Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced four new capabilities for AWS Supply Chain, combining Amazon's extensive supply chain experience with AWS managed services to assist customers in optimizing their supply chains. These capabilities are set to be available in 2024 and include supply planning, N-tier visibility, sustainability, and generative AI capabilities.
Supply Planning: AWS Supply Chain Supply planning aids customers in forecasting, planning, positioning, and replenishing components and finished goods to reduce inventory costs and respond quickly to demand variations and supply disruptions. Leveraging machine learning models developed based on Amazon's expertise, it accurately predicts inventory levels needed across facilities.
N-Tier Visibility: AWS Supply Chain N-Tier Visibility streamlines communication between customers and multiple tiers of suppliers, enhancing their ability to respond accurately to supply plans and manage changes during the execution window. This capability enables secure collaboration with trading partners, sharing purchase orders, demand forecasts, and tracking their status.
Sustainability: AWS Supply Chain Sustainability provides a central repository for customers to request, collect, and audit sustainability data. This capability supports compliance with environmental and social governance (ESG) regulations by offering a single, auditable record of sustainability data, including product life cycle assessments and hazardous material reports.
Generative AI (Amazon Q): Amazon Q, a generative AI-powered assistant, is introduced in AWS Supply Chain to provide supply chain professionals with intelligent insights. Amazon Q responds to natural language queries, highlighting key risks and visualizing "what if" scenarios to optimize supply chain decisions. It helps users easily identify causal relationships between factors impacting supply chain decisions.
These new capabilities extend AWS Supply Chain upstream, offering enhanced visibility and insights to manage upstream supply chain processes effectively. By addressing challenges associated with siloed data, demand variations, supply disruptions, and vendor lead-time uncertainty, these capabilities empower organizations to forecast demand accurately and optimize inventory levels.
Notable customers already leveraging AWS supply chain capabilities include Boston Consulting Group, Equipment Depot, and Woodside Energy. The strategic alliance between AWS and BCG focuses on helping organizations transform and enhance their supply chains for competitive growth.
AWS aims to assist businesses, including manufacturers, in managing their supply chains more efficiently through these upcoming capabilities. The integration of generative AI, sustainability features, and enhanced visibility signifies a strategic move toward providing comprehensive solutions for diverse supply chain challenges.
