John Gunderson

Prospects of supply chain automation have the industry abuzz. It’s even become a major sticking point in the International Longshoremen’s Association contract negotiations with the United States Maritime Alliance. The dockworkers do not want ports to automate processes out of fear they will lose their jobs to machines. Today, there are seemingly endless possibilities for optimization. Terms like generative artificial intelligence and machine learning have become commonplace in discussions about ways to gain efficiencies and reduce costs. Can man and machine work together as businesses leverage automation for optimization? Beyond the Buzz: Understanding the Automation Imperative Machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence (AI), is described by Business News Daily as a later-stage development in which machines take in data on their own and then analyze it. Automation, on the other hand, is fixed on repetitive tasks; after a job is performed, an automation system “thinks no further.” The Business News Daily article explained that “automation involves an entire category of technologies that provide activity or work without human involvement,” while AI involves “a machine exhibiting and practicing something similar to what we describe as human thinking – that is, the ability to interact in thousands of ways with the…

Heading right into October (can you believe it’s next week??) with more great interviews, conversations, livestreams, and episodes!   We started the week with a new episode in our Logistics with Purpose series. Pat Plonski joined Scott, Greg, and Enrique to celebrate 50 million books for Africa!     On Tuesday, Scott and Greg welcomed Mike Griswold with Gartner back to the podcast as they discussed the top three things to know in supply chain today and tomorrow.     We published our Supply Chain Buzz on Wednesday, and Scott and Jamin were happy to welcome Sarah Barnes-Humphrey with Let’s Talk Supply Chain to the show!     On Thursday, Greg continued his conversation with Ben Gordon of Cambridge Capital for part two of the interview for TECHquila Sunrise.     And Friday, Scott and Greg were excited to welcome one of their favorite Supply Chain News writers, Emma Cosgrove with Supply Chain Dive, to the podcast!   Which was your favorite episode? Never miss an episode by subscribing to Supply Chain Now! Make sure you tune in next week for more great conversation, timely topics, and exceptional guests.