Category: Digital supply chain

Blogs discussing the advance of cognitive automation, touch-less planning, artificial intelligence & machine learning in planning

Digital supply chain, Supply Chain

Seven reasons why Artificial Intelligence can’t drive business value alone

Artificial intelligence (AI) will be at the center of value creation in the future enterprise. It has the potential to augment and automate both physical labor and the knowledge worker. AI powered cognitive automation has the potential to make ordinary knowledge workers into super humans leading to superior performance, triumphing over human genius and activity alone. However, enterprises should not focus on artificial intelligence alone … Continue reading Seven reasons why Artificial Intelligence can’t drive business value alone

Niels1 Comment
Digital supply chain, Leadership, Supply Chain

AI Is Here to Automate the Knowledge Worker!

This article is my commentary on an article published in Foresight, written by the authors of the book Humachine: Humankind, Machines, and the Future of Enterprise (Sanders & Wood, 2020). For the original Foresight article and other commentary, you can go here. INTRODUCTION: A NEW ERA The authors of The Humachine make a valid point that enterprises should not focus on artificial intelligence (AI) alone … Continue reading AI Is Here to Automate the Knowledge Worker!

Niels1 Comment
Digital supply chain, Supply Chain

Achieving Autonomous Supply Chain Planning; an expert interview

An interview on Autonomous Planning with Niels van Hove I recently got interviewed by Bethanie Maples about my Foresight article; ‘Autonomous or Lights out Planning, what’s really required?’ Bethanie is an AI and human cognition expert, does research at Standford University and is advisor to many entrepreneurs. I explain how we have to make the leap forward from Wave 1 (ERP) and Wave 2 (APS) … Continue reading Achieving Autonomous Supply Chain Planning; an expert interview

Niels1 Comment
Digital supply chain

The agile supply chain is back. But this time it’s for real!

My mum used to say that if you wait long enough, the same things will come back in to fashion. I suppose that is also true when you blog long enough about supply chain. In 2012 I wrote a short blog about demand driven & agile supply chains, which seems to be all the hype back then. Some of the quotes I picked up from … Continue reading The agile supply chain is back. But this time it’s for real!

Niels1 Comment
Digital supply chain, S&OP, Supply Chain

Why Cognitive Automation makes IBP more Agile and more Strategic

A common IBP cycle has a monthly cadence providing an – up to 24 months – forward view of a business. It is often supported by a weekly control cycle, sometimes called Sales & Operations Execution (S&OE). This cycle plans demand & supply in more detail and over a shorter horizon, often around 12 weeks. IBP is data and resource hungry. Planners spend up to … Continue reading Why Cognitive Automation makes IBP more Agile and more Strategic

Niels1 Comment
Digital supply chain, S&OP, Supply Chain

Technology Support in Integrated Business Planning: Automation, Augmentation and Human Centricity

Preview In his 2019 Foresight article, Niels van Hove examined eight technological hurdles that must be overcome to enable autonomous or ‘lights out’ supply-chain planning. He reasoned that to support such planning we need to implement a third wave of integrated supply-chain planning software. In this article, Niels argues that these technological advances can lead to either (a) planning-process and decision automation or (b) planning … Continue reading Technology Support in Integrated Business Planning: Automation, Augmentation and Human Centricity

Niels3 Comments
Digital supply chain

Achieving autonomous or “lights out” supply chain planning

Operating in the supply chain world, it’s hard to not come across terminology like supply chain planning 4.0, “light touch” planning or “lights out” planning. All have generated a lot of hype over the past few years … and for good reason. Considerable progress has been made in technology in recent years, continuing at a dizzying pace. Autonomous development is happening in most major car … Continue reading Achieving autonomous or “lights out” supply chain planning

NielsLeave a comment
Digital supply chain, S&OP

How to move IBP from a Tedious Process to an Executive Decision Factory

When I was IBP manager at a multi-billion-dollar CPG company about 10 years ago, I remember a marketing director telling me just before the executive IBP meeting; ‘Niels, this feels like going to the dentist every month’. I agreed with him. Back then, preparing for a monthly IBP meeting was a painful, tedious effort, with my full planning team consumed and running overtime to get … Continue reading How to move IBP from a Tedious Process to an Executive Decision Factory

Niels2 Comments
Digital supply chain, Supply Chain

Autonomous or ‘Lights Out’ Supply Chain Planning; what is really required?

If you operate in the supply chain or the planning world, it is hard to not come across terminology like supply chain planning 4.0, ‘light touch’ planning or ‘lights out’ planning. They all rate high in the hype cycle and for good reasons. A lot of technology progress has been made in recent years, and progress continuous at dizzying speed. Autonomous vehicles already exist in … Continue reading Autonomous or ‘Lights Out’ Supply Chain Planning; what is really required?

Niels4 Comments
Digital supply chain, Leadership, Supply Chain

Artificial Intelligence – beyond the hype, the experts, its weak spots and losing your job

In our household we love our Google Home. My girls use it continuously to play music, ask silly questions, jokes, do calculations and spell difficult words amongst other things. I use it to voice command my shopping list, set a timer and book meetings in my agenda. Speeking to and interacting with a little machine in my living room, that has the capacity to both … Continue reading Artificial Intelligence – beyond the hype, the experts, its weak spots and losing your job

NielsLeave a comment