Alex Mortimer

Five Supply Chain Uses For A.I.
Forbes
November 18, 2018

Below are five potential AI capabilities, outlined on a recent Forbes website article, that could impact positively in the supply chain:

1. Chatbots

Automatic chatbots can be used to respond to enquiries and deal with regarding invoices and payments. Chatbots are a computer program or an artificial intelligence which conducts a conversation with a customer, usually through a website. They respond in conversational form from a database of preprogrammed questions and answers.

2. Cargo Sensors

AI systems are used in shipping lanes to respond to weather conditions, and shock sensors report back the status of sensitive cargo. AI and algorithms are being used to predict the cost of oil, which can have a huge impact on shipping costs. Logistics businesses are using sensors to track the location of ships, containers and trucks adjusting their routes when necessary.

3. Smart Warehouses

AI systems can automate the labor-intensive task of finding items to fulfill orders, including using robots armed with laser-based sensors (similar to technology used in autonomous vehicles) to find the exact location of products inside a store. AI can also be used to determine how to lay out a new warehouse, improve the design of an existing warehouse, update picking methods or optimize staffing levels for busy seasons.

4. Drone Deliveries

Drone deliveries can be faster and cheaper than existing logistics methods, making it worthwhile for delivery companies to find regulatory battles to make drones an accepted means of delivery in the U.S. Amazon launched Prime Air in December 2016 with the goal of delivering goods to customers in 30 minutes or less and has been successfully making autonomous deliveries in the UK. Ele.me, the meal delivery service owned by Alibaba, received approval from the Chinese government to use drones for food delivery along 17 predetermined routes in Shanghai suburbs.

5. Automated Purchasing Agents

AI agents can find potential deals and negotiate the best terms based on preset parameters in the market. A recent analysis by McKinsey predicts that by 2021, AI-based purchasing systems will also be able to draft and distribute an RFQ. They will also be able to receive and rank their responses, and once a contract is signed, the system will monitor to ensure terms and conditions are met. Humans will only need to get involved if a supplier fails to respond.

Big Data in the Burger Supply Chain
Supply Chain Academy, Forbes
February 04, 2020

Big data, along with blockchain and robotics, is widely recognised to be one of three key innovations to impact supply chains over the next few years.

Major organisations are already using big data in their supply chain stock management, especially for consumer products, and perhaps most notably at the centre of the world’s most famous burger supplier – Mcdonald’s.

McDonald’s is a giant fast food retailer, serving over 60 million customers, from 34,000 restaurants around the globe, on a daily basis. Selling over 6.5 million burgers every day, they generate vast amounts of data, so what do they do with that data?

McDonald’s have become a data driven organisation, where analytics form a major part of their supply chain process, driven by their Big Data Roadmap. McDonald’s creates multi-disciplinary teams to discover, develop and implement new solutions across the organisation, especially in the big data and analytics area.

In the past, they managed data which was based on average metrics across stores, making it more difficult to fulfil specific local requirements. Using big data supplied from thousands of touch screen devices, including the self service kiosk’s introduced to many of their restaurants, they are provided with much more insight in to what is happening locally.

The company has visualised this information, using datasets, to better understand the cause and affect across multiple stores, which has enabled them them to make significant savings and to manage their global supply chains more effectively.




In addition to supply chain analytics, Mcdonald’s processes big data through predictive analytics to find the optimal solution for design, information and people practices. They analyse masses of variables to improve the company and the customer experience, tracking in-store traffic, customer interactions, drive-through flows, ordering patterns, point-of-sales data, video data and sensor data.

Information derived from this data is used in variations of their menus and even in the design of their restaurants – McDonald’s restaurants around the world do not look the same, each restaurant is slightly different as they are optimised using the data from the local market.

McDonald’s is a good example of using big data to create the best experience for their customers and to make their supply chain more effective and efficient, although they are not alone in doing so.

Effective Communication in the Supply Chain
linkedin
July 19, 2019

Effective Communication in the Supply Chain

Three ways organisations can improve their supply chain
linkedin
January 20, 2016

Organisations are constantly facing new business challenges, undergoing profound change and being asked to shift direction in order to meet new and tougher customer expectations more than ever before.

I don’t want to be a Market Leader….
linkedin
November 16, 2015

How about you? Are you wanting to become a Market Leader or a Market Driver?
Offering an excellent customer experience must be paramount for the success of your business. Staff need to be fully engaged to ensure they look after your customers at every level.

Innovation and Productivity
Alex Mortimer : Supply Chain Academy
February 05, 2020

On the podcast we talked about:
Why is thinking about Innovation crucial to business leaders?
What’s happening in the economy since the last podcast in January
How to implement change and innovate in the company to not become like a Toys R Us, Blackberry or Kodak
Looked at the impactions of Block Chain, Big Data, AI – what do these mean, how can they be used?
Practical tips on ‘changing the culture to become adaptive/agile’

New trends in supply chain and logistics
Alex Mortimer : Supply Chain Academy
February 05, 2020

Alex and Ed discuss the following during the podcast:
New Trends in Logistics and Supply Chain
Given the uncertainty in business, with Brexit and changing customer behaviours – Logistics and supply chain are areas that organisations are looking at to improve and help reduce operating costs. Ed gave his view on this strategy.
There seems to be 6 major trends influencing the logistics industry in the future. Ed gave pointers on what strategic leaders need to think about with regard to these:
Skills
Globalization
A workforce that is technologically savvy
How consumers behave / trends in spending
Government objectives
Sustainability
In our previous podcasts we’ve talked about productivity, innovation and strategy, Ed gave his thoughts on what Aston and partners like the SCA are doing to help leaders:
Gain clarity to deliver strategic objectives
Generate practical solutions to create a competitive advantage through logistics and supply chain
Deepen their knowledge