Quantum computing sounds far out there, but so is the supply chain—with its global reach, innumerable touch points, and almost infinite possibilities of outcome. Quantum computers are making their first forays into business, and supply chain may be a good fit.
That’s because quantum bits, or qubits—the quantum units of information, compared to the 1s and 0s of classical computing—exhibit qualities that match up nicely with the supply chain challenge. One is superposition, and it means that quantum bits, unlike their on/off binary counterparts, can occupy more than one state at the same time, embracing more nuance and complexity.
The other quality is entanglement—the particle states can relate to, and be interdependent with, one another, like the variables in a global, convoluted supply chain. This lets quantum computers crunch massive levels of data at new levels of complexity and speed. The output is a “probabilistic” distribution of answers; i.e., a range of outcomes from which to choose in a supply chain simulation.
“It is possible to adjust an interaction between these qubits so that they can ‘sense’ each other,” said Christoph Becher, professor of experimental physics at Saarland University. “This system then naturally tries to arrange itself in such a way that it consumes as little energy as possible.” This minimized energy (work input) expenditure is exactly what you want for more frictionless operation of your supply chain.
Path optimization for logistics is a promising supply chain application. The Volkswagen Group is using quantum computing to tackle traffic flow in Beijing (think planning and optimizing holiday deliveries to urban customers). With over five million cars, rush-hour gridlock can last more than four hours. Residents call their city “Shoudu”—the capital of traffic jams. Talk about entanglement…
Volkswagen is calculating a sample traffic simulation using movement data from 10,000 Beijing taxis. “If there are too many factors in a given space, such as a large number of moving cars that you have to distribute to countless alternative points, this quickly leads to a combinatorial explosion, which overwhelms traditional computers, even with the cloud behind them,” said Florian Neukart, principal data scientist at Volkswagen of America.
Neukart also teaches quantum computing at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, and wondered if this data nightmare could be solved by a computer that obeys the laws of quantum physics. VW software engineers in San Francisco and Munich are programming on a D-Wave Systems 1000Q quantum computer via the cloud. “With the route optimization of the Beijing taxis, we want to show that we can solve a very practical problem using a quantum computer,” said Neukart, who cites other applications like robot optimization, networked manufacturing, driverless cars, and machine learning.
When you’ve got to make lightning-fast supply chain decisions based on the myriad dimensions of globalized, multichannel demand—like where to produce across a multi-echelon supply network, and how to deliver-to-promise and still make margin—quantum computing may emerge as a viable tool.
