Santosh Desai, Chief Technology Officer, Blowhorn

Santosh Desai, CTO Blowhorn is a seasoned software architect with 15+ years of hands-on experience in visioning, designing, architecting and building internet scale applications and has led various engineering teams to scintillating success. He joined us at Blowhorn in May 2017 as a Principal Architect, his first stint at a start-up from enterprise and re-architected the platform in 3 months. A keen listener and passionate problem solver, ability to work from first principles, deep rooted computer science fundamentals and supply chain expertise easily helps him attract the right talent from the industry. His empathetic nature towards customers and business acumen was a natural fit for an early stage startup and helps build technology that matters naturally ascending to the role of the CTO.

 

It is no secret that digitalization plays a pivotal role in modern supply chain management with the power to transform business processes. While many firms are abreast with the advantages of automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics, unfortunately, many remain unprepared to adopt these essential technologies into their supply chain operations. This can be attributed to a number of reasons with the major challenge for these companies being in ingesting, processing, storing and presenting data. Faced with this hurdle, they are often overwhelmed by the various technology solutions – Internet of Things (IoT) devices, smart machines, applications and information technology (IT) systems to name a few.

The golden ticket out of this slump would involve engaging in multiple training sessions that can help these companies handle both, the technological as well as managerial, aspects of supply chain and logistics strategies. The benefits of these technologies reach far, effecting the most basic operations in the supply chain. They provide a simple, yet impressive and impact-heavy approach to delivering optimization and efficiency. More importantly, leveraging adaptive technologies has proven to increase productivity and profits. Done right, the companies in question have their growth strategy served on a silver platter.

These advantages come in many forms, the crux of it being:

Supply chain management leverages machine learning and photo scanning to make future demand models, recognize thousands of spare parts and automatically sort and route the parts to optimal storage locations.

Accurate inventory management using AI can help prevent overstocking, unexpected stock-outs and inadequate stock.

Enhanced delivery time harnesses a mixture of technologies – machine learning, AI, predictive analytics – to help organizations improve delivery time and automate warehouse operations. Further, AI systems can help reduce dependency on manual efforts thus making the whole process faster, safer and smarter. Automated systems spur conventional warehouse procedures thus eliminating operational bottlenecks with minimal effort to attain delivery targets.

Safety is assured by reducing the incidence of injuries and fatalities at work, owing to the capabilities of AI.

Optimal allocation of power is ensured by delivering only the appropriate amount of power supplies when exchanging data between various suppliers and creating models of future energy.

Forecasting analytics is done using advanced models that allow supply chain and logistics managers to understand detailed inventory essentials by location, region and usage.

Automating process such as tracking locations, environmental status, weather and traffic patterns allows suppliers to leverage AI and advanced analytics to control risk, proactively dispatch a repair crew to avoid spoilage or automatically reroute the delivery to a better equipped distribution centre.

Cost-effective operations are possible using AI and machine learning; the former aiding in optimizing logistics routes thus reducing shipping costs. Both solutions work together to maximize resources by reducing time and money spent on tracking the goods. Additionally, warehouse robots provide enhanced accuracy and speed, thus attaining greater levels of productivity.

With the increasing demands of transaction volumes by end-customers, it is important for firms operating in the logistics and supply chain sector to have reliable, fast and flexible business operations. They have to be ready to create new, innovative delivery solutions to ensure the sales-readiness of their retail network.

The process of digital transformation in logistics is more than just installing a brand new system or software. It is a collaborative endeavour that needs strategic repositioning of the corporate. Businesses are striving to become more adaptive and customer-centric with the aim being to achieve optimization in distribution networks. Speed and timing are your best friends in order to gain a competitive advantage, offering reduced time-to-market. This calls for increased agility in supply chain automation solutions – the only way to make a mark in today’s cutthroat and fast-paced market.

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