"The biggest early disruptors could well be the organisations that can already manage entire supply chains from raw materials through to repair and recycling. The advanced sensors and AI built into Autonomous Vehicles (AVs )could be used to provide datasets and insight into previously opaque areas of the supply chain ecosystem. This could provide currently unimagined opportunities for improvement." Richard Hankinson Automotive Director Unipart July 2018
Supply chains are potentially the source of positive and negative outcomes.
- The benefit of significant competitive advantage and disruption (for others)
- Debilitating costs, particularly waste time, materials and inventory costs, that suck life out of the enterprise.
The role of AVs in warehouses, ports, airports is already significant- the deployment of AVs on the open road ecosystems- smart highways and cities- is a source of potential disruption and critical competitive advantage.
Well worth reading the article below from Supply Chains and Logistics Leader Unipart should be part of strategic planning and taking heed of Bill Gates's warning: -
"The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency."
