Finding “Real-time Vision” in Supply Chain Management Requires Investments in the Integration of AI and IoT on Cloud Platforms – Cloudleaf CEO, Mahesh Veerina

By Nathan Fisher, Managing Editor, BizTechReports

Lane Cooper, Editorial Director, BizTechReports

“It is going to be imperative that companies implement these digital technologies. I personally feel that we are at an inflection point of 18 to 24 months. Those who don’t embrace these technologies and capabilities during this inflection window will lose ground to their competition.”

Organizations that are unable to see the exact disposition of every item in their supply chain will be unable to compete effectively in an increasingly real-time world driven by today’s ecommerce market. So says Mahesh Veerina, CEO of Cloudleaf, a Silicon Valley-based company that is using digital technologies -- including internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) -- in the cloud to transform supply chains. 

For years, supply chain management has revolved around tracking an array of transactional events as products flowed through different phases of the ecosystem. These systems have mainly served to provide a record of steps already taken. Despite great strides in improving the effectiveness of electronic data interchange, warehouse management and customs clearing systems, they still contribute to fragmented data silos. This makes it very difficult for decision makers to understand the true disposition of their supply chain operations. 

As a result, they have not been able to make the kind of forward-looking decisions based on predictive analytics that must now be in place to meet the high expectations of consumers and enterprise clients alike. 

Full Interview with Mahesh Veerina, CEO of Cloudleaf

“Organizations are looking for real-time visibility into what's happening across the supply chain. Where is my stuff? What condition is it in? When is it arriving? Answers to these questions are imperative to so many aspects of business. Internal process management, external audit and regulatory compliance all depend on these answers, as do sustainability initiatives that are leveraged to really drive profit by eliminating waste and loss in the supply chain,” Veerina explains.

Integrating Emerging Technologies in the Cloud

The integration of emerging technologies -- like IoT and AI/ML -- into cloud environments offers an opportunity to aggregate disparate data sources and create a platform upon which sophisticated data analytics is applied to support proactive decision-making.

When you combine the latest developments in new digital sensory technologies with GPS and existing transactional records of the trading partner community -- including OEMs, third-party logistics (3PL) companies and enterprise customers -- executives can continuously capture granular data at every moment. 

“We now have the timestamp, the geo-location information and even shipment conditions -- with temperature and vibration sensors. This provides true and continuous ‘real-time visibility’ that offers important context to decision makers,” he says.

To illustrate the point, Veerina provided a pharmaceutical industry use case.

“We're working with a pharma company that ships vaccines and insulin. These are very temperature sensitive materials. Executives need to continuously know the conditions of their shipments throughout their supply chain journey,” says Veerina.

If a refrigeration unit in a container fails, it is important to be immediately alerted, rather than wait and inspect shipments when they reach their destination. By deploying and integrating advanced IoT, wireless networking and cloud technologies, it is now possible to keep a constant digital eye on every aspect of every shipment. The sooner executives know that something has gone wrong during transit -- the quicker they can take action to inform clients and accelerate the process of remediation.

“Beyond this, we can also improve the process so that it never happens again. By taking rich data sets out of their silos, executives can get actionable insights into their operations to produce better business outcomes more consistently,” he explains.

Real-Time Insights for Supply Chain Operations

This is where companies like Cloudleaf come in. The company’s Supply Chain Digital Visibility Platform delivers complete, real-time views and insights across the ecosystem from suppliers through production and distribution to customers. By using IoT, AI/ML and advanced analytics, the company is able to provide an aggregated perspective from the billions of events per second that take place as products move through the value chain. 

These insights are used by decision makers to diagnose problems as they occur. The platform enables the predictive analytics needed for executives to take proactive action to better serve different constituencies in the supply chain process.

It supports an operational paradigm that Veerina believes will become increasingly important for supply-chain intensive organizations to embrace over the next few years.

“It is imperative that companies implement these digital technologies. I personally feel that we are at an inflection point of 18 to 24 months. Those who don’t embrace these technologies and capabilities during this inflection window will lose ground to their competition,” concludes Veerina.