 Hello everyone, welcome to this course on supply chain digitization. This course is offered by IIM Mumbai and is jointly being taught by myself, Professor Priyanka Varma and my colleagues, Professor Sushmita Narayana and Professor Sripad Pratadas. This is the last week and the last session of this course and we have been discussing about the digital infrastructure in supply chain in this week. If you remember in this week our focus was all on understanding the need of digitization and about adopting the digital mindset for implementing this digitization in any business. We have extended our discussions to industry 4.0 technologies and the nine pillars associated with it. We have seen all of these nine pillars in details. We have explored their implementation methods, their technologies, their challenges and so on. Going forward we also had discussions about the blockchain which is an enabler for industry 4.0 technology implementation. From the last session we have focusing or understanding about how these industry 4.0 technologies can be implemented in different business scenarios. In the last week if you remember we have picked up different cases where one of the pillar of industry 4.0 that is IoT or Internet of Things has been taken to understand its possible applications in different business scenarios and correspondingly how it has benefited it. We also have focused on supply chain under certain processes and based on that we have tried to map these technologies and we are trying to see that how these particular industry 4.0 technology can benefit or can be implemented for that particular supply chain function. So, this has been emphasized through IoT system in the last session. In today's session we will be focusing on some of the industry 4.0 technologies and we will explore their possible applications in the different functions of the supply chains that have been covered in the previous session. If you remember this table we have tried to map the different industry 4.0 technologies including all these 9 pillars which gets covered under industry 4.0 along with the blockchain and how these technologies can be implemented for the different supply chain processes like your planning and forecasting, sourcing and procurement, production and manufacturing, inventory management, distribution and logistics and customer services. This was the way in which we have already defined our supply chain processes in the previous sessions and following the same path we are trying to implement or we are exploring the possibility of implementing these technologies for these different processes. The table which is shown over here is an indicative table. It is not a final solution however it is quite an indicative step given to us which guides us for finding out the possible application of the industry 4.0 technology in the associated supply chain processes. Again I am repeating that depending upon the business requirement this mapping can also be explored in future. Going ahead in the last session we have focused on application of IoT for the different supply chain processes and this has been covered through different cases in the previous session. We will be exploring this further by looking into the application of few more industry 4.0 technologies for the associated supply chain processes. The first one is robotics and let us explore its applications in the different supply chain processes. The first process that we are picking up is the sourcing and procurement. To understand this we have referred to a hypothetical company called as BioCarol Pharmaceuticals which is a leading drug manufacturer. It has been observed that the procurement process attached with this is slow and error prone and this is happening due to the manual sourcing and supplier management. To solve this problem the company has implemented a robotic process automation or RPA in short. Now the job of these software bots is to streamline the task and they are doing it by real time market analysis, automated vendor onboarding, price negotiation and order processing. So we can see that there are multiple tasks which is being done by these software bots and this all these multiple tasks are helping in streamlining the task and at the end it is contributing in reduction of the procurement cycles and these stock outs are minimized. Finally resulting into the cost savings because of the better negotiation and also because of the reduced errors. So very interestingly how these robotic process automation is implemented over here where the challenges of procurement are easily handled with the real time analysis and automation in the associated systems. Let us look into the application of robotics into one more process. The second process which we are picking up is the production and manufacturing. Here we have a company called as YANI which is a ukulele maker and this is a very again skill requirement is there for this particular product. The product has got a high demand in the market but again the production capacity is not sufficient and this is mainly due to the unavailability or due to reliance on the skilled Luthiers. So here the idea was that can robotics be implemented in such a way that it this reliance can be reduced and the demand can be met. So a robotic arm is introduced which is equipped with the different sensors and tools which are precise in nature. The job of a robot is always to handle the repetitive task and particularly for this product it is observed that the wood cutting and the initial assembly is the job which is a repetitive task and can easily be given or can be easily done with the help of robots. So an implementation of robots for this particular activity lead to the increase in the output and also the body of the instrument that is made is consistent and having no quality issues mainly because of the repetitive task. Because of this as the robotics has taken care of the repetitive task following the quality management as well the Luthiers or the skilled workforce were able to concentrate on the intricate craftsmanship and this is again we can say that this is a benefit of implementing the robotics in production and manufacturing over here. So here we can see how beautifully the human expertise is integrated with the robotic precision and this joint collaboration is resulted into the increase of production of the products and parallely the quality of the instrument is also maintained at the maximum level. Let us see the third application of robotics in the inventory management and for this there is a company called as bulb boutique which is mainly responsible for the bulbs. So here the challenge that company is facing is in the order fulfillment because of two reasons. The first reason is they are owning large warehouses and the second reason is the item which they are handling is delicate nature. To take care of this problem they have implemented a robotic picking system which is here with the autonomous mobile robots also called as AMRs and this particular picking system also equipped with the vision sensors. So robots what they do is that they scan the shells and depending upon the requirement they identify the bulbs and retrieve them. The whole activity is done in a very precise manner because of this robotic picking system implementation the picking times has significantly reduced and most importantly the damage to the fragile bulbs is significantly reduced because of this particular system. So we can say that when we implemented these robotic system for the this company called as bulb boutique it helps it to achieve faster and the more accurate fulfillment in the process and because of this the company is now planning to expand their product range as well. The next example or the next application of robotics we will see in their distribution and logistics. Again we have a hypothetical company called as Bookworm Central which is also a leading player in the used book industry. As we can see the product is a used book. So here the challenge with the company is facing is related to the unsatisfied customer and they are not happy because of the slow processing of the system. So what they have done over here is they implemented a robotic sorting system and these autonomous mobile robots were primarily used for identifying and sorting and the photographing of the books. Because of this implementation of AMRs the processing times are drastically reduced and the data for all the book was automatically being uploaded and hence speeding up the listing process. The overall activities as we can see has resulted in the reduction of the timing for the process and this is leading to the improvement in the customer satisfaction. The next process of supply chain where robotics can be influential or can be useful is customer service and to understand this let us look into this case of shelf reliance which is again a bookstore chain. But here we can see that we are oriented toward customer service. So here the challenge which is faced by shelf reliance is that the customers are facing long wait times for the in-store pickup of online orders and this is due to slow manual retriever from the tall shelves. To take care of this problem again the company has implemented a robotic solution which is again a robotic retrieval systems. You can see the differences in the implementation of robotics. In the previous example it was robotics sorting system but in this particular example the focus is more on retrieval system. Though both the cases are discussing about the book industry only but the requirement for handling the books have changed in these two examples and here by the robotics associated with them or the requirements associated with the robotics is also modified. So in this case of shelf reliance we are talking about implementation of robotic retrieval system which is again using the primary autonomous mobile robots AMRs. Again because this is a retrieval system so that is why it is equipped with the maps and the grippers and here these AMRs swiftly located and retrieved the books. Because of this robotic solution implementation the wait times of the customers have significantly reduced leading to the increased customer experience and here by enhancing the in-store pickup efficiency. Now as you can see that because this repetitive task is being taken care with the robotic retrieval system the staff working in this organization or in this company is relatively now free and they are they can do better work maybe they can focus on assisting the customers with the browsing and maybe by providing recommendation it will add to the personalized services which they can offer to the customer and overall this will again add to the customer satisfaction. So we can see that interestingly how the same robotics again has been applied across the different supply chain processes. We will pick up the next technology under industry 4.0 as we have seen previously also about AR and VR. AR is augmented reality about AR and VR. Let us talk about the AR and VR application in the different supply chain processes. The first example that we are referring is on sourcing and procurement. Again here there is a hypothetical company called as ACME furniture which is a well known furniture maker but here they are struggling with the managing the international suppliers. The suppliers are not local and hence the focus is more on ensuring the quality control. To look for these challenges the company has implemented the AR-VR solutions and let us see that how this is being used. So the procurement officers what they do is that they have utilized the AR headsets for the virtual tools of the supplier workshops and in this way they have inspected the production lines or the suppliers also they have inspected the materials in a remote manner. Similarly the AR tablets were provided to the on-site inspector for the real-time quality checks and highlighting the crucial dimensions and specifications. We can see that none of the players in this have to travel and that is why the travel cost is significantly reduced whereas you had better control on your short sourcing decisions. The supplier management is more effective the requirement of the products can be seen that it is followed or not and hence there is a better control of quality using this method. The next function we will pick up is production and manufacturing. So we have a company called as Honey Ale Aerospace which is again a hypothetical company which we have picked up and this company is involved in making the complex aircraft components. So the challenge with the company is facing is related to the wiring installation and the accuracy related to it and also they want it to be highly efficient. When this job is done using the traditional method by following the traditional paper-based manuals there were lot of errors happening because of the misinterpretations and also it is leading to the delies. So when the air was introduced the technicians wore the air glasses overlaying the aircraft structures with the digital wire paths and the connection points. We can see that how the errors got minimized the assembly speed got improved and parallely the safety protocols were followed. Similarly when the VR simulations was implemented here it led to the engineers to virtually walk through the aircraft and identify what are the challenges which are there related to the maintenance and optimize the access point. So we can see that the implementation of AR VR in the production and manufacturing function helped in reducing the wiring errors speed up the assembly and also it enhances the long-term maintainability. The next function is our again customer service. This is again proven through a small case of a company called as Mika again a hypothetical company which is a global furniture giant when the customers visit this furniture company they want to visualize the furnitures in their homes. So basically they want to understand that how that particular furniture will look into their places. Sometimes obviously because of the brand and because of the quality the customers end up in the impulse buying behavior but as it is not suiting to the requirement the returns is also very high. So this is challenging the company for managing this impulse buys and returns behavior at the customer end. The solution which has been checked over here with the help of AR is giving a AR showroom experience where the customers could virtually place a 3D furniture models in their own space. It is not that they have to travel to the furniture shop they can just place a 3D image of their furniture model in their space and it can be very easily done in their own smartphones or tablets. Now because of this obviously the customers can take better decision and because of this the customer satisfaction is increased and resulted into a reduction in the returns basically. We can see at the end the customer satisfaction got improved, the sales got boosted and the returns got reduced with the implementation of AR we are in the furniture manufacturing company. The next example that we are picking up is about application of additive manufacturing and because this is a very very special type of additive manufacturing process which has recently been introduced as the latest technology we are going to see its application in the production and manufacturing case. So there is a company again named as RoboPulse which is a toy making company. Now because you have some problem or malfunction of the gear in their star robot toy there is a delay in the overall process. So when the company persons tried to fix the issue using the traditional methods it would take weeks for substituting this malfunctioning gear with the better option. So now this had been a holiday season and thereby the demand for this product is going to be very high. To overcome this challenge the company has looked for applying the additive manufacturing or 3D printing as a solution. So what the company engineers have done they have designed a print and printed a functional gear which is printed using the high strength nylon and because of this the production could be resumed within the days because of the 3D printed gear and this helped in ensuring the on time delivery of the product ultimately resulting into prevention of the significant financial losses. So the ways can be minimized by using only necessary material and directly printing the complex design this is one of the most significant benefit of applying additive manufacturing in any supply chain processes. The last technology which we are going to discuss is about blockchain let us see how this is being applied in the different supply chain processes. In sourcing and procurement we are referring to a company called as Oceanic Limited which is a seafood supplier. Now again the customers are interested in understanding or in knowing the sourcing of the tuna. So the challenge here is to verify that this tuna sourcing is sustainable. The major challenges in this case is about complex paper trails and the potential fraud in this scenario which can be easily done. To overcome this particular challenge the company implemented a blockchain platform and here in this system every catch was recorded with all the details with respect to origin the vessel ID and the fishing methods all these things are recorded on this platform. Now because of this it created an immutable and transparent ledger which is now accessible to all the participants. So we have been discussing about this immutability and the bringing the transparency through blockchain in the previous session as well. Now we can see how this is being applied in any business scenario. The data is now integrated and the empowered consumers with confidence in the Oceanic sustainable practices. So we can see that with the help of blockchain implementation the verification of the product origins can be done using this platform. The benefit of this is that the paperwork has got streamlined, the cost have significantly reduced and the transactions have got expedited. The next case of blockchain implementation can be seen in distribution and logistics. So we have a company called as Rainforest Raindrops which is a well known tea retailer company and again it is a hypothetical company. The challenge with the company is facing is all about how to track the tea's journey and the company is trying to bring transparency in the system for that same they have implemented a blockchain based tracking system which will guarantee for the clarity and transparency. Now it is each step starting from the harvest till the last step which is packaging the transactions or the progress or the development is recorded on a very secure, shared and a digital ledger. Because of this the customers could not trace their tea's origin they can also verify their fair trade prices and most importantly they can ensure the ethical sourcing. So here the transparency that has been obtained because of blockchain implementation helped us in enhancing the customer's trust and trend in the relationships with the tea farmers as well. So we can say that our whole process is helping us in making the things more sustainable and ethical tea trade. With this we have tried to demonstrate few cases for each supply chain functions and how that industry 4.0 technology can be implemented to solve the challenges associated with that particular supply chain process. We are now coming to the end of this course where we are going to close the fourth module as well. In this module our discussion was more on understanding the digital infrastructure in the supply chain and we have discussed the different digital solutions that can be implemented in a given supply chain. This brings us to the end of this course and we hope that the concept of supply chain digitization is helpful to all of us. Thank you everyone looking forward to meet you all in future wish you all the best for your upcoming exams. Thank you and all the best.