Sustainability has become a top-of-mind issue for supply chain organizations, as end consumers put more and more pressure on retailers to deliver eco-friendly products with eco-friendly processes.
But how can you make improvements to your organization’s sustainability if you don’t know where materials and products came from, how they’re traveling and where they’re going? Visibility and traceability are critical to both making your business more sustainable and demonstrating your commitment to less wasteful practices.
One way companies have attempted to handle this challenge is adopting technologies like Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, as well as 2D barcodes, such as QR Codes. But this leads to another challenge: mountains of data generated that they have to make sense of in order to gain business intelligence.
Generative AI is a strong answer to this problem. Using AI tools, you can streamline your logistics operation, plan better routes, right-size inventory levels and more. All of these business actions require quality, standardized data that you can share easily across your trading partners – and AI offers an excellent opportunity to ensure that data is clean and you’re getting the best insights from it.
We spoke with Bob Czechowicz, Senior Director of Innovation at GS1 US, about the challenge of visibility. He reiterated the importance of unique identifiers and standards for visibility across an organization’s supply chain. “It provides the common language that allows trading partners to communicate with each other in a technology-agnostic way.”
When it comes to new technologies enabling better visibility and more context, IoT devices have delivered much better insight into the journey of products through an organization’s supply chain. Advanced data carriers like 2D barcodes and sensor-based technologies like RFID capture information about products, assets and locations; this information can inform better decisions to support sustainability and ESG requirements.
Better tracking information isn’t just for the organization’s benefit, either. With every technology that offers better insight into a product’s origin and current location, end consumers come to expect that level of information. “Consumer expectations are like a ratchet,” says Czechowicz. “But they only ratchet up – never down.” For example, since the Covid-19 pandemic, consumers have come to expect options like grocery delivery and curbside pickup as regular options.
It’s also critical that the information you provide is true and accurate, as consumers and governmental bodies alike exert mounting pressure to substantiate sustainability claims from companies.
Which brings us back to generative AI and its potential uses within the supply chain.
Czechowicz notes, “With human intervention, sometimes your data isn’t fully accurate. Generative AI can augment that data to enable decision-making for critical tasks like sourcing, route optimization and other things that help you meet your sustainability goals.” Setting your parameters around sustainability goals and using AI to augment your existing data (and having AI use synthetic data to fill in any gaps in your information) to generate recommendations based on it can help you identify areas for improvement.
So how can your organization take full advantage of generative AI’s potential? “Unless you can feel confident that you have quality and consistent data,” says Czechowicz, “you’re probably going to struggle to solve challenges like sustainability and ESG requirements.” The first step toward better visibility to support sustainability initiatives is to cleanse your data. The adage that’s existed since the dawn of computing applies: garbage in, garbage out. AI tools are only as accurate as the data you plug into them.
Using a system of standards can help you be more confident your internal data is accurate and help you efficiently exchange information with your organization and all of your trading partners.
With everyone on the same page, you’ll be able to get a much clearer picture of your entire supply chain. That picture will help you spot less efficient areas of operation – so you can close gaps, choose better sources and routes and create a much more sustainable business.
About GS1 US:
GS1 US® enables companies to power their supply chains to deliver safe, consistent, authentic and trusted experiences. Best known as a source for UPC barcodes, GS1 is a not-for-profit global data standards organization that creates a common language for companies to identify, capture and share trusted data that links their physical and digital supply chains. Millions of businesses around the world power commerce with GS1 Standards. Learn more at www.gs1us.org.
