It was just a matter of time before the cloud services providers began offering their own versions of the software they’ve been hosting on their platforms for years. As an example of this shift, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is now offering its AWS Supply Chain application to “help businesses increase supply chain visibility to make faster, more informed decisions that mitigate risks, save costs, and improve customer experiences.”
Companies already using AWS Supply Chain include Traeger Grills, Lifetime Brands (supplier of home goods by brands such as Farberware and KitchenAid), and Amazon’s own Whole Foods Market.
Features of the cloud-based software are based on nearly 30 years of Amazon.com logistics network experience, says AWS. For example, the unified data lake feature of AWS Supply Chain uses machine learning models pre-trained for supply chains to understand, extract, and transform disparate data into a unified data model. AWS says the data lake can “ingest data from a variety of data sources, including existing ERP and supply chain management systems.”
Another feature of AWS Supply Chain is its Insights module for information on potential supply chain risks—such as overstock or stock outs. When risks are detected, the software automatically evaluates rebalancing options to provide recommended actions. The options provided by the software are scored by the percentage of risk resolved, the distance between facilities, and the sustainability impact, according to AWS.
The Demand Planning feature of AWS Supply Chain reportedly adjusts to market conditions and allows for collaboration across teams to avoid excess inventory costs and waste. As with the unified data lake component, this module of AWS Supply Chain also uses machine learning. Here it is used to analyze historical sales data and real-time data, create forecasts, and adjust models to improve accuracy.
AWS offers a free trial period of 60 days, which includes 1,000 product SKU location combinations to be used for AWS Supply Chain Insights and Demand Planning and 10 GB of data storage. Following that, pricing is listed as follows:
- Data Storage and services: importing of data is free, with the first 10 GB of data priced at $0.28/hour and $0.25 per GB/month for additional storage beyond the first 10 GB.
- Insights capabilities are priced at $0.40 per product SKU for the first 100K SKUs; $0.13 per product SKU for the next 900K SKUs, and $0.065 per product SKUs over 1 million.
- Demand planning pricing is $0.30 per product SKU for the first 100K SKUs, $0.10 per product SKU for the next 900K SKUs, and $0.035 per product SKU for SKUs over 1 million.
Learn more about the connections between automation and supply chain technologies.
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