18 WESTERN PALLET
Annual Meeting Speakers (Cont'd from Page 17)
Blockchain, there are also emerging ones such as digital twins, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML).
Meeks described a digital twin approach as nothing more than a virtual model of a supply chain that a company will create to test disruptions or things that may happen to their supply chain. In this virtual environment, companies can simulate real-world conditions and "what-if" scenarios to find out potential outcomes of disruptions or deliberate actions.
He also commented on AI and ML. Artificial intelligence (AI) involves using computers to do things that traditionally require human intelligence. AI can process large amounts of data in ways that humans cannot. The goal for AI is to be able to do things like recognize patterns, make decisions, and judge like humans. Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) and computer science that focuses on using data and algorithms to imitate how humans learn, gradually improving its accuracy.
More fundamentally, business managers are leaning on these new technologies to answer questions such as "Where is my stuff" in real-time and provide visibility regarding the history of a product's journey along the supply chain. Business operators are also interested in knowing "What's happening to my stuff?" which is made possible by many technologies.
"All of these technologies produce oceans of data," he said. "And the idea is that of those oceans of data, they have to be sifted through, they have to be analyzed to tease out kind of predictive insights about what's going on in our supply chain, and how it's managed."
"So what we want to do is connect the dots, connect the dots for our own companies and connect the dots for our customers," he concluded. "Better insights, more insights, better decision-making, and moving forward from there."
Industry Consolidation - Don't Bury Your Head in the Sand
The title for Chaille Brindley's presentation was inspired by a call with a pallet company owner, discussing the rapid growth of industry consolidation... "We've seen this movie before," he was told by the operator. "You know what, we're gonna be fine."
While significant consolidation efforts such as Pallet Pallet and PRANA failed in the past, Brindley signaled that pallet companies should not be complacent. "Because what happened a long time ago," he said, "it may not happen today. We've got different players involved a lot more money, it's a different time in the industry."