Telstra is using cognitive technology from IBM to decide how and where to distribute spares and other materials needed to build and maintain its network. Supply chain executive Jon Young told IBM’s Think 2020 conference that the telco is “nine months into a 12-plus month journey” deploying a cognitive “supply chain control tower.”
For Telstra, the combination of a cognitive supply chain control tower; existing processes implemented through an integrated business planning (IBP) platform; and agile ways of work; has enabled it to navigate challenges caused firstly by the bush fires and now COVID-19.
Young said COVID-19 exposed some single points of failure in Telstra’s network supply chain that the telco is now addressing. “A few of the things that have really jumped out at us at the moment is we’ve got many single points of failure across the end-to-end in our supply chain,” he said.
“While it’s definitely not business-as-usual, we think that the processes, the Agile ways of working and leveraging the tools such as the cognitive control tower are helping us to stay ahead of the problems rather than reacting to them.”
