Introduction
AI is significantly transforming Strategy and Supply Chain departments by enabling more accurate demand forecasting, streamlined inventory management, and optimized logistics. Through AI-driven demand predictions, companies can better align their operations with market conditions, while automating routine tasks such as vendor order execution and goods receipt management. Additionally, AI enhances the ability to monitor market trends and competitor actions, providing valuable insights for strategic planning. The following use cases demonstrate how AI is revolutionizing these critical functions, ensuring businesses remain competitive and agile in a rapidly evolving market.
Use Cases
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1. AI-Driven Demand Forecasting
Manage demand for products and services by developing baseline forecasts using historical data and external factors. Build consensus forecasts by comparing and adjusting individual forecasts from different departments to reach a unified prediction.
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2. Financial Budget Planning with AI
Plan the financial budget by identifying gaps between actual and forecasted figures, providing detailed analytics on these differences, and communicating findings and recommendations with process owners to ensure alignment and corrective actions.
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3. Self-Improving Forecasting Processes
Regularly perform forecasting that provides self-improving outputs by evaluating and adjusting the forecasting approach. Measure forecast accuracy to identify the best methods. Analyze correlations and trends among drivers and conduct automated forecasting, selecting the best-fit algorithms for improved precision.
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4. Market Trends and Competitor Monitoring
Monitor competition and market trends by analyzing historical data. Based on this analysis, recommend strategies to optimize promotional activities, ensuring they are targeted and effective in enhancing market presence and sales.
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5. Material Requirement Planning
Create both unconstrained and constrained plans to manage material requirements effectively. Set up and maintain material master data, managing approval workflows for the creation, change, or deletion of material specifications. Ensure these changes are executed automatically in the production systems for seamless operations.
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6. Optimized Inbound Material Receipts
Plan the receipt of inbound materials according to demand forecasts. Conduct regular analyses to prevent issues of overstocking or understocking, ensuring inventory levels are optimized to meet production needs without excess.
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7. Automated Vendor Order Execution
Use forecasting outcomes to automate actions like sending orders to vendors. Manage the flow and performance of inbound materials by monitoring indicators such as delivery timing and quality. Generate detailed reports categorized by material types to track performance and identify areas for improvement.
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8. Goods in Transit and Reception Management
Calculate necessary adjustments for goods currently in transit. Manage the reception of products, initiating corrective actions if there is a mismatch between the purchase order and goods received. Ensure these receptions are accurately processed in the manufacturing requirements planning system for proper inventory tracking.
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9. Inventory Monitoring and Security
Estimate and locate both raw material and finished goods inventory by tracking product availability through cameras and inventory flow data. Use CCTV cameras to monitor and identify potential thefts and any safety rule violations by employees or third-party workers, ensuring a secure and safe environment.
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10. Finished Goods Inventory Management
Determine and monitor the inventory requirements for finished goods at their destination by analyzing historical data and considering external market trends. This helps ensure that the right amount of inventory is available to meet demand without overstocking.
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11. Optimal Distribution Planning
Calculate the optimal distribution plan by considering inventory and transportation constraints. Optimize collaborative replenishment planning, develop dispatch plans for destinations, and continuously monitor capacity utilization to ensure efficient distribution operations.
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12. Supply and Demand Event Prediction
Predict supply and demand events that could impact customer delivery requirements and recommend actionable steps. Optimize logistics routes by improving dispatch sequences and selecting the best routes to reduce costs and enhance delivery speed, ensuring timely and cost-effective deliveries.
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13. Distribution Application Monitoring
Monitor and assess distribution applications by collecting data from web and email sources to calculate various performance indicators. Evaluate carrier delivery and warehouse performance using data from clients and production quality. Process and audit carrier invoices and documents, identify performance trends, analyze benchmark gaps, determine root causes, and generate comprehensive reports for better decision-making.
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14. Incident Assessment and Resolution
Build detailed reports for analysis and perform standard incident assessments with rule-based resolutions. Manage purchase requisitions and approval workflows for purchase orders, ensuring integration with the buying portal for seamless procurement processes.
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15. Vendor Quote Management
Solicit and track quotes from vendors and generate purchase orders by leveraging the detailed information included in purchase requisitions, ensuring accurate and efficient procurement.
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16. Proactive Purchase Order Reconciliation
Proactively reconcile purchase order invoices with goods receipts to ensure accuracy. Automatically approve standard purchase requisitions and verify user purchase requests, providing real-time recommendations for the most profitable procurement positions.
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17. Fraud Detection and Conflict of Interest Prevention
Identify potential fraud or conflicts of interest within the company by analyzing predictive models and historical data, helping to safeguard against unethical practices.
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18. Data Cleansing and Reporting Automation
Capture necessary reports and cleanse data to ensure accuracy and support report generation. Pre-populate complex periodic reporting requirements to streamline the reporting process and save time.
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19. Procurement Scorecards and Risk Analysis
Collect data from various sources to create procurement scorecards that enable thorough analysis of performance and risks within the procurement function. Archive this data for multi-period analysis to track trends and make informed decisions over time.