AUSTIN, Texas, March 25, 2019 — Digital transformation of the supply chain will be bookended by two key technologies: the internet-of-things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). Everything else is held in place by these twin digital capabilities.
This is the conclusion of a new editorial report from Enterprise IoT Insights, From supply chain to demand chain – how IoT and AI are enabling the supply chain to flex to changing demand which considers the supply chain as the most complex enterprise sector, covering a range of industrial disciplines, and also the most demanding arena for IoT and AI.
The publication is part of a new Enterprise IoT Insights report series, called Making Industry Smarter, which will consider a number of industry ‘verticals’ facing digital transformation. It finds that IoT establishes an architectural springboard for digital change within the supply chain, and AI provides the industrial elasticity to make the market bounce.
It also presents the idea that, at once, the supply chain is the most ‘horizontal’ of sectors, and that AI, fed by IoT systems, is the most ‘horizontal’ of technologies, insofar as they serve more vertically aligned sectors and technologies, respectively.
The supply chain takes in the gamut of industrial processes, from the mining of raw materials through to production of goods, and on to their distribution and final sale. Meanwhile, advanced data analytics – including AI techniques like machine learning – feeds into the workings of other digital technologies, which are typically deployed in isolation by single parties in mines, or factories, or warehouses.
“AI is the technology that brings order, in a wild west of data. It is a tech-enabling technology – a true horizontal in a horizontal tech stack, built to serve industry ‘verticals’. The rest are essentially geared towards distinct applications, at different stopping points in the supply chain,” commented James Blackman, Editor at Enterprise IoT Insights.
Transformation of the supply chain should capture a range of industrial disciplines, by definition. The combination of IoT and AI enables the whole chain of supply to flex dynamically in response to demand.
AI will make the demand for goods on the consumer-side the driving force in this chain, rather than the availability of parts and products. This paper presents the idea that, with integration of and intelligence in supply chain functions, it becomes a chain of demand, and not of supply – a demand chain, instead of a supply chain.
The report brings together interviews from across the technology sector and industrial market. It features commentaries from ABI Research, AT&T, BMW, Hitachi, Navigant Research, Nokia, and Sigfox, among others.
Click the link to get a copy of the report, From supply chain to demand chain – how IoT and AI are enabling the supply chain to flex to changing demand. Check out the below links for more about the digital transformation of the supply chain.
• The supply chain is dead; long live the demand chain
• Seven key supply chain technologies
• How BMW is making sense of its supply chain
• Supply chains, blockchains – and the Spice Girls
• How Lineage Logistics reduced energy usage by 34%
About Enterprise IoT Insights
Enterprise IoT Insights is a premier news source for enterprise decision makers and a leading provider of IoT and digital transformation news and use cases. Launched by RCR Wireless News in 2016, Enterprise IoT Insights keeps readers informed with breaking news, in-depth features and deep industry insight. Enterprise IoT Insights’ target audience is executive-level employees at leading enterprise companies, and volume buyers at enterprise-class organizations.
