Justin Griffith

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…

BIG WEEK here at Supply Chain Now! Did you catch all the episodes? If not, listen here! We added a special Saturday episode on the 11th in our Logistics with Purpose series. Scott, Greg, and Enrique Alvarez hosted Jonathan Starr and Trudy Hall with the Abaarso School.   Supply Chain Now · “Logistics with Purpose: Jonathan Starr & Trudy Hall with the Abaarso School”   On Monday, we celebrated our 400TH EPISODE and the entire Supply Chain Now team shared their favorite episodes and topics in this special show!   Supply Chain Now · “The Supply Chain Now Team Reflects on 400 Episodes”     Then on Tuesday, we featured This Week in Business History, where Scott looks back at some of the biggest historical events in business history for the week ahead. This week focused on the beginnings of Boeing.   Supply Chain Now · “This Week in Business History for July 13th: Boeing Takes Off in the Pacific Northwest”     On Wednesday we published the Supply Chain Buzz, where Greg and Scott discussed the top supply chain news of the week, and were joined by special guest Kevin L. Jackson, with SourceConnecte.   Supply Chain Now ·…