2025-09 – New colors, a new name and a revised graphic theme for the always exceptional annual ASCM Conference, debuting this year as CHAINge 2025, in the surprising city of Columbus, OH.
My end-of-summer trip to the US is something familiar for me now, and it’s never boring. First of all, because the ASCM Supply Chain Conference moves to a different city every year: for someone as passionate about this country as I am, having the opportunity to visit it far and wide is particularly exciting. Furthermore, the eventi lives up to its reputation as the most prestigious global conference in the field of Supply Chain Management.
Beyond the Keynote speakers, who always provide high-level insights (this year featured Gina Raimondo, the U.S. secretary of commerce, and Henrik Von Scheel, a renowed economist and one of the “founding fathers” of the Industry 4.0 program), the entire event is always an invaluable source of inspiration. Connections, exchanges of experiences, and fascinating speeches from those who apply the themes, and solve the issues, that supply chain professionals face every day.
The main topic, which (if possible) is even more dominant than last year, has not changed: Artificial Intelligence, is depicted as a tool with increasingly high potential for industry and business, and is now a decisive element for creating a competitive advantage. We witnessed several practical applications, which were quite impressive in terms of speed and effectiveness: for example “Agent Marie”, upon the occurrence of a fault classified as number X, in a few seconds consulted all the manuals in its memory, suggested causes and possible solutions by investigating previous occurrences, and finally automatically opened a maintenance work order. How long would it take an employee, even an excellent one, to do all of that? It is now evident that the areas of application can be infinite: forecasting, planning, procurement, customer service, even HR. One speaker offered an illuminating thought: “AI is your super smart colleague, to whom you can assign part of your work, and it will complete each task millions of times faster than you can. Don’t give the difficult, value-added tasks to it; rather, use it for the analytical and repetitive ones, to save your time and energy for what really matters: making decisions”. And moreover: “the future is, you both working together, becoming a team of excellence”.
I’ll share a few more valuable takeaways later; but first, a word of warning: I’m not surprised to find even more emphasis on a topic I’ve always considered extremely important (I’ve discussed repeatedly about it, for example here): the preparatory activities are fundamental and indispensable for any project of this magnitude , particularly in terms of cleansing, accuracy and awareness of data.
Even in the example a few lines above, the quantity and the importance of the many activities hidden behind that result, must not be overlooked. There are no discounts or shortcuts, and AI itself cannot help with this “dirty” work of improving a company’s quality of information flows. Just think of adopting and instructing it with incorrect data, what kind of helpful result could be expected for decision-making? What kind of answers can you get from a measurement taken with a broken instrument?
Here some more nuggets of wisdom: “The first step is data integrity: you will never make good analyses with poor data. Treat data as your most valuable asset” – “There’s no other way for an AI project to succeed, than relying on real-time, high-quality data: would you entrust your future to an AI that makes decisions based on incorrect data?” – “If not used wisely, AI will only make you make bad decisions, faster!” – “Technology applied to ineffective processes won’t improve them: therefore, study them and practice problem solving: you will never solve a problem you don’t fully understand” – And finally, on teamwork: “Speed is everything today: build trust and effective communication, circulate quality information quickly throughout the entire team, engage people and help them grow. It’s the only way today to bring quality to the market.”
I think that, as always, there is a lot to reflect on; so, as every year: “Thank you Columbus, and see you in Long Beach!”
In closing, just some more words to express my immense gratitude. This year, timing and “geography” allowed me to fulfill an incredible dream: to watch the US Open Tennis Final live. It’s well known that I’m a big fan, you can tell even from here. It’s a shame it didn’t go well for Jannik… but it was an unforgettable experience. A little fun was certainly well-deserved, don’t you think?
