Get insight on AI

I URGE you to listen to the webinar, but just to give you a favour of the content, we have summarised a few of the key issues here. The potential of AI in intralogistics is enormous, says webinar participant and UK Warehousing Association chief executive Clare Bottle.

“When it’s adopted universally, it will change the face of warehouse management through its dramatic impact on areas such as forecasting, routing, maintenance, planning and training –  and even the interactivity of the human workforce with their robot colleagues.”

Clare sees many big opportunities emerging, including, better forecasting in areas such as energy use, consumer demand and labour needs.

“AI has the ability to greatly enhance forecasting in intralogistics by leveraging machine learning algorithms to analyse historical data, real-time inputs, and market trends. This allows for highly accurate predictions around demand to optimise inventory levels and reduce the risk of stockouts or overstocking; labour resource requirements to ensure there is the right amount of staff to do the job in hand; and energy use to calculate related costs for financial management purposes. AI can detect patterns and issues that traditional methods might miss, enabling proactive adjustments in supply chain and associated operational strategies.”

Optimisation 

Martin Brickell, director and practice lead for fulfilment & physical logistics at Accenture UK, drills down further into specific areas that could be optimised.
He says: “As regards areas of significant potential for AI in the intralogistics space, I believe transport optimisation into and out of the warehouse can be a big winner. That’s because with AI and machine learning there is an opportunity to do mathematical optimisation at far greater scale and speed than traditional transport planners, operators and management systems.

“Inside the warehouse I predict the emergence of AI platforms such as Grey Matter, which will disrupt traditional warehouse management systems. Such platforms will have the intelligence to look at areas such as demand and the pickface, and optimise it all. It will also be able to look at forward replenishments by seeing trends in order management.”

Martin also cautions that AI will require re-skilling efforts on the part of companies to ensure that the workforce is brought along with technology advances.

Collaboration
Collaboration will be key for AI success, particularly with broad goals such as sustainability targets in mind.

Ian Abbott, Director, Solution Development, UK / IRE & Nordics, KION Group explains: “When we are providing automation within a warehouse it is one part of a much larger supply chain. To achieve any level of sustainability you need multiple vendors and systems to exchange data. We are passionately in ensuring a flow of data from one end of the supply chain to the other.”

Aleksandar Krnjaic, Senior Research Engineer, Dematic adds: “Sustainability is more and more of a focus. In terms of the optimisation of energy consumption, Google implemented an AI system within its data centres which leaned how to reduce energy consumption. Similar approaches can work well in warehouses too, particularly when we are talking about facilities that have very high energy needs, such as frozen goods, for example.”

As for the questions of whether AI is here to take our jobs, we’ve been here before says Vincent Harant, IT Consultant (digitalisation and automation), KION Group. “My older colleagues tell me that when PCs were introduced widely into companies, there was an idea that they would take jobs. It did not happen, but we did become dependent on this technology and adapt to it. Now we typically cannot access data without PCs. I think a similar challenge awaits the current workforce, just be open and interested and ready to adapt.”

This is a short introduction to the webinar and should give you an idea of the issues discussed. I really liked the debate format of this webinar which meant a lot of topics could be covered, with plenty of insights for warehouse and logistics professionals to chew on. In addition, the discussion broadens at the end to bring in questions from attendees, which boosted insight further.

Catch up On Demand
You can watch the webinar and Q&A session online at https://rebrand.ly/lindeAIwebinar
There is no cost but registration is required. You will receive CPD points for watching the webinar.