What AWS Supply Chain Can Offer IBM i Shops
December 14, 2022 Alex Woodie
Amazon Web Services says its new machine learning-powered Supply Chain offering can provide better forecasting of inventory shortages, as well as predict demand for goods in all manner of supply chains. That includes companies in the consumer goods supply chain, in which many companies rely on IBM i-based applications to keep the goods moving.
Following years of success building infrastructure and platform solutions, AWS has been creeping up the stack into the application business lately. Usually this is done in partnership with ISVs that supply the software to run atop the sprawling AWS infrastructure. But increasingly, the cloud giant is venturing forth into the market on its own.
That characterizes the new AWS Supply Chain offering, which the $62-billion IT services company launched at its recent re:Invent conference in Las Vegas. With the new offering, AWS promises to integrate and analyzes supply chain data from its customers’ various systems, including enterprise resources planning (ERP), supply chain execution (SCE), and warehouse management systems (WMS), and then uses machine learning and AI software to deliver an inventory forecast.
According to Diego Pantoja-Navajas, vice president of new products for AWS Business Applications, the new Supply Chain offering sits as an overlay on top of customers’ existing applications.
“We abstract, analyze, and aggregate data. We’re able to provide value for each of those standalone applications that you might have in your network of solutions, and then we harmonize data across all of that, which is something that is very unique,” he says. “We really are able to bring all that data that is standing in silos all together so our customer can get much better visibility of the global supply chain.”
Much of the data that AWS Supply Chain will use will come from electronic data interchange (EDI) documents generated by specific applications, Pantoja-Navajas says. That will provide shipment information, which will allow the application to be able to calculate lead times, he says.
Practically all manufacturers, distributors, and retailers involved in the consumer package goods (CPG) supply chain use EDI documents, such as EDIFACT and X12. Advanced ship notices (ASNs) are another known quantity in the CPG world, which has a significant number of companies that rely on IBM i to run their ERP, SCE, or WMS applications.
While EDI is ubiquitous, it also takes some effort to understand exactly what they’re saying. That takes manual effort today, but it’s on area where AWS says machine learning techniques can be an advantage, Pantoja-Navajas says.
“[EDI] works really well,” he adds. “We have used machine learning and also natural language processing to get those EDIs and move them and translate into a canonical data model . . . . . When we get data from a specific customer, we recognize what it is, and we’re able to translate it directly into our model.”
There’s no reason why IBM i shops running applications from Oracle, SAP, Manhattan Associates, or others wouldn’t be able to overlay AWS Supply Chain atop those solutions, Pantoja-Navajas says. “We sit on top of those systems without the need for replatforming, which is one of the biggest benefits we give to our customers,” he says. “You don’t have to migrate to a new solution.”
Machine learning and AI techniques are used in other areas of the solution, including calculating vendor lead times and warning about potential overstock or stock out situations. Customers can bring outside data that may impact lead times, such as weather information, into the mix.
The solution takes all of these data points and generates insights, which are presented using a “real-time visual” map displayed in the browser. Product managers can also create their own insight watchlists that will warn them of potential problems with specific products or locations.
AWS Supply Chain is currently in beta. The solution was developed based on the experience that Amazon.com had with managing its supply chains. However, none of the data from AWS Supply Chain will be accessible by the ecommerce operation, Pantoja-Navajas says.
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