Continuing Querlo’s interview series, Francesco Rulli, Global CEO of Querlo, spoke with Marty Groover, Partner at C5MI, about the challenges and opportunities that COVID-19 has created, as well as the role of Artificial Intelligence going forward.
Based in Chicago, C5MI is a business transformation firm that helps manufacturers and supply chains make their operations as efficient as possible. The company has extensive experience leveraging technology to deliver transformative business results. They offer expertise in application for manufacturing supply chain optimization, enterprise resource planning, and business analytics.
Francesco began the interview by asking about the challenges that COVID-19 has created for Marty’s business and what opportunities may arise in the future. Marty discussed how difficult it had become to do manufacturing without face-to-face contact with customers. Nevertheless, the company has been able to introduce new products and projects remotely. Marty believes that the future holds many opportunities for supply chains and how and where products are distributed. By this, he means distribution centers will become local to make supply chains shorter and faster. Additionally, we will be able to bring some of the manufacturing that had moved overseas back to this country and then leverage brand new technology.
When asked about the role of AI in the future, Marty talked about how it could be used with supply chains to decrease human error. There’s a high risk of gaps being created as people are trying to manage supply chains and have to ensure that all the dots are connected so a product can make it all the way through. However, AI will make supply chains much more efficient and it could come to a point where they will become automatically calibrated. Adding onto the concept of creating shorter supply chains, Marty believes this will provide more security to countries because they won’t be dependent on getting certain materials from other countries. An excellent example of this is face masks: previously about 95% were made outside of the U.S. and once the pandemic began, other countries stopped selling them to us.
To learn more about C5MI, you can visit the company’s website at www.C5MI.com.
