Tag Archives: solutions

How To Improve Supply Chains With Machine Learning: 10 Proven Ways

Posted on by

Bottom line: Enterprises are attaining double-digit improvements in forecast error rates, demand planning productivity, cost reductions and on-time shipments using machine learning today, revolutionizing supply chain management in the process.

Machine learning algorithms and the models they’re based on excel at finding anomalies, patterns and predictive insights in large data sets. Many supply chain challenges are time, cost and resource constraint-based, making machine learning an ideal technology to solve them. From Amazon’s Kiva robotics relying on machine learning to improve accuracy, speed and scale to DHL relying on AI and machine learning to power their Predictive Network Management system that analyzes 58 different parameters of internal data to identify the top factors influencing shipment delays, machine learning is defining the next generation of supply chain management. Gartner predicts that by 2020, 95% of Supply Chain Planning (SCP) vendors will be relying on supervised and unsupervised machine learning in their solutions. Gartner is also predicting by 2023 intelligent algorithms, and AI techniques will be an embedded or augmented component across 25% of all supply chain technology solutions.

The ten ways that machine learning is revolutionizing supply chain management include:

  1. Machine learning-based algorithms are the foundation of the next generation of logistics technologies, with the most significant gains being made with advanced resource scheduling systems.
  2. The wide variation in data sets generated from the Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, telematics, intelligent transport systems, and traffic data have the potential to deliver the most value to improving supply chains by using machine learning.
  3. Machine learning shows the potential to reduce logistics costs by finding patterns in track-and-trace data captured using IoT-enabled sensors, contributing to $6M in annual savings.
  4. Reducing forecast errors up to 50% is achievable using machine learning-based techniques.
  5. DHL Research is finding that machine learning enables logistics and supply chain operations to optimize capacity utilization, improve customer experience, reduce risk, and create new business models.
  6. Detecting and acting on inconsistent supplier quality levels and deliveries using machine learning-based applications is an area manufacturers are investing in today.
  7. Reducing risk and the potential for fraud, while improving the product and process quality based on insights gained from machine learning is forcing inspection’s inflection point across supply chains today.
  8. Machine learning is making rapid gains in end-to-end supply chain visibility possible, providing predictive and prescriptive insights that are helping companies react faster than before.
  9. Machine learning is proving to be foundational for thwarting privileged credential abuse which is the leading cause of security breaches across global supply chains.
  10. Capitalizing on machine learning to predict preventative maintenance for freight and logistics machinery based on IoT data is improving asset utilization and reducing operating costs.

Read more at How To Improve Supply Chains With Machine Learning: 10 Proven Ways

Share your opinions with us in the comment box. Subscribe us to get updates.

Supply Chain Planning Systems Become Increasingly Intelligent

Posted on by

Machine learning is hot. Solution providers in supply chain planning (SCP) tell me customers want to know how these technologies will be used in future SCP solutions. But machine learning is just one form of intelligence that can be embedded in SCP applications. The growing intelligence of these solutions ranges from better integration frameworks all the way up to fully automated planning.

Better Integration Frameworks

Integration frameworks allow data from multiple sources and networks to be pulled into planning solutions much more easily. Logility’s Karin Bursa, an executive vice president, points out that “many companies have multiple ERP systems.” She sees faster integration with better certainty and master data management, as a key differentiator for Logility. The master data logic understands the range of data that is appropriate for a particular field and can track and highlight when inappropriate data gets entered. Logility’s solution also uses net change logic. In other words, their system only looks at data elements that have been updated or changed. This makes same day or inter-day data updates more efficient.

Robust Role-based Views

This is not a new area of investment; it has been going on for several years. Many suppliers have invested in easier to use interfaces, particularly excel style interfaces. These interfaces have workflows that allow planners to tackle the most important planning problems in order of importance. Demand planners may want to view forecasts in units by week at ship to locations. Financial planners may want to see monthly views of revenues by business unit. Many suppliers offer integrated business planning (IBP) modules, sometimes called supply chain control towers or cockpits, that allow for a variety of views by the wide variety of actors in a corporation involved in balancing supply with demand in ways that maximize the company’s strategic objectives. Those objectives might differ by product or customer and can include things like profit maximization, achieving revenue targets, gaining market share, and other things as well.

Bigger, Better Solves

There are always new problems to solve. Omnichannel is the best current example of that. Manhattan Associate’s Scott Fenwick, director of product strategy, points out that when a new flow is supported, like order online but pick-up-in store, inventory allocation decisions need to change. But picking up that shift in the demand signal can be difficult. They are using machine learning to help solve this true demand problem.

Read more at Supply Chain Planning Systems Become Increasingly Intelligent

Share your opinions and subscribe us to get more informative articles.

The Growing Maturity Of Blockchain

Posted on by

Speakers from the technology community included Anant Kadiyala, Director of Blockchain & Industry Solutions at Oracle; IBM’s David Noller, Executive Architect Watson IoT – Blockchain and Industry 4.0; and Steven Kim, a Senior Director at SAP. The user community was represented by Jeff Denton, the Senior Director of Global Secure Supply Chain at AmerisourceBergen.

Blockchain technology is incredibly elastic. It can be shaped in different ways, to fit different processes, network node architectures, and participants. It is difficult to generalize about blockchain for business in a way that is universally true. But IBM, Oracle, and SAP – probably the three largest players in the business application blockchain space – were all addressing this topic in a very similar way.

One point all participants agreed on is that blockchain for business applications is not Bitcoin. Bitcoin was the first blockchain application, it is an unregulated shadow-currency, and it is widely seen as a mechanism more conducive to financial speculation than conducting business.

IBM, Oracle, and SAP all built their blockchain platforms on Hyperledger, a technology more suitable to building business applications. Like blockchain for cryptocurrencies, there are mechanisms to make sure transactions are authenticated across a network of participants with distributed databases.

There are several differences between cryptocurrencies and blockchain for SCM. Business blockchain does not include a cryptocurrency, although there may be network style applications that develop that will punch out to the banking system; it is not an open community that any participant can join, but will instead generally involve closed networks of supply chain partners that have been invited to join (permissioned blockchains); blockchain for managing an end to end SCM process can, and probably will, include more business logic and can even utilize IoT sensor data.

Read more at The Growing Maturity Of Blockchain For Supply Chain Management

Share your opinions at the comment box below and subscribe us to get updates.

Related articles

Why You Don’t Need Perfect Data to Begin Implementing Sales & Operations Planning

Posted on by

Royal Boon Edam a global market leader in entry solutions, was looking to shift towards a combined business model of “made to stock” and “assembly to order” – where modules which could be placed into a configuration requested by the customer would be ready for production, this meant the company needed a different logistics approach to fulfilling these orders.

An interview with Boon Edam’s Aron Waas

Implementing Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) has many benefits.

To truly leverage it to improve business performance and predictability, you need to embark on a change management process and you need the right technology to self-enable your team.

Often, teams think they also need plenty of clean and accurate data to do it right.

But starting small can pay off. We spoke with Aron Waas, Global Supply Chain Director at Royal Boon Edam International to hear about his company’s experience.

Hello Aron, can you tell me more about Boon Edam and your role as Global Supply Chain Director?

Boon Edam is a private, family-owned company that is over 140 years old. We are a manufacturer of premium entry systems, such as revolving doors and security access gates.

We have 3 factories, one in the USA, one in China and one in the Netherlands (in the city of Edam). We have over 20 sales subsidiaries and, at this stage, 3 different Distribution & Support Centers.

These centers (or D&SCs) support our sales subsidiaries with all their inquiries, service requests and the delivery of products and services.

I am part of the global management team, responsible for everything that has to do with supply chain management. The directors of our D&SCs report directly to me.

You are currently using AIMMS to enable your S&OP process. What was the driver to look for S&OP technology and how did you do things before?

We have worldwide demand for all kinds of products and services and as I mentioned before, we have 3 different factories. We were trying to optimize the workload between these factories to have our manufacturing be as efficient as possible.

We had a financial reporting tool and based on the financial forecasting of our different sales subsidiaries, we made a forecast for products and services which was translated into a monthly demand plan and a capacity plan. This process was based on a lot of assumptions.

Read more at Why You Don’t Need Perfect Data to Begin Implementing Sales & Operations Planning

Please share your opinions with us in the comment box and subscribe us to get updates.

Related articles

A Case Study on Leveraging Supply Chain Risk Management Solutions to Drive Revenue for a Leading Consumer Packaged Goods Firm

Posted on by

SpendEdge, a global procurement intelligence advisory firm, has announced the release of their new ‘supply chain risk management study on the consumer packaged goods industry’. A well-known consumer packaged goods company with a considerable number of manufacturing units spread across economies was facing difficulties in identifying the potential opportunities in the market. The CPG sector client wanted to leverage the use of supply chain risk management solutions to achieve a more robust supply chain network. The consumer packaged goods client was also looking at devising an effective risk treatment plan including measures to protect the supply chain.

According to the procurement analysts at SpendEdge, “The CPG industry acts as a foundation for the modern consumer economy as it drives not only huge amounts of money into other businesses like retail and advertising but also generates a massive portion of the gross domestic profits (GDP) for countries across the globe.”

In the consumer packaged goods industry, leading firms are looking at leveraging the use of supply chain risk management solutions, as it helps them integrate several previous or ongoing initiatives, including those for business continuity and supply-chain security. Our supply chain risk management solutions assist clients in the consumer packaged goods market space to align their risk management strategies with supply chain risk exposure.

The supply chain risk management solutions offered by the experts at SpendEdge helped the consumer packaged goods client to monitor the complete process, starting from risk analysis and risk evaluation through risk management and right up to residual risk control. This helped the CPG sector client to achieve productivity and avoid sales losses.

Read more at A Case Study on Leveraging Supply Chain Risk Management Solutions to Drive Revenue for a Leading Consumer Packaged Goods Firm

Share your opinions with us in the comment box and subscribe to get updates.

Related articles

Three supply chain challenges and how to overcome them

Posted on by

The modern supply chain is becoming more complex by the day. Businesses continue to struggle with keeping their supply chain under control but hidden risks still pose a significant threat to the industry. Even with all the new technologies making their way to the industry, businesses must be aware of these hidden risks and understand how to react appropriately.

Businesses of all kinds must keep supply chain visibility, cyber risk and natural disasters in mind at all times. All of these factors or even just one could have a significant impact on a company’s bottom line. In this current edition of the ‘Challenges and Solutions’ series, we will take a close look at the most troublesome issues in the supply chain and how businesses can avoid or plan for these risks.

New technology

Advancing technology is making its way into the supply chain, forcing businesses to constantly change systems. New services that provide an “Uber-Like” freight experience require supply chain managers to constantly hone their talents and adapt to these kind of digital disruptions. Not only with the Internet of Things be transforming the supply chain end to end, the way people utilize technology to create new processes will need to be monitored. The challenge is keeping supply chain managers and procurement professionals up-to-date and trained with all these new advancements.

Finding a solution can be challenging at first. It will take some time for a business to discover the right process that works for them. There is no one answer fits all, rather a unique, business specific training program must be developed. Some solutions may include putting together a team in charge of locating the latest supply chain innovations and coming up with a plan to train the rest of the staff. Others could be outsourced training programs funded by the organization whose employees will be taking part. Continuous training will be vital in order to remain effective in this transforming industry.

Read more at Three supply chain challenges and how to overcome them

Share your opinions with us in the comment box, and subscribe to get updates.

Related articles

New Solutions for Supply Chain Risk Management: A Case Study

Posted on by

We are entering an era where it is becoming possible to detect supply chain risks much more quickly. A case in point is offered by AGCO. AGCO AGCO +1.96% is a global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of a wide range of agricultural equipment. In a discussion with AGCO’s Jan Theissen, Director of Strategy and Methods, and Jake Stone, Manager of Supply Chain Risk and Contract Management, I learned about this public, Atlanta headquartered corporation’s journey to improve their sourcing and supply base risk management capabilities.

AGCO’s products are marketed under a number of well-known brands, including Challenger, Fendt, GSI, Massey Ferguson and Valtra. The manufacture and assembly of their products occurs at 34 locations worldwide and historically each of these brands was managed as a separate supply chain. Further, because the company had grown by acquisition, these different supply chains used more than 10 different enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for direct sourcing.

Beginning in 2012, Mr. Theissen, a newly appointed procurement leader, led a transformation of the sourcing organization. AGCO moved from a fragmented and decentralized procurement to a centralized commodity management structure in order to better leverage buying synergies and increase the overall maturity level of this organization. Implementation of standardized roles and responsibilities, and global policies and procedures, were supported by an extensive change management program. The company formed a School of Purchasing to further develop the capabilities of the organization.

The risks associated with sourcing became part of each category manager’s job; these managers became responsible for supplier risk management, not just savings. Mr. Stone was brought into establish new, systems, processes and capabilities to manage procurement risk. One thing Mr. Stone put in place was a clear communication and escalation process to deal with risks once detected.

Read more at New Solutions for Supply Chain Risk Management: A Case Study

Related articles

Cloud Solutions for Logistics and Supply Chain Management Software

Posted on by

Logen Solutions, a software company that specializes in logistics efficiency software, released CubeMaster Online, a comprehensive cloud solution for logistics and software for supply chain management.

CubeMaster Online is a load plan and optimization software, and palletizing and packaging design software that calculates the optimal loads for pallets, trucks, trailers, and sea and air containers. Companies can help reduce 5 to 20 percent of the trucks or container loads used. This can result in significant time and cost savings for many companies.

CubeMaster Online helps facilitate collaboration with teams working together in distribution areas. This collaboration feature presents logistics, engineering, marketing, management and distribution centers with an easy, efficient way to share and control load planning and execution across various geographical areas.

CubeMaster Mobile provides mobile pages built on HTML 5, which enables connection to any service with any mobile devices. This mobile version is designed to run on mobile devices such as iOS and Android tablets and smartphones.

CubeMaster Web Service is the most recent technology to enable the integration of CubeMaster Online with customer applications, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), warehouse management systems (WMS) and transportation management systems (TMS) at the application level. It allows the remote applications written by ASP, APS.NET, Java, PHP and SAP to call remotely the application program interfaces (APIs) served by the CubeMaster Online server.

Read more at Cloud Solutions for Logistics and Supply Chain Management Software

Have you used the cloud solution for logistics and software for supply chain management mentioned in the article? Share your thoughts with us in the comment box. Subscribe to get updates in your inbox.

Related articles