Impacts of AI driven manufacturing processes on supply chains: the contributions of the knowlEdge project

Abstract

Integrating cross-company activities to form supply chains (SC) reduces costs, resource waste, and builds relations for mutual improvement. However, with more tiers involved, monitoring and addressing problems becomes more difficult. This puts the continuity of the SC at risk. The EU knowlEdge project addresses monitoring and learning in the SC through artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that are distributed, scalable and collaborative. With algorithms for self-learning and automatic value creation, rigid organisation is replaced by flexible networks, facilitating knowledge sharing. Technologies from different domains, including AI and data analytics, are unified into a software architecture. The architecture constitutes a systemic solution and leapfrogs SC performance, including adaptability and autonomy. This allows to respond to evolving markets and to address deviations better.