AI-crafted large language models understand and produce human language answers to questions. But very soon, custom closed AI systems will pre-fill the documents—compliance forms, drawback forms, claims forms, you name it—required to manage global supply chains.

This breakthrough in automation will simplify and streamline repetitive form submissions based on your business rules, all driven by a custom and closed large language AI system.

Combining and blending several strains of artificial intelligence regimes has empowered not only humans, but virtual bots as well by creating non-human customers that place orders, replenish inventory, and monitor quality—all without human intervention.

Bipedal humanoid robots moving boxes around the warehouse generated plenty of media excitement and tests are underway. But that is not where the action is, yet. Inbound Logistics has covered solid examples of non-human robots energizing DCs, warehouses, and fulfillment centers and amping ROI.

But having hundreds or thousands of robots in large distribution centers creates some drawbacks. Even after factoring in implementation costs, the expense of maintaining local WiFi tone and remote bandwidth needed to process the data driving the bot activity is a challenge. Large DCs need multiple hotspots, but when placed close together they interfere with each other. That drives robots crazy.

Is there another technology available to address these challenges? A huge retailer is reportedly testing “for dense and hyper dense wireless deployments within an indoor commercial warehouse” that will run thousands of bots in a mega DC without hotspot interference, and with fewer demands for off-site data management. It is empowered by something called “at the edge processing.” That’s where constant reliable web tone, combined with AI and bots, lessens the demands on remote server activities by lighting up more on-site decisions. An additional bonus is the ability to have inbound communications with a very large private fleet. Is all that possible?

Yes. Elon Musk has an answer: low earth orbit (LEO) satellite 5G tone as an alternative to WiFi tone. His Starlink project has plans for up to 42,000 satellites in LEO to provide global broadband for applications inside huge warehouses and anywhere across the globe.

It is exciting times for global supply chain operations.

Today times are different and women play a large role in this sector, holding high-level positions, managing complex networks, and overseeing large workforces. We’re proud to have spotlighted many women during the past four decades who are making history by driving supply chain excellence for their companies and customers. Here’s a glimpse at a few of them:

“I wouldn’t call myself a feminist by any means, but we do have to work harder,” says Jessica Yurgaitis of Industrial Supply Company. “There has been a lot of progress for women in the work world, but not enough.”

When starting out in procurement, Yurgaitis learned how supply and procurement excellence ensures the best customer relationship possible. She’s CEO now and a supply chain career path took her there.

Anne Meyrose lives by this credo: “Ensuring the company’s logistics network moves the right product, to the right place, at the right time, bringing each brand’s vision to life.” Anne is now vice president of logistics and control tower with The Gap, but her career path reads like that of three people: she’s had roles ranging from senior director, transportation to transportation service operations manager to analyst, methods and programs to transport specialist, outbound transport, and store services. Her well-rounded experience clearly makes her a valuable asset for The Gap.

Sherry Liu worked her way up from inventory planner to vice president international supply chain with CarParts.com. “After college my goal had been to become a diplomat and learn more languages—I speak Mandarin, Taiwanese, and English—and then explore the world.” She leveraged those talents and worked with new management to transform CarParts.com.

“As a female executive, balancing work and home can be challenging,” Liu says. “I don’t have a great strategy, but once I’m home, I try to put my phone down and focus. Then once my kids are in bed, my third shift starts, when I call overseas vendors.”

“I was probably one of the first women in trucking 26 years ago,” says Amy Davis. She worked her way up the chain and is now president of Cummins New Power. “Cummins took a chance on me years ago,” she says. “I don’t have a science or supply chain background.”

These are just a few of the women making history this month—and every month—in supply chain.

Most of the existing examples are found in the middle mile—the warehouse and DCs—moving ingredients and finished consumer products toward the final demand point.

Several leading companies have taken shots at automating the final mile with drone deliveries. Amazon Air, DHL, FedEx, UPS, and Walmart are all testing the waters with drone delivery of products, but not necessarily just food. Robot final mile is also being tested in select urban areas.

But those automated bot delivery attempts have hit some speed bumps. Drone and bot delivery methods are in their infancy and may be successful in the  future, but today they can’t compete with something much better—human-driven DoorDash, Instacart, and Uber Eats last-mile food delivery.

Now comes a new alliance between two great brands—John Deere, with a long and storied 188-year history in food production, and Elon Musk, who is creating history with Starlink and everything else, it seems.

Deere has a long history in farm automation. How is this different? What’s the end game? For the first time, it brings web tone automation capabilities to rural internet dead zones, lighting up the first mile or starting point in the food supply chain. Aaron Wetzel, vice president of production for Deere, says it best: “Farmers must complete tasks within extremely short windows of time. This requires executing incredibly precise production steps while coordinating between machines and managing machine performance. Each of these areas are enhanced through connectivity, making the entire operation more efficient, effective, and profitable.”

The possibilities are exciting. Enterprise automation from low earth orbit, to rural farms both large and small, in the United States and around the world. Super accurate maps of all available arable fields.

Increased efficiency and sustainability. Better water and fertilizer management. Then there are the seasonal labor shortage challenges farms must contend with. Satellite automation can help there with all of that and more.

Imagine robotic combines, seeders, plows, fertilizers, or anything a tractor can pull. And most importantly for supply chain planning purposes, 10-ton harvesters like sentient bugs picking the fields clean and pushing advice to demand points around the globe.

The offline start point of the food supply chain is coming online.

Keep your cool. “Circumstances can turn on a dime and require not only quick, but also clear thinking when it feels like all options are lost. Those with composure—who can collect themselves, stay calm, and rely on the processes and tools they’ve put into place to handle the unexpected—will excel.” —Tony Harris, SAP  

Stay resilient and mentally tough. “Changes and setbacks are inevitable. It’s important to know how to anticipate, deal with, and recover from those challenges. Resilience requires the commitment to stay the course, keep a positive attitude, and forge a path even when the future is uncertain.” —Heidi Ratti, RXO

Have empathy. Seeing and listening through the eyes and ears of your supply chain partners speeds the pace of negotiations, trust building, and handling crises. —Dr. Darren Prokop, University of Alaska

Broaden your perspective to have empathy.“When I can shift my perspective to the point of view of my customers, stakeholders, or employees, that is how I can understand and meet their expectations. And that helps to build trusted, sustainable relationships that position you for success.” —Dave Anderson, TA Services 

Check and double check. “Checking to see what shutdowns are going on all over your destination cities and countries is the most underrated thing.” —Ronnie T. Evans, Oil States Industries 

Be curious. This involves channeling relentless curiosity into problems, having meaningful dialogues with users—warehouse managers, last-mile delivery folks, or suppliers across the globe—and implementing hardware and/or software solutions that solve those problems.” —Jason Hehman, TXI

Approach problems creatively. “Consider coloring outside the lines when problems happen. People think managing a supply chain is analytical and focused on managing the minutiae. And it is, at times. But when problems occur, the individual who can think outside the box and devise innovative solutions will be the unsung hero.” —Joe Adamski, ProcureAbility  

Avoid analysis paralysis. “Quickly analyze short- and long-term impacts. Over-analyzing wastes time and money. In operational excellence models, it’s called over-processing. To analyze quickly, use data and your inner experience circle. Ask for full opinions and full judgment, then go. Stop wasting time. —Ann Marie Jonkman, Blue Yonder 

Keeping these skills top of mind will help shake off the doldrums of late and stage for growth in the year ahead.

So how do you do that? Your philosophical mission is to sell the demand-driven concept to internal and external partners. For starters, continuously evangelize those concepts to every member of your team, and externally to your suppliers, carriers, and logistics solutions providers. Looking back over recent months, it is clear that internal or external, your success is their success, their buy-in means growth for you all.

There is a new tool that can help in that journey: low-cost artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. AI applications are transforming many business sectors. But in terms of amping a demand-driven supply chain, retailers, as well as their suppliers, can benefit most by understanding and predicting consumer sentiment with the leanest inventory investment and smoothest, fastest fulfillment.

Using AI lights up opportunities to improve efficiency, enhance customer satisfaction, and extract every ounce of undiscovered profitability through improved and automated inventory management and demand forecasting, better predictions of consumer behavior, finer targeted marketing and merchandising programs, more attractive pricing models, and enhanced worker efficiency.

There are AI speed bumps though. Many companies, especially small and mid-sized enterprises, can be hesitant to adopt AI due to its newness and perceived high cost of implementation. However, a number of low-cost AI solutions can help retailers of any size benefit from AI efficiencies.

Here  are 5 examples:

1. Cloud-based AI delivers powerful tools without hardware or software investments.
2. Open-source AI provides a lower-cost way to deploy AI applications. But you’ll need a skilled in-house IT team or consultant.
3. SaaS AI apps for inventory management can right-size your spend.
4. Online consumer buying recommendations using data-driven product matching and chatbots can help build bigger orders.
5. Use your carriers, forwarders, and 3PLs for AI implementations. They can amortize the cost of AI investment across their customer base, which democratizes the benefits.

Many retailers are already investing in artificial intelligence to stay competitive. Many more should.

Overall, the survey findings suggest that while challenges—such as inflation and supply chain disruptions—persist, a majority of SMEs are optimistic about the holiday season and the global trade market going into 2024. That means growth in faster fulfillment.

Any harbinger of good economic news is welcome. Other factors that spur the growth of ecommerce shipping and the increasing calls for smaller shipments and delivery velocity are not directly related to the state of the U.S. economy.

One would be, I hate to say it, the Amazon effect on culture, specifically on retail and industrial consumer buying behavior and expectations. Seasonal fluctuations in buying and resultant shipment levels aside, consumers of all types have been acculturated to expect near-immediate delivery. The Amazon fulfillment model has bled over into normal business expectations.

Another reason for the speed and size trend is the impact of inflation and economic uncertainty on held inventory levels. To that point, several surveys show increasing use of less-than-containerload (LCL) and less-than-truckload (LTL) shipment delivery choices. Those modes are typically more expensive than full container or truckload, so why is that happening? It’s a balancing act between paying more for transportation and limiting downside risk on holding too much—or the wrong kind of—inventory. Both LCL and LTL open up the ability to better match demand to your supply chain.

A third reason is the convergence of AI and supply chain operations and intelligence. It’s in the preliminary stages, but already shows how fast fast can be, and how exact inventory investment can result in better customer service.

Amazon recently announced a warehouse overhaul initiative that uses AI to drive robots. Amazon expects the program, known as Sequoia, to improve the speed of storing and then finding products by up to 75% and then kick up order fulfillment by 25% while cutting costs significantly.

In addition to automation, Amazon has built out more regional hubs. “We’ve re-evaluated every part of our fulfillment network over the last year,” said CEO Andy Jassy. “We obviously like the results, but don’t think we’ve fully realized all the benefits yet. And when customers receive items quickly and conveniently, they’re going to consider us more frequently.”

Is this sustainable? Can Amazon competitors use the same playbook? Yes, and they have to because the call for smaller, closer, and faster shipments by industrial and consumer buyers will continue unabated.

No doubt that kind of techno interaction is critical to today’s distributed and interwoven supply chain operations, especially given the increased mobility of all the different supply chain stakeholders. That, and the sheer volume of data and decisions involved in today’s transactions, would make it not humanly possible to manage if advanced technology was not involved in the process.

In a recent Inbound Logistics video podcast, Seth Patin, founder of LogistiView, makes the wry point that he “never saw artificial intelligence move a box.” In a changing economy, driven by fast-moving and evolving supply chain relationships, we forget the importance of the Human Touch, as Bruce Springsteen sang, at our own peril.

Author and supply chain luminary Yossi Sheffi offers the similar nuanced perspective that it is important to make an effort to keep people front and center in modern business operations. The convergence of people and technology managing global supply lines in this highly charged economic environment presents a challenge, but also an opportunity.

Sheffi’s latest book, The Magic Conveyor Belt, details the singular value of people in supply chain, or, more accurately, the importance of people-to-people interactions in this brave new world dominated by unbelievable technology.

“While many of the new skills are techno-centric, ironically it’s the social skills that may be the key to human employment [and I would add enterprise success] in a world dominated by technology,” Sheffi writes. Clearly he is not knocking the exploding use of supply chain technology, but rather makes the point that the human dimension is as important. And in certain circumstances, more so.

So where does that leave us as many new supply chain pros, raised on communication skills driven by little keyboards, enter the workforce and supplant today’s practitioners? A word of unsolicited and perhaps unwelcome advice: Make a long-term commitment to sharpen your people skills.

Why? There just are some supply chain and business challenges that technology will never solve, but people will.

For Yellow Corp. management, the cost of equipment, parts, fuel, compliance and—most of all—money for operating expenses increased rapidly. On the other side, unions and other Yellow employees directly experience the same stresses on their families. Who can blame them for needing more?

Both operated in a macro environment, with quality of life and business operating pressures created by others far above them. The resolution was a wreckage that served neither side. It suggests that rather than reacting by attacking, a cooperative approach may have been more beneficial to bridge the gap between today’s government policies and more levelheaded ones in our future.

But what if our economy and increased costs are the new normal? Then all the more reason for management and workers to find a smarter way to respond to outside pressures.

Technological changes also impact management and labor. Enterprise managers react to scarcity of skilled labor and rising costs with automation. Investing in manufacturing and distribution robots, and applying AI to the supply chain, may not be the right answer for everyone, but those trends are unstoppable. What impact do those developments have on labor? Not too much now but certainly more later, and soon.

Another development that will impact global supply chains, inventory levels, and how—or even whether—product gets delivered and the workers that deliver them is additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3D printing.

Global manufacturer Daimler is testing 3D parts that, when fully implemented, will drastically reduce shipment levels for spare parts. Early results should make players in all parts of the supply chain take notice.

“From our portfolio of about 320,000 spare parts, we identified 40,000 as feasible for 3D printing,” explained Matthias Schmid, CDO of the Center of Competence for Additive Manufacturing, Daimler Truck, at a recent industry event. “Currently, we have more than 1,500 parts available in our digital warehouse.”

3D parts are made available to production lines and Daimler’s customers, facilitating demand-driven production and fulfillment with zero inventory.

Warehousing? Transportation? It’s coming, maybe not for everyone, and maybe not soon. But the Yellow bankruptcy offers a lesson that working together is a better way to face the future.

DTC is truly demand-driven and not dominated just by the growth in online purchasing. The search for elusive and cost-conscious retail and manufacturing customers is spurring new ideas, backed by operational expansion and investment.

Yet the DTC sector is becoming saturated and will not continue to show the phenomenal growth seen in recent years, according to an Airhouse Research report. Maybe, maybe not. Successful companies are focusing supply chain brainpower on that challenge, so I wouldn’t bet against it.

Here’s one example. I was at a crowded (thankfully) mall recently and walked past Starbucks. Right next door was a Nespresso boutique, with a line out the door, selling pods and machines directly to mall shoppers.

Nespresso’s distribution channels are robust and well developed and include traditional retailers and department stores. Retail boutiques have been operational for a while, but Nespresso has been expanding recently with locations in 84 countries. Its DTC ecommerce online ordering service is global, serviced here in the States by final mile, direct-to-doorstep experts such as CDL. Nespresso, like Walmart and Amazon, will invest in new ideas and build out new ways to maintain and expand sales and market share.

How are the two retail giants expanding customer touchpoints? Both companies are spending millions on roboticized mega fulfillment centers to up the speed and lower the cost of their DTC game.

But how are they trying new DTC ways to expand? Walmart and Amazon are supplementing those roboticized channels and tasking retail locations with distribution and fulfillment responsibilities. The mission? Get an expanded geographic direct-to-consumer pipeline. Walmart does that by leveraging its 10,000-store footprint to serve as mini distribution centers and use location advantage in the DTC war by getting closer to consumers.

Amazon doesn’t have that footprint advantage, even with Whole Foods, so it is going another way. The plan is to set up distribution partnerships with small businesses—think bodegas and neighborhood shops—to compete with Walmart’s closer-to-consumer location advantage. Amazon will soon test this Hub Delivery Partner program in 25 states to ultimately partner with at least 2,500 small businesses by the end of 2023. The goal is to multiply DC channels, compete with the Walmartian location advantage, and get a closer direct-to-consumer connection. Brilliant!

These developments tell me that, despite research to the contrary, DTC sales will continue to grow. What other ways to get closer to customers are just over the horizon?

• The Transcontinental Railroad that connected the East and West Coasts (1869).
• Almost 90 years later, the creation of the U.S. Interstate Highway System (1956) that connected most everywhere else.
• The patenting of the shipping container leading to intermodalism, envisioned by trucker Malcom McLean (1956 again), efficiently connecting America to the world.
• The Amazon effect. Jeff Bezos’s online bookstore ignited an ecommerce revolution that changed all aspects of transportation, connecting everything to everyone’s home.

Yes, there is a lot of hype about what AI can do. But I am not talking about ChatGPT or Google’s Bard version of consumer-facing AI. I mean specialized applications written for transportation, logistics, and supply chain management. In two years or less, 3PLs will have deployed customer-facing AI-driven solutions that will rival, or better said, build on, those watershed moments in U.S. transportation history.

I am not alone in this opinion—84% of 3PLs responding to our annual survey on the third-party logistics market say AI is the most impactful technology they can use. That is the highest percentage of tech use ever reported in the 20+ years we have been conducting our 3PL market research survey.

Why do 3PL respondents overwhelmingly say that AI is the most impactful technology ever? Because they see what I see: external and internal applications of AI-driven solutions.

The external customer-facing applications are the more exciting benefit, one where the 3PL’s AI expertise is applied to remaster their customers’ supply chains to drive improvements in their overall business process and, by extension, the ability to serve their customers’ customers even more efficiently.

3PLs already are building internal AI solutions to address their operations, and to build out networks to connect with new partners. It won’t be too long before the offerings to their customers materialize, going beyond traditional logistics and supply chain solutions…to what? To guidance, advice, and consulting, which will truly drive transformational enterprise change.

Beyond the practical solutions, AI will unleash the creativity of “what is possible?”