Managing the supply chain is no child's play. Regularly deal with stockouts, late delivery, and unhappy customers. At the same time, increasing expenses and worrisome environmental issues.
But what if there is a way to improve your supply chain and overcome these hurdles? Solve every puzzle without paying much?
Let's dig in. We'll show how AI and GPT4 can bump up supply chain management.
What is Supply Chain Management?
A supply chain manages the movement of goods from one point to another. Supply chain management is the process of keeping the change smooth. Purchasing, accounting, and manufacturing are needed for supply and demand to work together.
Why should you pay attention to supply chain management?
According to Zippia, 57% of businesses get an advantage over competitors from supply chain management. Today's businesses appreciate the value of their supply networks more than ever. You must understand supply chain management to make better choices for your company.
A strategic advantage over rivals comes with well-managed supply chains. Better customer service results from careful supply chain management. It boosts customer satisfaction and repeats business.
What are the supply chain challenges in 2023?
🤐1. Inflation
Everyone is aware of the soaring inflation and cost of living problem. Businesses are facing rising expenses for materials, labor, transportation, etc.
😞 2. Freight Rates Keep Going Up
Since the beginning of the epidemic, the demand for container transportation has increased. After e-commerce sales went through the roof, there was a rise in demand for manufactured goods and raw materials. Due to poor transportation and a lack of containers, this demand persisted.
Increased costs are one effect of the current shortage. For instance, shipping costs from China to the United States have increased by more than 100% since 2022).
😑3. Shortage of raw materials
For many years, rising consumer demand has compounded the issue of insufficient inputs. Several suppliers and stores still need to catch up in meeting this demand as late as 2023. Many important materials and components are in short supply. Global events like the conflict in Ukraine do not help the situation.
😶4. Supply Chain ESG
Environmental, Social, and Governance concerns -"ESG." The importance of maintaining a sustainable and ethical company model is growing. Also, it is now more crucial than ever that the government be open and transparent to guarantee adherence to all laws. The implications for supply chain management are extensive.
How do AI tools and GPT4 impact the current supply chain management system?
💔1. Damage detection
Due to poor transportation, packaging, or ignorance, goods got damaged in the chain. These disruptions have far-reaching effects on businesses. It damages their bottom lines, brands, and ability to compete. Accenture found that supply chain interruptions have a moderate to severe effect on business. It may cost organizations an average of $62 million annually.
Uptake Supply Chain Intelligence tracks supply chain performance. So, businesses can spot and address disturbances within no time.
↪️2. Route optimization
Route optimization aims to find the fastest, cheapest, and most convenient route to transport goods. Finding the quickest route between two places is just part of the problem. It covers minute details such as delivery windows, locations, and numbers of needed stops along the route.
Businesses enjoy using AI routing analysis and optimization tracking models. Logistics trucks have their routes optimized using shortest-path algorithms from graph analytics.
Locus, an AI-based RO solution, automates route planning and optimizes the supply chain. It considers various real-world restrictions and distribution models. From improving fulfillment operations to doing transport planning, it does everything.
🏠 3. Warehouse Optimization
Warehouse automation streamlines receiving, storing, and shipping items to consumers. Many tasks in a warehouse are process-oriented. So, they are prone to human mistakes, making them excellent choices for automation.
Robotic warehouses are another area to invest in AI technology to improve supply chain management. The global market for warehouse robots is about to expand at a CAGR of 14% from 2021 to 2026 from a base value of USD 4.7 billion in 2021.
Brain Company developed BrainOS, an AI platform for self-driving mobile robots. From delivery tugs to robotic floor cleaners Brain Corp uses BrainOS. So, AMRs learn from human behavior and interpret sensor data to avoid obstructions.
Integrating GPT-4 with other AI technologies can make warehouse automation more precise and error-free.
📁 6. Back office management
Logistics, like every other department, has its share of administrative work. Invoicing is one of several logistics-related documents that must have structured data. Companies often do this by hand.
Invoices, challans, and rate sheets bridge the communication between customers and managers. AI boosts efficiency by automating data entry, error detection, and document processing.
Ai can arrange freight pipelines, plan transportation, manage workers, and monitor warehouse products. Robotic process automation can notify management and keep everyone informed with regular reporting. Robotic process automation (RPA) software automates report creation, review, and email distribution.
Traqo automates your manual, tedious invoicing and billing process with its invoice solution. You can create or upload vendor invoices on this platform. You can view and audit all bids on the go from a single dashboard.
📞 7. Communication management
Supply chain management depends on good communication to ensure everyone knows their tasks and has the needed data. Clear communication can improve efficiency, delivery times, and customer happiness.
But a human can not be available 24*7 for communication only. Even managing all communication channels is another pain in the neck. AI and GPT4 smoothen the communication process.
The conversational user interface solutions provided by BotCore's chatbots make communication easy. It does the heavy lifting from order placement to payment processing and tracking. Bots are crucial in improving the user experience. They simplify tasks like data retrieval and interacting with enterprise resource planning systems.
Customers can get immediate help with orders, shipments, and product inquiries via a GPT-4 driven chatbot. You can also make your content, such as an email template, to send to consumers when you have a unique problem.
🚀8. Inventory management
Inventory management prevents B2B and B2C businesses from having too many or too few goods. The Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) standards mandate that all publicly traded corporations keep records of their inventory management procedures
AI inventory management tools test consumer behavior in stocking the proper inventory, organizing stock, automating inventory fulfillment, and optimizing inventory delivery by proposing the optimal routes. Using AI in standard procedures for managing stock, such as item-level labeling, boost accuracy to 95%.
Crest is AI-powered supply chain software for demand forecasting, inventory planning, and more. World's first automated inventory planning software. Crest can minimize expenses by 50% and out-of-stocks by 80% by predicting customer demand and planning inventory.
GPT4 automates tracking inventory levels and reordering items when stock is low. This can help prevent stockouts and reduce the need for manual tracking and monitoring of inventory levels.
AI to supercharge your supply chain management
✅ Effort Saving
GPT-4 and other AI-powered solutions can automate time-consuming, error-prone, and inefficient supply chain procedures.
💸Cost savings
AI improves inventory levels, which will prevent costly over- or under-ordering.
🤗Customer satisfaction
Tools like GPT-4 driven by artificial intelligence may deliver real-time assistance to clients, allowing for faster problem-solving and more customer satisfaction.
😎Improving Efficiency
AI and GPT-4 streamline the supply chain's many operations. It also results in greater efficiency and lower costs.
❌Risk Minimization
With AI, businesses spot supply chain interruptions and other threats. So they can take immediate action.
🙏Increasing Efficiency
AI and GPT-4 improve productivity and efficiency by automating routine activities. They decrease mistakes and delays and deliver timely data and insights.
💚Sustainability
When you optimize route and load, you waste less fuel. So you save natural resources and reduce your carbon footprint.
Want to introduce AI to your supply chain management?
Do you want to leverage AI's advantages to your present setup? Ionio handles the tedious tasks so you can focus on running your business. Ionio offers AI product ideation and consultation services for companies like yours.
Let's schedule a call to explore the AI possibilities for your business.