Inisght SCLG
Arrival of Intelligent Robots are
Changing Supply Chain Landscape
Drones can deliver courier and parcel boxes. The adoption of drones in
logistics industry globally is significantly growing. Self-driving cars can
help do surface logistics without drivers. Robots are being seen inside
warehouses performing variety of tasks. These drones, autonomous
cars and picking robots in warehouses are being embedded with
intelligence and capability to self- learn. There is a new work place and
newly designed supply chain growing around us with inclusion of
self-learning, intelligent and robust machines, robots and co-bots.
Major technology giant companies like IBM, Google, Microsoft and
Facebook have already jumped into building more capable machine
learning applications to empower business world more with “ Artificial
Intelligence or AI” . The industry is still busy debating various aspects
of AI that includes transparency, bias, accountability and machines
bringing efficiency without damaging dignity of humans. New work
places will for sure manifest more human and machine interactions and
its intricacies as well. This is still to be established if intelligent
machines will ever take over human’s ability for being creative or for
being empathetic. Microsoft Chief Nadella said that empathy, which is
so difficult to replicate in machines, will be valuable in the human-AI
world accountable as such.
Shashi Shekhar
Group Chairman & Founder, SCLG
Chairman & Managing Partner, innovaXL
Will machines destroy jobs of humans? This is a fact that many tasks
can be automated. The trend of automation is likely to grow globally in
each segment of business. A research in USA suggested that 47% of
USA jobs were at risks from machines taking over those jobs. Many
experts suggested that technologies have created more jobs then
destroyed—I am more inclined to agree with such experts. Alan
Manning, Professor of Economics London School of Business said as
below
“History teaches us that labour markets are able to recover from the
changes wrought upon them by technological change”
In order to understand race between man and machine, I played myself
in last 2 weeks, 50 rounds of chess game on chess.com—I lost all 50
rounds. Here is what I would say to all involved in supply chain and
logistics:
• Intelligent machines like drones, self-driving cars, and humanoid
task robots will be around us doing variety of tasks sooner than
predicted. Arrival of such machines at work place is very much in near
future. Please be encouraged to accept including start building
personal skills for more interactions with machines.
• There could be immediate possibility of machine managed fully
automated supply chain of multiple commodities from manufacturing to
delivery.
Arrival of intelligent robots and fully automated processes across
supply chain do call for new way of dealing with work places in
perspective of human and robots assets—does this mean that human
resources function as well will need significant change; for sure needs
attention.
June 2016
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