistics. Industry thought leader, Bart De Muynck, mentioned that “One of the most significant contributions of AI in logistics is its powerful application in predictive analytics fueled by explosive growth in data” (Bart De Muynck, 2023). In addition, it goes on to reveal the strong ability artificial intelligence has in implementing the logistics field for the greater benefit of the future. The author dives into deeper detail about some of the fascinating abilities artificial intelligence provides. He affirms that “By analyzing historical data and real-time information, AI-powered systems can anticipate demand patterns, inventory fluctuations and potential disruptions which enables optimization of inventory levels, minimize stockouts and streamline supply chain operations” (Bart De Muynck, 2023). Moreover, it’s great to see artificial intelligence having a positive impact on many companies and fields. Providing greater accuracy overall is an amazing step forward for the supply chain industry. Another perspective to take into account is the efficiency that it provides for the future of companies. Mars, a multinational manufacturer, has begun using artificial intelligence to their advantage, and there has been implementation towards their daily strategies. Liz Young brings up the current changes Mars is going through, and it’s interesting. She asserted “German software firm Celonis is working with snack-food supplier Mars to use generative AI to combine truck loads, cutting shipping costs and speeding up delivery. Celonis Chief Executive Alex Rinke said Mars had manually evaluated factors such as the weather to determine which shipments could be combined and whether it needed to use refrigerated trucks for its freight” (Young, 2024). Furthermore, the implementation of improving forecasting is a major step forward for any company. The potential uses of artificial intelligence to greatly benefit the company are exciting to even consider from a different standpoint. Alex Rinke provides in detail the potential benefits of the implementation of AI, and it’s surprising for anybody to even imagine. He mentions “With AI, we can proactively tell them, ‘Here are all the truckloads that you have going out that you should consolidate, – That reduced manual touches by 80% and also made them more efficient as a company because they reduced shipping costs, reduced emissions and improved on-time shipments'' (Young, 2024). In other words, we can evaluate the great promise AI has on the industry, and it's in safe hands for the future. Providing efficiency, speedy deliveries, and cutting shipping costs are all beneficial for any company. Rinke also provided many other uses that AI has for the company. Removing those manual touches more and more, and sooner or later we can see a future without any manual touches. AI has a long road ahead towards being fully implemented for any company in the world, and not only for the supply chain industry. However, AI has begun taking some companies by storm in usage. The importance of adaptability for companies in the supply chain world specifically is significant, and having AI as a tool will provide one of the strongest alternatives you could have. The future will have AI involved and have a complete takeover for industries to come. It’ll only be time in which it does so, and those that aren’t innovative towards implementing it. Those companies would only fall behind and miss out on such a tool. Sources https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-are-seeking-real-world-supply-chain-gains-in-new-ai-tools-023045e7?mod=logistics_more_article_pos4 https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2023/08/17/the-true-role-of-ai-in-logistics/?sh=2a62531251d3 https://gjia.georgetown.edu/2024/02/05/the-role-of-ai-in-developing-resilient-supply-chains/ Comments are closed.
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