Software giant Microsoft Corp. will team with the German supply chain management and e-commerce solution provider Arvato to develop plans for a “self-managing warehouse of the future,” powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and cloud computing, the partners said today.
The “Moonshot” research project aims to implement self-improving processes within the warehouse environment, and will be presented at the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo 2024 being held this June in Barcelona.
“We launched the Moonshot project with Microsoft in March, aiming for the ambitious goal of creating an autonomous warehouse," Paul Brolly, vice president of global business development at Arvato, said in a release. "Our approach involves examining various warehouse processes to automate and enhance them through robotics, digitalization, and AI. The focus isn't solely on individual processes. In the future, AI could handle the initial overall warehouse layout for new orders based on customer requirements, which we would then refine with our expertise. This approach saves time and effort.”
According to Brolly, Microsoft will contribute its expertise in data platforms, compute capacities, Gen AI forecasting, computer vision, augmented reality, and cognitive services like speech recognition and text analysis.
Practical applications of the Moonshot project could include use cases such as optimizing picking routes using AI to reorganize task orders through rapid data analysis, thus enhancing navigation for pickers. Another use case would involve AI-controlled interpretation of carrier responses in transport complaints, triggering appropriate actions in the claim management tool and freeing up resources by reducing manual complaint processing to three to four percent.
