Today we preview that presentation, chatting with the Google Cloud managing director of supply chain and logistics industry solutions about the near future of efficiency, artificial intelligence and the Supply Chain Twin. Take a look…
Smart Industry: What makes a supply chain "smarter"?
Hans: The key to a smarter supply chain is data-driven insights. By combining public data, community data, and private / enterprise data with the power of artificial-intelligence algorithms, supply chain operators can predict and simulate outcomes. Having a data-driven supply chain creates the visibility, flexibility, and intelligence that is needed in today’s world.
Data-driven insights can also help with making deliveries more efficient. Customers, such as UPS, are using our AI and ML technologies to improve decision-making around deliveries and also detect and address potential issues that may arise at any time during product shipment.
Smart Industry: Will the current supply chain struggles remain once we're fully past this pandemic or should things return to normal? How does this affect business strategies in the near future?
Hans: Besides the health crisis, there are several other big themes which impact the supply chain—there is the climate crisis, the energy crisis, the labor shortage and there are geopolitical challenges. We believe that all these challenges will lead to a change in global trade. We already see that some companies are adopting the concept of regional or even local supply chains. This is to rescue risk and also to reduce the carbon footprint. But we also understand that global trade will continue for commodities and finished products. In other words, we are living in a post-outsourcing world.
Smart Industry: What new approach to supply chain management most excites you?
Hans: We are seeing the huge impact that data-driven insights paired with AI can have on supply chain management. We’re helping businesses build smarter supply chains via solutions like Supply Chain Twin, which enable businesses to build a digital representation of their supply chain, providing end-to-end visibility, alert-driven event management, analytics, and collaboration across teams. Data sovereignty, data security and data references will play a huge role going forward.
