With artificial intelligence, smart automation, and the internet of things all the buzz today, it looks like the days of human labor in the workforce are numbered. Many pundits have weighed in. Tom Randall of Bloomberg notes that the more routine your job, the more replaceable you are. Marc Ambasna-Jones writes in The Guardian that online education will play a big role in helping people improve their skills and adapt to changes.
But what about the supply chain executive? What role will they play in the near future? We asked three experts at the DELMIA Quintiq World Tour event in Singapore. Here’s what they had to say.
Charlie Macdonald, Industry Executive for Manufacturing, Transport & Logistics, Telstra
“If automation traditionally had implications on the blue collar worker, is the next revolution going to have implications on the white collar worker?
Can the planner be replaced by smart algorithms? Can other white collar roles be replaced in the same way? I think the answer is yes. However, the systems that the planner has to work on and their relationship with the suppliers are based on trust. Supply chains, however much we automate them, are really networks of trust and relationships.
People are the center of collaborations in the supply chain. A lot of the decision-making can be enhanced and augmented through very smart, very clever, very quick algorithms, using data sources we never thought imaginable before, but there must be human oversight.
So I do think we have a role, but it will be in better decision-making. It will be decision-making based on facts, not decision-making based on emotions.”
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Fausty David, Head of Global Demand Management, FCI Electronics
“We’re talking about a huge reduction in quantity. 15 to 20 planners becoming three effective global planners who basically strategize and say: ‘Here are the volumes going up, here are the volumes going down, here are the trigger points that you will do at a very minute level, probably SQ 11.’
But our technologies today is data junk. So really, what needs to come onboard next is big data, analytics, and how we change processes to meet those findings.
That’s really what the key difference is. And that’s where I think the future of demand planners or planning managers will be — managing exceptions.”
Gerald Tan, CEO, Pan Asia Logistics Singapore Pte Ltd
“I think automation in itself is not going to create the future, and this is where the human interface will have to come in.
At the end of the day, innovation and creativity can only come from the human side of the equation. The question right now is, how do we create that human link to technology and be able to innovate beyond what we see today?”
What about you? Where do you see yourself in the supply chain of the future? Let us know in the comments below or read more insights from the DELMIA Quintiq World Tour.
