Companies face significant challenges in making supply chain decisions that maximize profits while quickly adapting to dynamic changes. Optimal supply chain operations rely on advanced analytics and real-time data processing to adapt to rapidly changing situations and make informed decisions.
Linear Programming with NVIDIA cuOpt
NVIDIA cuOpt and NVIDIA NIM inference microservices enable enterprises to leverage the power of AI agents to improve optimization, and supply chain efficiency is one of the most attractive and popular domains for such applications. In addition to the well-known vehicle routing problem (VRP), cuOpt can optimize linearly constrained problems on GPUs, expanding the set of problems that cuOpt can solve in near real time.
The cuOpt AI agent uses multiple LLM agents and acts as a natural language front-end for cuOpt, seamlessly converting natural language queries into code and optimized plans.
Supply Chain Management Innovation
Supply chains are becoming more complex and difficult to manage due to dynamically changing factors such as inventory shortages, demand surges, and price fluctuations. However, supply chain optimization offers significant benefits.
According to the study, organizations can expect to save $37 million by responding more quickly to supply chain disruptions, which is 45% of the average cost of a supply chain disruption in 2022. Supply chain disruptions pose significant economic challenges, costing organizations worldwide an average of $83 million annually. Larger organizations naturally incur greater costs.
On average, companies with annual revenues between $500 million and $1 billion incurred costs of $43 million, while companies with revenues between $10 billion and $50 billion incurred costs of $111 million.
Optimized Decision Making
With dramatic improvements in solver times, linear programming enables much faster decision making, which can be applied to numerous use cases across a wide range of industries, including:
- Resource Allocation
- Cost Optimization
- Scheduling
- Inventory Planning
- Facility Location Planning
Here are some example use cases from industries where data discovery and mathematical optimization are required to run what-if scenarios:
Manufacturing, Transportation and Retail
The customer has requested an additional 30 units, but due to weather conditions, delivery will be delayed by a week. What will be the impact on the fulfillment rate, and how will this affect the allocation plan to minimize production, transportation, and storage costs?
Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals
Global demand for healthcare providers and drugs is growing faster than expected. Can hospitals and pharmaceutical companies dynamically reassess the impact of their medical supplies to maximize profits?
City planning
As a result of urban development plans, certain areas are experiencing an influx of residents, which creates traffic congestion. How can cities decide how many transit stops to add to maximize transit use and reduce the number of private vehicles?
conclusion
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