Those who had the chance to work in any type of management are well aware of how combining and dealing with all the things, noticing problems on time, and solving them before they become a big problem can be stressful. Well, some of those potential problems could be a thing of the past, as today, the variety of options we can choose from to further develop and grow our business truly is remarkable. There are many perks of living in this modern and digital age and, one of those perks is definitely about having a much broader set of tools that you can use to enhance the overall performance of your businesses.
1. The use of AI in business
As you may already know, running a business is far from an easy thing, but that’s where good management can be of great help, as it can make things less troublesome. Namely, modern tech has advanced so much that today, the mention of AI used in supply chain management, for example, is nothing new, but still, many are hesitant. As for the reasons why this is the case well, there are many of them, but the main one is about not fully understanding all the possibilities and advantages that come with implementing AI. Yes, Artificial Intelligence can be used in many industries and speaking strictly about supply management, well, it’s more than helpful but, since we understand that many are still unaware of all the options and how it actually works, let’s get into details and provide an answer to any question you might have about AI used in supply chain management.
2. It all starts with Automation
This is where everything starts from, as automation is the term used in almost every industry today. You could say that that’s because it’s much less expensive, but it is also about increasing productivity and overall efficiency as the two highest goals of every company. After knowing this, it’s much easier to understand why the level of machine automation in supply management is not only necessary but a must. Furthermore, if we take a look at the statistics, we will see that the annual IIOT spending by the leading companies in this branch has tripled in the past couple of years. Everything going on in the world has only proved that using AI in the supply chain industry simply needs to be the next step, as things and circumstances change, and so must the industry.
3. Easier and safer vehicle maintenance
It is not possible to have a great supply chain without having a good vehicle fleet to use for transportation, and because of that, it is crucial to have a good maintenance service. By using the AI, we can keep track of every vehicle from the fleet and know the important parameters at every moment. In that way, we can have insight into the condition and longevity of each part of equipment crucial for transportation and the vehicle used for it. AI and machine learning can predict the failure of the vehicle by analyzing data from the past and from real-time, so we can exactly know when we need to stop using a certain vehicle in order to avoid or fix the possible problems. Taking the problematic vehicle out of the chain can prevent many delays and help the supply chain works flawlessly.
4. Better delivery logistic
Having a lot of orders that need to be delivered can be a blessing for the company but also a real nightmare if there are no good logistics to sort them out. The users expect fast and secure delivery, and because of that, we need to have software that can calculate the fastest route of delivery and sort all of them by importance. In that way, we will have satisfied customers, and our company will continue to grow, and on the other side, we will not face the chaos of unorganized transportation. It is an almost impossible job for the person, no matter how good their organizational skills are, but for the AI, it is a pretty easy task, so using it in the supply chain can get us many benefits, and delivery logistics is just one of them.
5. Total visibility and better analytics
Supply chains are pretty complex today and sometimes difficult to understand, and it can be pretty challenging to have end-to-end visibility and gather all the necessary data. Having insight into information from different parts of the supply chain is of vast importance if we want to know precisely how the transportation is operating and if it is necessary to change something in order to improve efficiency. Besides that, we can check where the delivery is at every moment and how much time it needs to get to the customers, so we can provide them with relevant information if they ask for it.
AI can do all the jobs properly because of the fact it uses real-time data instead of duplicative ones from history, so there are no mistakes based on poor data. It also provides better analytics because AI can compare old and new data and find a new solution if it is necessary since it is the only way to improve the business and get it to the next level. By sifting through a large amount of data, AI has the ability to find patterns of reacting, which can be pretty useful when it comes to predicting some next step.
Conclusion
Hopefully, after reading all this, it’s much clearer why AI is important and how it is used in supply chain management. AI is something that will mark the future ahead of us, and the sooner we start accepting and implementing this tech, the higher the chances to become one of the most successful businesses. Understandably, like any other big change, this one too doesn’t happen overnight, as there are several steps to take in order to prepare your organization and get to the desired goal. That is why it’s always good to have a reliable advisor, a renowned company like Softengi with vast experience in this field, to help you implement this tech and make that change much easier.