A focus on productivity – and artificial intelligence – is a difference maker for supply chain providers.
Global supply chain organizations caught a lot of flack in the past few years, as pandemic-fueled shutdowns slowed the movement of goods to a crawl.
Now, those same organizations are turning to technology to compensate for lost time, with artificial intelligence making a big difference in industry productivity.
That’s the outlook from a new Gartner study showing that investments in artificial intelligence and machine learning “optimize their processes at more than twice the rate of low-performing peers.
The study of surveyed 818 supply chain practitioners concludes that supply chain providers who leverage AI just think differently than those peers who don’t.
“Top-performing supply chain organizations make investment decisions with a different lens than their lower-performing peers,” said Ken Chadwick, vice president and analyst in Gartner’s supply chain practice. “Enhancing productivity is the key factor that will drive future success, and the key to unlocking that productivity lies in leveraging intangible assets. We see this divide, especially in the digital domain where the best organizations are far ahead in optimizing their supply chain data with AI/ML applications to unlock value.”
Areas of Productivity Variation
In the report, so-called “high performers” pointed to several key areas where AI/ML tools proved critical in improving supply chain productivity, especially against lower-performing competitors.
For instance, 40% of Gartner’s “high earners” were using AI/ML tools to improve supply chain demand forecasting versus 19% of industry peers who weren’t using the technologies. The same goes for order management and fulfillment, where 33% of high performers used AI to automate supply chain functions against non-users when automating and optimizing performance and productivity issues.
Basically, the same was true for supply planning, logistics and distribution, and sales and operation planning, Gartner reported.
Overall, the best supply chain enterprises are using AI to boost processes at twice the rate of low-performing (and non-AI using) industry peers, the study concluded.
Brian O’Connell, a former Wall Street bond trader and best-selling author, is a prominent figure in the finance industry. With a substantial background as an ex-Wall Street trader, he has authored two best-selling books: ‘The 401k Millionaire’ and ‘CNBC’s Creating Wealth’, demonstrating his profound knowledge of finance and investing.
Brian is also a finance and business writer for esteemed national platforms and publications, including CNN, TheStreet.com, CBS News, The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, and Fox News.
