AI and Logistics

The Artificial intelligence can be explained as the property of the of the computer systems that can perform tasks normally similar to the human intelligence such as the visual perceptions, decision making processes , speech recognitions and others without any human supervision. This is one of the most advanced technology that have been developed in the past few years and it uses majority of technologies that are been developed like the machine learning, deep learning, networking and others (Russell & Norvig, 2016). The technology of the artificial intelligence is one of the major technology that can be used in almost any filed in order to improve the quality of the results. In the field of the logistics the artificial intelligence plays a huge role in the process of maintaining the storage centres and distribution of the goods. One of the major use of the AI comes in the process of harnessing of data in the supply chain management. It helps in analysing and identifying the patterns and providing best links to the supply chain manager.

The article is about how the artificial intelligence is changing the logistics, warehouse management and supply chain management processes (Nilsson, 2014). Further the paper describes how the artificial intelligence is helping in the process of storing the data in an automated manner. This paper also discusses about the ethical issues that are related to the use of the AI how it affects the employees and the customers of the organisation. Advantage and disadvantages of using the AI is also an important part of the paper.

Artificial intelligence based applications that are beneficial in the procurement of the logistic business are as follows: –

• Generic Electric: Generic Electric is one of the most important application that is used in the processing of the completion of the functioning and this processing of the logistic organization. Due to the fact that the sensors are being used have been increasing in a very fast rate the entire processing of the business management has been acing beneficial for controlling the same via digital platform and this leads to the fact that the entire functioning of the logistic application can be analysed with this application that is based on the platform of the artificial intelligence. Generic Electric uses the Predix operating system (Azar & Zhu, 2015). This implementation of the Predix operating system increase the efficiency of the system. Generic Electric is used in the Accenture Intelligent Pipeline solution. The main implementation of this business processing is that the monitoring of the entire functioning of the pipelined that are present in the Accenture Intelligent Pipeline solution. Navistar, a truck manufacturing organization also uses this Artificial Intelligence based software for better commencing of the entire project (Copeland, 2015).
• MindSphere: In the year 2016, Siemens launched their first artificially intelligent application, named MindSphere. MindSphere is a monitoring based application. The main usage of the MindSphere is that the data management of the entire business management gets very efficiently managed and this is the sole reason that the business informatics has been using this artificial intelligent based software application. This application helps in tracking of the tools that are scattered all around the business organization. This also helps in understanding the statistics of the usage of the assets that are present in the organization. This generation of the data regarding the processing of the assets helps in understanding the efficiency of the assets that are kept in the organization and the value of the assets can be estimated and this also helps in understanding the entire business value of the project. MindSphere uses SAP as their platform and this leads to the fact that the data management of the uses process is controlled by the processing of the SAP. Siemens is one of the leading organization that has been using the platform of the MindSphere for completing their business terminologies.
• Avande:According to the technological experts of the Avande, the entire globe is leading towards a smarter world. Main functioning of the Avande application is that the application is based on the terminology of the machine learning and the entire functioning is performed with the help of the data that is gathered in terms of the machine learning. This also includes the fact that the data documentation can be proposed with the terminology of the business organization (Copeland, 2015). The main functioning of the Avande application mainly deals with the insurance related issues. Avande application also takes into consideration the retailing of the product and addressing of the products that are present in the operation. Avande is created by the joint venture of the Microsoft and Accenture (Azar & Zhu, 2015). This joint venture has been acting very beneficial for the other organizations that have been implementing the platform of Avande for completing their business terminologies. Insurance company namely Pacific Speciality has been using the platform of Avande for better prosecution of the entire business management system.
• Apptus:According to the developing team of the Apptus, the intent of purchasing a product is completely dependent on estimation of the revenue that is generated by the data management of the processing of eSales. Using the terminology of Apptus the main functioning of the application will be to boost the dales of the products through the platform of the eSales technology (Kerr & Szelke, 2016). This is the main concern of the organization that mainly focuses on the featuring the automated processing of the merchandise and taking care of increasing the sales of the products. Bookselling Company like Bokus.com that is situated in Sweden uses this application for better functioning of their sales.  The main importance of this projection is that the data is that the no proper coding is required for commencing the task, only provisioning of the raw data will be capable enough to deal with the business management     
• HANA:HANA is one of the leading applications that ensure the fact that the entire data base information can be stored in the data base. This helps in understanding the data that are stored in the database as the data that are stored acts to be beneficial for the prosecution of the entire business management. In case the organization has many employees working under them the data of each and every employee can be stored in the database using the application of HANA which implements the platform of SAP. Walmart is an organization that has been using the HANA as the application for the commencing for the project (Azar & Zhu, 2015).

Three software based applications that can be used by the organization to expand in coming five years are as follows: –

SAP: SAP is a form of AI that is used by organizations for turning database in Useful Intel. HANA can be described as a cloud platform of SAP which can be used by organizations in order to manage various databases of data that have been collected by the organization. It ingests and replicates the structured data like customer data or transaction of sales from various relational databases, applications and various other sources. This platform can be utilized in order to run on-premise via the server of a company or with the help of cloud. HANA makes use of the data that has been collected from various access points all over the business like desktop computers, mobiles, sensors, financial transactions as well as equipment’s used at the production plants. If the sales staff of an organization uses smart phones or tablets of the company in order to record the orders placed by customers and purchases made by them. Data received from these transactions can be utilized for analysing and understanding the irregularities in the activities as well as spot the trends.

AI-based Applications for Logistics

Various anticipated benefits of utilizing the machine learning platforms for the business intelligence include reduction some cost incurred in infrastructure, and efficiency of operations. Logistics organizations have a huge amount of data and storage of this data includes high cost incurred in it. SAP would help the organization in saving a lump sum amount of revenue in coming five years. SAP would help the organization to improve relations among the stakeholders by meeting their requirements. SAP can also be used in order to carry out all the activities smoothly. It can also help the HR department to function properly especially in the activities like hiring, firing, demoting, promoting and many more (Azar & Zhu, 2015). It helps the HR to keep a track of the functions performed by different employees, the track of performances is easy to maintain and view.

One of the major disadvantages of purchasing as well as implementing SAP is that it requires high cost to be incurred. In this organization provided in the case study it is newly formed and could not invest so much in order to implement SAP. One more disadvantage of implementing SAP is the complexity that exists in the software. The implementation is carried out step by step, and the entire process might take years to complete. Complexity of data model is one of the challenges faced by SAP implementation (Azar & Zhu, 2015). SAP makes analysing raw data difficult. This creates an ethical issue of whether or not SAP should be implemented (Wenger, 2014).

• Generic electric: The increased use of sensors in vehicles, machinery and many more machinery equipment’s help in digitizing them. It also helps in monitoring their activities and analyse if their performance is up to the mark.

Using generic electric can boost performances of various equipment’s. It can also help in predicting when maintenance is required for cars, devices, trucks as well as drilling machines. Along with this it also schedules the repairs of the equipment’s. Various commercial trucks can fit sensors to it which would help in analysing lights, brakes as well as engines. This would as a result help in adding value to the services of maintenance. This also helps in minimizing downtimes as well as schedule the time according to maintenance required by the equipment. The schedule is set according to the trip covered by the vehicle. Generic electric also helps in reducing the operational cost.

Generic electric has numerous disadvantages and it also faces various challenges. Some disadvantages of generic electric are that it requires more cost incurred in the process of installing sensors (Nilsson, 2014). This results in a dilemma that weather it should make use of generic electric or not because the implementation requires heavy out flow of cash and not implementing it would slow down the overall process (Nilsson, 2014). The implementation of generic electric would help the organization in the case study in various ways especially in the long run but the main challenge that would be faced by the organization is that, they need to invest a lump sum of amount while purchasing and implementing it. Along with this they also require trained professional who would know to use the equipment’s effectively.

• Siemens: the main importance of monitoring the ways by which industrial equipment’s would perform has been completed by other providers of software like Siemens. This helps them in making a use of their technology of machine learning. MindSphere had been designed in order to provide the monitoring of various machine fleets for the needs of service tools with the help of machine too; analytics (Gero, 2014). They help in scheduling preventive maintenance as well as management of the ways various equipment’s are used in order to provide the lifespan of their operations. MindSphere works with the machines as well as plants without regarding the manufacturer. This would help the plant operators in increasing their uptime of equipment’s used by them and make the process of maintenance more effective. This is done by accessing when particular equipment would breakdown. Along with this, the machine builder would see a reduction on the expenses carried out by them like warranty repairs and many more (Ng, 2016).

SAP: an AI-based Application for Logistics

The advantages of utilizing Siemens are that it would help the organization in the case study to improve the overall performance of the machineries used by the organization. They also help in detecting the issues in the equipments and make them repair for further use.

Disadvantages and challenges

Various disadvantages of Siemen include the high cost incurred included in its implementation. This as a result creates a dilemma regarding the fact that weather the organization should implement it. Siemen would definitely help the organization in its upcoming five years but it would require them to invest more amount that first in order to purchase an implement them.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the Artificial Intelligence has been acting as one of the major technologically advanced technology that can be used for increasing the efficiency of the process. It is also seen that the implementation of the application that are based on the artificial intelligence has been acting as a reason for better implementation of the functioning technique and the business management is completed with higher efficiency. The implementation of the application can be acting as a monitoring and controlling prospect that helps in understanding the value of the business. This report has also provided the applications that can be implemented in better management of the logistic company with over 200 employees. The use of the artificial intelligence the machines can learn from the various and previous data and prepare a better risk management plans for the processes like the warehouse, supply and other methods related to the logistics. The technology of the artificial intelligence is one of the major technology that can be used in almost any filed in order to improve the quality of the results. In the field of the logistics the artificial intelligence plays a huge role in the process of maintaining the storage centres and distribution of the goods        

1. It is recommended to the organisation to use a centralised database systems for the process of storing data, this will help the organisation artificial intelligence system to learn more about the organisations transactions in a quicker manner.
2. The use of the artificial intelligence must not affect the working employee’s jobs. The use of the artificial intelligence is to ensure better working conditions and reducing the pressure form the employees and not hamming them by taking their jobs (Saidur,2014).
3. In the coming generations the use of the AI will be in every sector and hence there is a need to ensure that the organisation have enough potential to cope up with the market.
4. The AI also needs some of the major barriers that is to set up by the organisation as if the all the power is given to a machine there can be serious consequences of the same.
5. The use of other technologies is also one of the other major thing that has to be implemented other than that of the AI.

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