135 plans and instead manage exceptions and policy. That is a different job, and one that needs to be named, trained for and rewarded.” The manufacturers succeeding with AI tend to scale one decision loop at a time rather than attempt to transform everything simultaneously. They measure outcomes in financial terms from the outset and ensure supply chain and finance leaders are working from the same numbers. Looking further ahead, Rodriguez sees several emerging capabilities becoming standard practice. “Physical AI is one of the most significant, with robots and humanoids increasingly working alongside warehouse operators,” he says. “Beyond that lies the prospect of autonomous facilities where humans determine strategy while AI manages execution and fleet maintenance.” Manufacturers, he says, will also increasingly need visibility into multi-tier and material-level risk: understanding dependencies between Tier 1 and Tier 3 suppliers, identifying products containing materials that could face future regulation and spotting leading indicators of supplier distress. Rodriguez also expects always-on network simulation to become commonplace, with digital twins continuously testing the impact of tariffs, demand fluctuations and port closures. And, there is the opportunity to build foundations that allow intelligence to move from observation to decision to action. “Build the unified data foundation and semantic layer, because every capability above depends on it,” says Rodriguez. “Manufacturers should also establish autonomy and governance policies before deploying agents and select one decision loop – such as demand and sales and operations planning or logistics execution – to take all the way through to autonomous action. “The companies that wait for the full picture will be buying capability from competitors who didn’t.” “ The companies that wait for the full picture will be buying capability from competitors who didn’t” FEATURE Photo: Microsoft Connected supply chains rely on realtime data, AI-driven decision intelligence and coordinated execution across production, warehousing and logistics
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQ1NTk=