AI

How AI is Improving Transportation and Logistics

How AI is Improving Transportation and Logistics

Illustration by Namrata Vansadia

Introduction

How is artificial intelligence improving transportation and logistics? To answer this question, it is important for us to understand the advancement of technological solutions that have been developed to automate most of the economic sectors and that leads us to believe that there is an urgent need for logistics and automotive industry leaders to adopt advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence to improve business performance.

Artificial intelligence will improve transportation and logistics by alleviating critical process challenges and unclogging bottle necks. AI does it by improving real-time route optimization, better inventory management, efficient workforce management, reduction in operational costs, enhancing work place and road safety, improving predictive maintenance and analytics. AI also helps in integrating sustainable practices across different stages of the process and can help the industry be carbon negative. 

Also Read: Role of artificial intelligence in public transportation.

AI in Logistics and Transportation: Data-Driven Shifts to Boost Business.

The entire process in the logistics and transportation sector entails enormous data generation, from warehouse management to fleet and supply-chain management. The data is the basis for the process of developing, testing, and implementing intelligent transport, manufacturing, and safety systems.

Source: YouTube

When data is processed using Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML), it reveals valuable information such as what the business is doing right and where it needs to optimize.

Businesses that make informed decisions using processed data insights have a competitive edge that leads to improved operations, meeting customer expectations, and increased revenue. The public transportation industry can use AI in passenger management and improve customer service across the board.

Also Read: Artificial Intelligence And Bus Transportation

The Use of AI in Transportation and Its Value for Business.

When AI is applied efficiently, it leads to a profound transformation in the transportation process. The Transportation Research Board acknowledges Artificial Intelligence as a solution to transportation industry problems including predicting traffic demand, dynamic route guidance, predictive maintenance and automatic incident detection.

Driverless cars, autonomous vehicles, and autonomous cars rely heavily on AI to function. The future is self-driving vehicles working without human intervention, which could reduce risks such as driver fatigue and improved traffic management. This will require a connected intelligent transport system to work.

Route planning combines AI’s predictive analytics and advanced algorithms such as the shortest path to determine the efficient route and order for stops, therefore minimizing drive time and fuel wastage. The application of AI in traffic management is enormous because AI analyzes real-time data from road and rail traffic volumes. AI enables intelligent traffic control systems, thus reducing congestion.

AI is integral to support sustainable transportation from planning to coming up with solutions for overcoming increasing travel demand, traffic management, safety concerns, Co2 reduction and environmental degradation

AI can help plan better routes and delivery management systems to assure customer deliveries are done with as much minimum disruption as possible with on-demand predictive analysis. AI is the driving force behind intelligent transportation systems including smart roads. Some countries are implementing sensors on highways. This is to allow real-time feedback to support new and emerging technologies such as self-driving cars and autonomous trucks. It boosts consumer confidence in the business.

Businesses that have better customer service tend to have repeat customers which results in better revenue.

Robots and AI in Logistics

Repetitive tasks can be cumbersome and leads to error prone process. Robotic process automation helps the automotive and transport industry create intelligent systems to do repetitive tasks without reducing output quality. Robots are key in smart manufacturing and logistics processes.

Warehouse robots use AI technology to enhance supply chain management in the logistics industry. Robots work with minimal human intervention to help identify, pick, sort, transport, and store packages. An example is Amazon, which has boosted its warehouse automation productivity by using robots. According to Forbes, industry experts state robotics in logistics boosts productivity by 200-300%.

Delivery drones are robots that use AI intelligence to deliver packages to desired locations. The drones use AI and computer vision to detect objects while navigating to reach the required location. The medical sector embraced this transportation process to deliver medicine to patients, which serves well in an emergency. Delivery drones don’t face challenges such as traffic congestion and human drivers.

IoT and IIoT in logistics 

IoT (Internet of Things) is reshaping the logistics industry through IoT devices and AI. IoT devices collect data of assets, objects, and people through sensors and transmit it to the distributed cloud. IoT helps with real-time object tracking, identification, and fleet management. Managers can rapidly analyze the data collected from IoT devices and make the right decision for the business.

IIoT is the backbone of intelligent manufacturing and logistics to ensure optimum production. IIoT devices with sensors are placed on equipment and machines to transmit data on their performance. The data collected can be on the heating, energy consumption, and operating condition. When it comes to safety, IIoT is key for intelligent safety systems to function. IIoT devices can send alerts through sensors of abnormal processes so that action can be taken.

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Source: YouTube

Also Read: What is the Internet of Things (IoT)?

Advantages of AI in the Transportation Industry and Accounting 

Real-time route optimization
AI platforms optimize delivery routes by determining the most efficient route for logistics trucks and the sequence of stops in real-time. By doing this, the platforms enable streamlined route planning and timely delivery.

Better inventory management
AI creates data-driven manufacturing and automates inventory levels by analyzing supplier orders and customer demand. This is important for businesses to have insight into future demand planning, reducing waste, and increasing profit.

Efficient workforce management
Businesses use AI to analyze employee inventory skills, update the skills and manage employees. AI facilitates back office automation of reducing the labor of manual processes and strategic workforce planning through scheduling.

Reduction in operational costs
Better processes that leverage deep analytics to draw insights using AI can help reduce operational costs drastically.

Enhanced workplace safety
Creating a safe workplace through intelligent safety management by tracking employees and machines and sending alerts to reduce risks to human lives.

Efficient use of space
Optimizing the layouts of facilities increases storage and movement spaces through analysis of warehouse and work patterns. Warehouse managers can analyze and make the correct decision in strategic equipment placement and asset position.

Enhanced customer experience
The use of AI-driven chatbots that serve customers 24/7 without human intervention ensures better engagement with customers all the time. AI helps to meet customers’ needs by accessing their behaviors and needs so that they can help businesses meet customer expectations.

Automates warehouse processes
The use of robotic process automation for day-to-day physical and manual processes, such as laser-guided forklifts, automating document processing, and product recognition.

Improves predictive analytics
Machine learning can be utilized to analyze historical data and predict consumer demand, which businesses can then use to optimize sales and marketing.

Also Read: Automation vs AI: What is the Difference, Why is It Important?

AI and Rail Transportation, Vehicle Fleets, and Facility Networks

AI is transforming the rail industry through intelligent train operations by autonomous driving and control, transport planning and management, and train and railway maintenance and inspection. Railway transportation is becoming more innovative and reliable. AI can be used in public transportation to improve service to passengers, facilitate transportation during peak hours and accommodate the elderly and people with special needs.

Fleet managers can leverage AI to stay competitive to enhance efficiencies and maintenance. With the AI sensors, managers can keep track of data on driving habits, ensure picking up and returning on time, and document vehicle conditions. The data can be processed by an intelligent transportation system to develop a connected vehicles platform for better fleet management. This is necessary for streamlined maintenance schedules to avoid vehicle breakdown and establish smooth-running fleet management.

AI is beneficial in shipping processes and supply-chain management to monitor inventory and freight routes. Shipping companies should invest in intelligent transport scheduling and real-time analytics to predict maintenance and demand for transportation assets such as shipping containers.

Predictive Intelligence 

Businesses need to equip their fleet with technology to sync with AI platforms to help in data collection and predictive intelligence. The logistics sector can analyze data collected about relevant aspects to predict demand and better supply chain visibility. Historical and transactional data can be used to conduct advanced analytics to identify patterns and predict the future.

Predictive Intelligence helps in inventory management when it comes to what needs to be ordered, what is in stock, and products that have slower consumption to minimize losses. It is also necessary for planning product distribution depending on past patterns of demand. Sales managers use analyzed data to find the quantity of need to ensure availability from manufacturers, which leads to customer satisfaction and boosts business confidence.

The use of predictive intelligence in ensuring real-time freight visibility allows carriers, third-party groups, and customers to track their goods. This continuous process is made possible through monitoring devices that enable visibility of shipment status and location providing transparency and reducing late shipments. Predictive intelligence provides a competitive advantage to businesses.

Source: YouTube

AI in Predictive Maintenance

AI, in particular machine learning (ML), analyzes the huge amount of real-time data available to anticipate potential asset failures intelligently before they lead to breakdowns. The AI sensors can be installed in service fleets, assets, and manufacturing machines to monitor and help businesses proactively prevent failures that lead to delayed operations. 

Predictive maintenance in the automotive industry employs machine learning and cloud technologies to detect issues before they occur. They also provide recommendations to owners to plan relevant maintenance. It can be used to show product life cycles and to determine the functional safety of vehicles.

AI predictive maintenance is key in ensuring the assets and equipment run at their best. This can be done by collecting data from the manufacturing machine, detecting patterns and anomalies, sorting data, and ensuring maintenance practices in real time. Predictive maintenance reduces equipment and vehicle downtime and increases lifespan, thus saving big on logistics and transportation costs.

Conclusion

AI is changing logistics and transportation to secure intelligent and optimized operations thus creating efficient processes and effective business solutions. Logistics companies should ensure that their assets and devices are fitted with the right tools, such as sensors, to collect data used in AI.

Using the data collected and analyzed makes it easier for decision-makers to choose the optimal path for the business. The ability to predict the future using past patterns is valuable to the logistics and transport industry. AI and advanced technologies such as IoT are vital in making the logistics sector contemporary.

References

Chawla, Priyanka, et al. Blockchain, IoT, and AI Technologies for Supply Chain Management. CRC Press, 2023.

Hu, Zhengbing, et al. Advances in Artificial Systems for Logistics Engineering. Springer Nature, 2022.

Ochoa-Zezzatti, Alberto, et al. Technological and Industrial Applications Associated with Intelligent Logistics. Springer Nature, 2021.

Ouaissa, Mariyam, et al. Artificial Intelligence of Things in Smart Environments: Applications in Transportation and Logistics. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2022.