When AI came to the rescue in the face of supply chain disaster

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been feted as everything from timesaver to the end of the workforce as we know it – yet few in Australian business seem to have tapped its apparently boundless potential. In our experience within the world of supply chain management, investment in understanding and utilising the current technology can reap substantial rewards.

We recently worked with a food supplier encountering a crisis when their largest supplier abruptly went out of business due to a complex web of unethical operations, geopolitical conflicts, and local regulations.

Unexpected disruptions can pose significant challenges to even the most successful companies. This beloved Aussie king of convenience snacks had achieved longterm success driven by brand loyalty and market growth, but their prosperity faced a daunting challenge when their largest supplier unexpectedly ceased operations overnight.

The company faced the risk of running out of stock for 70 percent of their product range by week 11. Customer orders were already committed for the next six weeks, and sales forecasts projected a seasonal demand peak for the quarter, intensifying the urgency to find a viable solution.

Faced with the risk of losing market share and decades of brand loyalty, the company swiftly convened a crossfunctional crisis meeting to find a solution and save their business. Leveraging the power of AI and machine learning with their newly developed supply chain optimisation platform, they evaluated multiple disruption and mitigation scenarios, considering costs, margins, revenues, service levels and risks across the extended supply chain.

The AI-driven platform performed millions of complex calculations in a matter of seconds. The team reviewed advanced analytics and adjusted business policies and parameters to refine the scenarios, ultimately leading to the identification of the optimal solution.