Dive Brief:
- Aldi International Buying Asia, the grocery chain’s global hub to source products from Asia, is turning to artificial intelligence as a way to strengthen its end-to-end freight management, according to a Jan. 4 press release.
- The supermarket chain aims to centralize its global shipping volume, increase cost transparency and improve its control over the movement of goods throughout its supply chain using One Network Enterprises’ Intelligent Control Tower on the Digital Supply Chain Network solution.
- The technology platform “will greatly improve effectiveness in collaborating with our suppliers and being more responsive to our customers,” Fritz Walleczek, managing director of Aldi International Buying Asia, said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Besides being a sourcing hub, Aldi’s Hong Kong-based International Buying Asia unit manages all global ocean freight logistics for the grocer. The control tower technology offers Aldi a way to build a “strategic ocean freight procurement strategy to manage their global shipments of goods better,” according to One Network Enterprises’ press release.
Aldi also aims to use the technology to specifically consolidate and reduce freight rates, shipment handling and storage costs as well as manual processes.
The solution is designed to match demand with available supply in real time by integrating Aldi’s network of logistics partners and suppliers around a single data model. This will “enable real-time collaboration across trading partners, workflows, and applications,” according to the release.
As more companies look to gain greater real-time visibility and collaboration across its supply chain, more have been looking toward AI and other technology platforms to mitigate delays and other issues spurred by changing market conditions.
Allbirds, for instance, recently implemented Anaplan’s planning software to streamline its demand, inventory and supply planning processes. Sports equipment retailer Brooks Running also decided to implement a tech platform last year to deepen its supply chain visibility in a bid to achieve its responsible sourcing goals.
