The warehousing and supply chain industry is going through a major phase of transition as considered from the Indian business point of view. The global supply chain industry had already been integrating intelligent systems and procedures which would tremendously benefit the organisations by improving their financial bottom line as well as increasing their overall productivity.
The Indian warehousing and supply chain sector is witnessing a lot of consolidation since the last decade. The introduction of GST, granting of infrastructure status to the Logistics sector and the initiation of a number of conducive regulations and compliances by the Government of India have proved to be significant steps in the evolution of the domestic warehousing, logistics and supply chain industry. Additionally, the efforts of the international players and the domestic stalwarts in organising the sector and fortifying the previously fragmented sector has proved to be fruitful.
Machine learning and Artificial intelligence :
Machine learning and artificial intelligence can be regarded as two of the most significant technological advances of the twenty-first century which has revolutionised the way of life and thinking. These trends are defining our lifestyle as well as our requirements. Machine learning involves teaching a machine to think and act like a human and artificial intelligence involves the usage of those learned machines in doing predictive analytics of various processes and functions and boosting their success rates. Machine learning deals with the usage of artificial intelligence in learning and creating complex algorithms which emulate human behaviour and therefore minimise the human interface by promoting the automation of tasks. In this way, machine learning and artificial intelligence have symbiotic relationships with each other.
Ways in which machine learning and artificial intelligence can be introduced in the warehousing and supply chain industry :
The global supply chain and warehousing industry are a lot ahead of its Indian brethren in terms of integrating machine learning and artificial intelligence in its core operations. Automation and mechanization of the integral operations of the warehousing and supply chain industry have been one of the recent trends. Intelligence warehouse management systems result in the streamlining of the fundamental warehousing operations and an increase in the overall productivity of the distribution centre. Intelligence ID proofing systems are also extremely conducive in decreasing the downtime of the essential functions and thus augmenting the customer satisfaction by boosting productivity, implementing rapid shipping of customer queries and addressing to their various concerns with the utmost expertise. Machines reduce time and simplify warehousing operations by decreasing manual labour.
Ways in which Machine learning is changing the warehousing and supply chain industry :
As discussed previously, machine learning is finding its usage in every sphere of life with the passing hour. If implemented properly, machine learning will have a lot of impacts that will ensure the growth and proliferation of the warehousing and supply chain environment. These impacts can be enumerated below.
- Forecasting things with the utmost accuracy and precision.
- Reduction in all kinds of costs.
- Engagement of consumers.
- Ways of implementing physical inspection.
- The resulting contextual intelligence.
- Demand in forecasting and predictive analytics.
- Increase in the longevity of products and components.
- Improvement in supplier management and similar operations.
- Improvement in planning and subsequent operations.
- Promoting end-to-end visibility.
Ways in which Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing the supply chain and warehousing industry :
Several organisations have already reported case studies of growth after implementing artificial intelligence in the supply chain and warehousing industry. As per industry estimates, 15% of the organisations have already started executing ai-based systems whereas 31% have invested in such and plan on implementing them shortly. These impacts can be enumerated below.
In the warehousing and logistics sector, implementation of artificial intelligence results in :
- The proliferation of predictive analytics.
- Growth in robotics.
- Growth in Big Data and computer vision.
- A boost in the number of autonomous vehicles operating in the logistics and warehousing sector.
In the supply chain industry, implementation of artificial intelligence results in :
- Improving customer experience.
- Improving factory scheduling and production planning.
- Corporate decision making enhancements.
- Improvement in public safety.
- Improvement in contextual intelligence and insights to boost productivity.
- Solving transportation issues.
Thus it can be concluded that integrating artificial intelligence and machine learning is the need of the hour because they augment all the core functions of the warehousing and supply chain industry to a great extent.