About AI In Supply Chain Optimization
11 March 2020
Why you need demand forecasting solutions using machine learning?
11 March 2020
Modern industrial sales and supply chains are complex. The amount of a product or service that a company can sell or produce over a given time frame is often negatively impacted by operational bottlenecks that might occur due to a number of reasons.
In a Bain survey, 88% of participants say their organization supply chains, operations, and sales will feel the impact of artificial intelligence over the next five years.
But is your organization ready to adopt artificial intelligence supply chain and sales?
Supply chain and sales - The current scenario
Manufacturers across different industries are losing trillions of dollars in productivity each year. These are caused by persistent operational bottlenecks that often result in 40% of the industrial output not reaching the target market at the right time.
The bottlenecks occur due to different reasons and vary also in terms of the complexity, resulting in the need for different solutions in a timely manner.
Take for instance, on the shop floor. Any equipment downtime can impact the processing speed of a product or service – in most cases, slowing it down. This directly impacts the supply chain and the commitment that can be made on the sales front of the organization, leading to losses despite market demand.
Now monitoring equipment health, in this case, can help you prevent the occurrence of such situations. But some bottlenecks can occur abruptly, limiting your organization’s supply chain and decision-making capabilities for adequate sales.
Thus, the first step to maximize the efficiency of the supply chain and boost sales is to be able to process data across the system. Manually pulling in data from different operators and providers across the supply chain only leads to manual errors and loss of critical information, leading to delayed decisions or ones leading to more losses.
This is where artificial intelligence supply chain comes in.
Learning from data using artificial intelligence supply chain
The only way to reduce the frequency and severity of supply chain disruptions is to put your data to work. But first, you need to ensure that your data is clean, relevant and accurate to offer supply chain managers a comprehensive view of enterprise-wide records systems. It should be able to allow them to establish KPI-led operations at both micro and macro levels, minimizing the time and labor investment required to resolve inefficiencies.
To be able to create this view, you need to leverage real-time machine learning and artificial intelligence supply chain. Analytical techniques such as data visualization and real-time analysis of processes ensure that you are able to go beyond surface-level issues to actually identify the root-cause of problems. Thereby ensuring better supply chain optimisation India.
The organizations can use their existing data to identify inefficiencies in their supply chain and take note of where improvements can be deployed using artificial intelligence supply chain. But the systems also need to learn about your processes and the data that your organization holds.
The key to ensuring the artificial intelligence supply chain model is geared to deliver value for your organization is in data.
This means supply chain managers will need to use all the data stored in excel sheets or applications implemented at different milestones of the supply chain, and feed it to the machines to train them to detect and react to bottlenecks more efficiently.
Implementing supply chain artificial intelligence does three things. First, it gives the managers a comprehensive view of their supply chain performance. Second, it identifies and highlights bottlenecks in the processes at various stages as per the order of priority on the impact of the output. Third, it matches the supply chain data to market demand to be able to equip the manager to coordinate with the sales teams to ensure a market capture that maximizes profits and reduces wastes.
Simply put, the artificial intelligence supply chain model is here to replace the cost-centric analysis that is being used across most industries. So from production-boosting initiatives, supply chain optimisation India will be able to focus on speed to market, efficient cash flow and efficiency.
In addition to improving supply chain optimisation India, artificial intelligence is also set to help organizations with system-wide audits. The machines will be able to identify compliance scenarios throughout the organization for any ERP, order management or manufacturing management systems. Hence, leading to cost and time savings that can benefit an organization in other areas other than supply chain to maximize profits.
Are organizations ready for the artificial intelligence supply chain model?
A survey of more than 100 cross-sector global supply chain leaders by PA consulting stated that early adopters of technology such as artificial intelligence were able to cut their cost of operations by up to 15%.
While most manufacturers across industries have taken their initial steps to implement a digital transformation, the numbers are still on the lower side. Not every organization is ready for the artificial intelligence supply chain model for better management and sales.
The only way to know if your organization is ready to adopt the new model is to first understand the benefits of artificial intelligence supply chain and its impact on business market capture and sales. It’s important for the organization to assess its current supply chain performance and assess their state of digital readiness before heavily investing in new technologies, and then research solutions that are best suited to meet their needs.
For instance, BluePi’s supply chain optimization solutions are driven by algorithms using artificial intelligence that are perfected for different retail formats like multi-format, grocery, apparel, and others. It has helped retail organizations add a minimum of 5% to their bottom line by being able to optimize their supply chain and plan sales using data, making it a profitable addition to most organizational processes. You can learn more about it here.
Not sure if artificial intelligence can improve your supply chain optimization and impact your sales positively?
Let us help you assess your state of digital readiness for the artificial intelligence supply chain model and how it can help you improve sales. Contact us today
