More than 500 supply chain leaders converged in Berlin between 11 – 13 November to learn how to unlock the full potential of their supply chains, and to ultimately reshape the future of their businesses. They did so at TFEST24, uniting under the theme for this year’s event: “The Destination for Supply Chain Transformation.”

Many virtual attendees were also present, with representatives from across logistics, procurement, manufacturing, IT and sustainability not only learning from the esteemed speakers presenting, but also sharing their expertise and experiences. Blue Yonder was one such company tasked with presenting its views on transformation and supply chain optimization.

Here, we shared our reimagining of how supply chains should be run; how to unlock the true power of artificial intelligence (AI); what best-in-class looks like, end-to-end; and how to achieve complete synchronization.

Through the lenses of recent acquisitions and product enhancements, we laid bare the main challenges faced by many of the attendees at TFEST24. As a result, we showed them a path to better functioning supply chains and a more prosperous future for their businesses.

A holistic approach to solving supply chain challenges

Those aforementioned challenges aren’t insignificant. Customers are simultaneously grappling with extremely volatile demand, increasing consumer expectations, changing regulatory requirements and continuous interruptions across the supply chain. Disruption is officially now a norm, making demand planning and forecasting, in particular, very difficult.

The upshots of misjudging inventory levels range from delaying production cycles, to risking availability to the end customer, to creating waste and damaging both capacity and environmental targets, to — simply — harming profits.

In response, the Blue Yonder Platform offers a comprehensive suite of AI-driven solutions that span both the planning as well as the execution domain. Our platform encompasses Transportation, Warehouse and Order Management, supports an n-tier network for visibility and collaboration with customers, suppliers and carriers alike and provides next generation planning capabilities from detailed Scheduling to strategic processes like IBP and network design. All this ensures the most holistic approach to supply chain management on a single platform.

For example, in Demand Planning our advanced AI algorithms deliver accurate Demand forecasts at an unprecedented scale, generating around 20 billion predictions daily through automation. Predictive AI however is not confined to Demand Planning alone; it extends to other areas such as ETA prediction for visibility and load risk predictions in Transportation Management. This breadth and depth of predictive AI empowers customers to better anticipate and respond to market fluctuations, with generative AI agents available to identify performance challenges and their impacts, enabling appropriate responses.

The system continuously improves with new data, adjusting and enhancing predictions to reflect real-world conditions. Additionally, our Platform facilitates seamless collaboration across various departments, ensuring that all aspects of the supply chain are aligned and optimized. This integration is part of Blue Yonder’s unique value proposition, which goes beyond a “one-stop-shop” by offering interoperability across traditionally separated domains, such as Planning (Demand, Supply, IBP) and Execution (Transportation Management, Warehouse Management, Order Management).

This holistic approach helps customers manage uncertainties and remain resilient, a strength compounded by Blue Yonder’s unification of the complete end-to-end process. The integration of connected supply planning and execution data ensures decision-making is based on complete visibility, knowing what’s needed and what’s possible in real time, all the time.

Blue Yonder’s commitment to unification has been further enhanced through recent acquisitions of flexis and One Network. As a flexible, innovative software technology provider specializing in production optimization and transportation planning and execution, flexis has elevated Blue Yonder’s supply chain offerings. Their expertise in supply chain planning and optimization is particularly evident in the discrete manufacturing industry, demonstrating their ability to provide ongoing planning optimization in even the most complex networks.

Generative AI: a reinvention of the wheel

Blue Yonder’s aim has always been to offer a best-in-class, end-to-end platform, and this proposition is not only being aided by recent acquisitions, but through a concerted strategy to leverage generative AI.

Generative AI was understandably a hot topic at TFEST24, and we were invited to present our views on the step change through a presentation titled: “Supply Chain Management Reinvented.”

Here, we explained how generative AI can be used as an orchestrator to elevate supply chain roles, enabling teams to harness what we call “infinite intelligence” to make swift, data-driven decisions. We also emphasized the impact on the end customer, and generative AI’s direct correlation with greater loyalty and improved profits.

As such, it’s not too dramatic to state that AI more broadly continues to be a game changer akin to the internet or semiconductors. Maybe even, electricity … or the wheel.

Its successful use and deployment in the supply chain context relies on a data-rich infrastructure, but when the stars align, the results relative to business-specific processes, efficiency, productivity, availability, waste and revenues are hugely significant.

Indeed, Blue Yonder’s end-to-end platform is designed to harness the power of AI to significantly enhance all supply chain operations through our focus on end-to-end unification. As early as the end of 2024, our evolving generative AI capabilities will further enable businesses to automate complex decision-making processes, generate actionable insights and optimize various aspects of their supply chain.

As a result, generative AI agents will make use of existing functionality just like a user would, elevating these functions to a new tier of automation where repetitive tasks are executed with greater speed, agility and enrichment. Just as end-to-end automation has already alleviated much of the manual burden from users, these advancements will enable users to concentrate even more on tasks that require their business knowledge and creativity in the months and years to come.

Communication, partnership building and collaboration

In part, Blue Yonder stands out as a trusted partner because of our ability and scope to delve into isolated use cases, to leave no stone unturned, and to apply best-in-class solutions to bespoke situations and supply chain personas.

Our decades of experience and deep expertise in supply chain planning and execution have led to the development of a comprehensive suite of solutions that address the unique needs of our customers. A commitment to innovation naturally complemented by the emergence of AI and ML, and ongoing today by exploring and leveraging the potential of generative AI.

The resultant, longstanding reputation and proven track record make us a reliable and knowledgeable partner for any organization looking to optimize their supply chain operations. In tandem, customers also appreciate the culture we have built and the relationships we strive to form with them.

TFEST24 provided the perfect opportunity to connect with existing and potential customers, allowing us to flex some of those key attributes and values: communication, partnership building and collaboration.

Single source of truth and interoperability

TFEST24 also afforded Blue Yonder the chance to both reflect and look forward. In particular, we were encouraged to dissect and share our platform strategy — one that revolves around the concept of a composable journey that allows customers to consume cloud services in a flexible, modular way.

This approach enables businesses to select and integrate the specific services they need, when they need them, without having to commit to a monolithic solution. By offering a composable platform, we empower our customers to build a tailored supply chain ecosystem that can adapt to their evolving requirements. This flexibility ensures that they can scale their operations, incorporate new technologies, and respond to market changes swiftly and efficiently.

On this note, we also reflected on the partnership we share with Data Cloud specialist, Snowflake, which enables a single source of truth, real-time information sharing, and seamless workflow interoperability across various services and applications. The resultant platform and its technologies actively reduce costs, complexity and time required to accumulate and merge data. A benefit that, as already explained, paves the way for much stronger outcomes with AI and generative AI.

A destination for supply chain transformation

TFEST24 championed the notion of a supply chain transformation, and while we at Blue Yonder spend our time trying to facilitate customers’ journeys, we are also enjoying a constant transformation ourselves. The acquisitions of flexis and One Network are prime evidence of how we’re continuously looking to evolve and keep ahead of customer demand. They were both strategic moves that align perfectly with our wider platform ambitions.

Complementing the sector knowledge and advanced capabilities of flexis, the One Network provides a robust, multiparty network platform that extends our reach and capabilities in supply chain execution and collaboration.

Our final rallying cry in Berlin was to confirm that, by integrating these technologies into our ecosystem and platform, we can offer a more comprehensive and cohesive solution that covers the entire supply chain lifecycle. These acquisitions strengthen our position as a leader in supply chain innovation, and — just like TFEST — make us a destination for supply chain transformation.

Interested in where you can meet with Blue Yonder? Join us at our upcoming events to discover cutting-edge solutions and strategies to optimize your supply chain.