February 17, 2025
Why Demand and Inventory Management is all About Balance

AI a ‘game changer’ supply chain professionals

As with numerous other areas of supply chain management, AI and machine learning (ML) are increasingly being integrated into demand and inventory management.

But John – wary of calling this an emerging trend – emphasises that ‘AI and ML’ is widely used as a catch-all term for algorithmic analytics that have been around for several years. 

Reflecting on their prevalence, he says: “The ability to optimise inventory levels by triggering orders after ingesting lead times, current levels and inputs like risk tolerance is extremely useful and a prime example of how these tools have become increasingly effective.”

Nevertheless, what truly is ‘new’ is the ability to leverage large language models (LLMs) to understand and generate translation, summarise text and answer questions.

This is being integrated into demand and inventory management through analysis of social media, news, messages and more to understand sentiment and future demand, before showing these outputs to supply chain teams for action. 

“These benefits would be relevant in retail and similar value chains,” John continues. 

“Also, the ability to ask these AI tools any question about your supply chain and receive actionable, informed responses – like your own personal analyst and advisor – is going to be a major game changer for savvy supply chain professionals in the coming years.”

Automation efforts set to intensify

On the subject of game-changing technologies, Ashish is keen to bring automation into the conversation. 

Clearly, reducing dependency on people is essential to achieving the vision of an autonomous supply chain, meaning automation looks set to play a key role at various levels. 

Looking to the future, Ashish says: “At the process level, we are considering object-centric process mining as a replacement for traditional case-centric process mining. This will enhance visibility and reduce the cycle times of critical activities such as S2P cycles.

“Additionally, autonomous factories, warehouses and fulfilment vehicles will be introduced to further improve the efficiency and speed of inventory movement.”

Saul regards automation – whether digital or physical – as a crucial element of overall resourcing.

DHL is already integrating automation and robotics in its warehouses as part of an accelerated digitalisation programme designed to nurture and deploy innovative technology solutions at scale.

“Implementation of automation in warehouses will continue to escalate as the industry strives to meet the demand for faster deliveries, navigate labour shortages and keep pace with the growth of e-commerce,” he concludes. “Robotic technologies will continue to be deployed across order-picking, storage and pallet unloading to drive efficiencies and meet spikes in demand.

“For us, this is all about ‘superpowering the human’, meaning we reduce time-consuming manual labour for our colleagues, freeing them for more value-adding tasks.”

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