WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

WHY IT MATTERS: AI delivers real value in the manufacturing and production side of business. The McKinsey report shows ML and AI impacts bottom line more than top line, and that the field remains immature with the need for center of excellence and help from academia. Overall a useful reference when planning for back office and supply chain improvements.

WHY IT MATTERS: an amazing overview of technologies that are on the horizon. They range from bizarre - empathy design? - to the probable and useful - supply chain tech improvements. Read it.

WHY IT MATTERS: once we get over the health crisis, we will need to address the economic crisis. Key supply chain technologies will offer retailers and manufacturers solutions to reduce cost and their dependency on global trade fluctuations.

WHY IT MATTERS: consumer package goods companies (CPGs) are being hit by digital transformation as we disintermediate the retailers with direct delivery (drop shipping), online distribution and the need to continue to serve traditional retailers with warehouses and stores. Moreover, beyond the supply chain, CPGs have a increased need to know their customer, something that is often difficult to do with retailers blocking access to valuable data. This survey by BCG provides useful categorization of the impact to CPGs, along with some %

WHY IT MATTERS: the website provides a number of use case and examples of the use of AI in supply chain, along with a very comprehensive framework to put the pieces together.

WHY IT MATTERS: drones and autonomous vehicles have applications in business settings that may be more valuable and faster to deploy short term than consumer applications we have come to see in recent years - like self-driving cars or drone following humans in the wild. Here MIT has adapted drones to perform inventory control using RFID tags in warehouses. At the recent CES 2018 event, drones from company Eyesee are equipped with high definition cameras perform similar tasks of inventory control and management. These solutions have short-term benefits for enterprises that warrant deployment of what is still a very new technology. In the future, Artificial Intelligence image recognition software should enable even more advanced inventory control.

More on Eyesee autonomous inventory-taking drone:

- https://www.hardis-group.com/en/news/ces-2018-eyesee-autonomous-inventory-taking-drone-wins-innovation-award 

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wo-5oS1J_0 

- https://eyesee-drone.com/ 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

IBM has been an early adopter of blockchain technology and now videos such as this one begin to show where this new technology can be used in real businesses. Here the video presents blockchain in use for grocery food traceability from harvest to store shelves, in the grocery industry. The video is not great quality but the content is interesting.

Always interesting reading on digital transformation by Capgemini which has been at the forefront of defining digital transformation. Read this one, then flip through old ones...

Amazing review of OMS, PIM, inventory management and 20 other applications that are key to transform the digital logistics in any organization.