Page 26 - Logistics News - May June 2022

CL OUD C O MPU T ING

Before AI, warehousing

must catch up to cloud

By Joe Blazick, courtesy SupplyChainBrain

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are among the hottest topics in supply chain
innovation at the moment, but if your company is resistant to using the cloud, you’re going to
struggle to take advantage of these new technologies.

hen we talk about the benefits of moving to those limiting factors no longer exist. Supercharged
cloud computing, we usually talk about cost by the power of the cloud, distribution managers and
Wsavings or flexible on-demand storage and industrial engineers can now enhance their ability to:
computing, but there are other important benefits to • Dramatically improve workforce planning and
consider, including the enablement of data science, ML management.
and AI. • Proactively re-slot products to improve efficiency.
• Predict and eliminate stockouts and other exceptions.
With the rise of cloud computing over the past decade, • Optimise automation/robotics alongside human
we’ve seen an explosion of data science, ML and AI in all workers.
industries. The fact is that data scientists are able to do • Identify and implement process improvements.
so much more because of the resources they now have
available to them through the cloud. Why is the cloud so important to ML? There are three
key reasons why moving to the cloud will enhance your
For years, AI has been limited by hardware constraints company’s adoption of AI and ML:
found in on-premise deployments, making it extremely • State-of-the-art database technology.
challenging to adopt ML models in warehouses. Now that • Centralising your data silos.
supply chain companies are warming up to cloud options, • Faster third-party integrations.

L O GI S T I CS NEWS

24 M A Y/JUNE 2022 www .l o g ist i csn e w s .c o .z a