Ralph Knip

5/5 (4)

Every millennial has experienced the time-consuming and exhausting moments wherein you have to explain to your (grand)parents how to send a proper WhatsApp message, use google maps, or what to and not to post on social media. The technological innovation cycle has shortened at such a pace that even we as millennials struggle to cope with the newest developments. As de benefits of these developments are very clear, the fast innovating tech-industry might cause a blind spot for some of the dark sides on these developments. The Netflix series Black Mirror plays the devil’s advocate towards future technological developments, and some examples of episodes even show their power of prediction.

Dating apps are completely hot these days and should help us to find “the one”. Based on our preferences, algorithms can find people who might be the best fit. According to the people you like or not like, machine learning will become better in finding the perfect match for you. In Black Mirror’s S4E4, dating apps are taken to another level. When two individuals are matched, the system brings them together and gives their relationship a due date. After that due date, they both move on to the next relation up till the perfect match is found. In the meantime, the system analyses behavior and uses machine learning to better predict the perfect match. However, the dark side of the story is in the fact that whenever your relationship has a due date, people start to behave differently and the system decides whether you can stay together. Imagine yourself falling in love but a system is not sure about the match and forces you to leave. What does love even mean then?

Another perfect example of the dark side of technology is to be seen in S3E1. This episode illustrates a social media system wherein everyone can rate (scale 1 to 5) each other based on their interaction. Your average score decides the way of living. The idea is that high average ratings give you perks in your daily life. This would stimulate people to improve their life by working out, being kind, and reach their personal goals. However, this also works the other way around. If you interact with very low-rated people or act inappropriately to people, it will be hard to get access to places where high-rated people live together. This episode might seem a bit over the top and unrealistic, but guess what?: we are already living this life.

Take Instagram as an example. The number of likes, comments, and followers influences the lives of people on a daily basis. It is no coincidence that whenever there is a conversation about someone, people first ask to show them their Instagram profile. Social media has become a platform of justice and impressions, causing people to pretend to have a great lifestyle while all they do is editing photos and interact with people online.

Besides the part of self-awareness and judgment of social media, rating systems are already a fact of society. A couple of years ago, some places in China started to work with social credit systems. Starting with a certain amount of credits, people could gain or lose credits based on their behavior monitored by public cameras. Yes, the cameras have face recognition and record every step and move the inhabitants make. Losing credits could be a result of public scandals like polluting public areas, but could also derive from not visiting your family enough or hanging out with people who are having low credits themselves. Having a low amount of credits can exclude you from buying airplane tickets or usage of public transport. In the region of Xinjiang, this system has already led to increased surveillance and discrimination towards the geographical minority of Uighur people.

It is time for us to wake up and become aware that the fast-evolving tech industry does not only give us benefits, but also has some really dark sides. Is this a new field of expertise? Should we be educated on the dangers of technology? Who is responsible for writing ethical codes or laws? It is for humanity to decide whether we use technology as a tool or that we are falling short in our expectations.

Sources

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/11/black-mirror-episode-dystopian-tv

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2085059/episodes?season=4&ref_=ttep_ep_sn_pv https://theconversation.com/black-mirror-the-dark-side-of-technology-118298

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/arts/television/black-mirror-netflix-interactive.html

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-social-credit-system-explained

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/22/world/asia/china-surveillance-xinjiang.html

https://aisel.aisnet.org/ecis2019_rip/33/

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1461444815604133

5/5 (3)

Decades ago, when buzzwords like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Digital Transformation were only in their infancy, Supply chains were planned manually and no data was captured at all. However, these buzzwords are starting to get meaningful in practice and that causes a lot of questions for current supply chain management employees. Let us take a deep dive into how these buzzwords come to practice in supply chain planning, how that affects employees, and what the future developments are.

The biggest evaluation of supply chains is now taking place. Previously, the multibillion-dollar company SAP was the largest supplier of supply chain planning systems. However, SAP’s software developments did not go as planned and nowadays, other companies like o9 Solutions, Blue Yonder, and Kinaxis are taking more share in the supply chain planning industry. The big difference? The platforms of the competition are way more advanced and accurate because of the application of the buzzwords. By creating a so-called “Digital Twin”, the platforms can mimic and simulate a whole supply chain. Companies like Walmart, Starbucks, and Nestlé for example chose for o9 Solutions because the AI/ML-driven platform showed how their product flows throughout the supply chain, offers solutions for supply chain constraints, and predicted demand better then what they have seen ever before.
Then there is sustainability, which is on the agenda of every large enterprise. Imagine how much more sustainable the world will become if both the supply and demand planning accuracy will be 90% instead of 65%. No more high inventories, no more huge amounts of waste, and therefore less CO2 caused by overproduction. So if the digital transformation is for the good, why are there only a few companies changing sofar? The answer is as always in the people.

Supply and demand planners are frightened of their positions since they can not outcompete the systems driven by AI/ML. However, the jobs do not disappear but actually, change in a way that the jobs of planners become even more important and valuable. Their responsibilities change to learning how to collaborate with a system that is so accurate and well-connected with data sources, that they will need to keep track of the platform’s suggestions and communicate the actions to be done towards the operators within the supply chain.

The biggest challenge for the future will not be about technological opportunities, and neither about sustainable supply chains, but about the people who need to leverage the technology. As there is a lot of opportunities to change, it will be the C-level managers who need to eventually transform the way of looking at their supply chains. The technology will continue to disrupt with endless scale due to the cloud, new technologies like the graph cube, and more. Let this be an eyeopener to every supply chain manager and up! As far as the developments state, supply chain management is evolving to a business with higher efficiency, faster implementation, and less waste. Let’s embrace the buzzwords by bringing them to practice because they cause disruption wherever they go!

Sources

https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3970838/hype-cycle-for-supply-chain-planning-technologies-2019
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/04/02/what-is-the-future-of-supply-chain-management/#59abec6053cc
https://home.kpmg/xx/en/home/services/advisory/management-consulting/optimize-your-sector-operations/future-supply-chain/supply-chain-as-a-service.html
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/supply-chain-recovery-in-coronavirus-times-plan-for-now-and-the-future
https://www.scmr.com/article/the_supply_chain_planner_of_the_future

How Buzzwords take over the Largest Supply Chains

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