Are you Making the Most of AI, ML and the IoT
Presented by Danaka Porter, Regional Managing Partner of iota Consultants
Lunch & Learn Tuesday, April 16, 2024, 12:00 PM ET

Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have been employed in manufacturing and supply chain for a number of years. The World Economic Forum in 2018 discussed where the Internet of Things (IoT) and AI were making the largest impacts which included manufacturing, high technology and industrial work, logistics, and transportation. There is a lot to gain in using AI and machine learning in these industries. PWC posted a white paper in 2020 detailing the use of AI currently in use and its expected increase of use. Predictive maintenance, integrated planning, inventory, and data driven quality optimization were leaders in both current use and expected increase in use of ML in the next 5 years.

However, machine learning is not without its shortcomings, it is not a crystal ball and cannot predict the future with 100% accuracy. Rather it uses the data provided and generates plausible outcomes based on the data. Therefore, it is crucial that the algorithms are given accurate and representative data sets to work with, else a bias is generated and the algorithm can do more harm than good.

This session will discuss and explain the pros and cons of typical ML algorithms that are used in supply chain. Then provide three cases studies in three different industries where ML was used to improve supply chain performance. This includes reduced cost over runs due to excess inventory, predicting disastrous equipment break downs, and improving part availability which decreased emergency orders.

Biography
Danaka obtained her Lean certification in 2013 before completing her Master of Engineering in Systems and Supply Chain from MIT. Since graduating from MIT Danaka became a partner at iota consulting where she consults in Supply Chain, Project Management, and Data Analytics - specifically in heavy manufacturing and technology. Danaka has been a sessional lecturer since 2019 at the Dhillon School of Business, where she teaches Supply Chain and Project Management and occasionally Business Research Methods. In the fall of 2022 Stukent published her Principles of Supply Chain Management and Operations, her Introduction to Project Management will also be published through Stukent in fall 2024. In 2019 Danaka cofounded VitaNova Technologies (VNT), a fertility company in the US, where she is currently the COO. At VNT she wrote algorithms to better match surrogates and egg donors with intended parents. In keeping with a life of continuous learning, Danaka is currently completing her PhD in Cardiology at the Cumming School of Medicine where she is optimizing the workflow of specific cardiac software to better find, label, and calculate two biological markers of sudden cardiac death. Her work is proof that supply chain and process optimization is applicable in all industries!