2887: Revolutionizing Supply Chains: Inside Logility's AI Success Story

[00:00:00] Has artificial intelligence truly begun to revolutionise supply chain management?

[00:00:08] Well today here on Tech Talks Daily we're diving into a fascinating discussion with Scott Tillman.

[00:00:14] He's the SVP of innovation at a company called Logility and I want to uncover how their digital

[00:00:21] supply chain platform is helping to transform businesses and how Logility is harnessing AI

[00:00:28] to not only enhance pattern recognition and forecast accuracy but also streamline operations

[00:00:35] and decision making processes. And I also want to explore how this innovative approach has already

[00:00:41] led to a 20% reduction in inventory for clients, ultimately freeing up valuable working capital.

[00:00:49] And as we navigate the complexities and the opportunities presented by AI in supply chain

[00:00:55] management I invite you to join me and learn more about how technology is making a tangible

[00:01:00] difference in the efficiency and scalability of businesses. So buckle up and hold on tight as

[00:01:08] I beam your ears all the way to Nashville in the US where Scott is waiting to join us today.

[00:01:16] So a massive warm welcome to the show Scott, for everyone listening, used to have one

[00:01:21] listening a little about who you are and what you do.

[00:01:24] So yeah, so my name is Scott Tillman. I work as part of the R&D team at Logility.

[00:01:30] Over my 12 years at Logility I have served in various roles from SVP at a subsidiary

[00:01:36] Demand Solutions to my current role as SVP of Innovation and Process Improvement. My

[00:01:42] current role as part of the R&D leadership team is setting direction for the strategic

[00:01:47] initiatives we plan on delivering, keeping both a tactical and strategic horizon in mind.

[00:01:54] Well it's a pleasure to have you on the podcast and before you came on I was doing

[00:01:58] a little research on you and one of the things that quickly stood out is you've got

[00:02:01] this diverse background in supply chain operations and ERP implementations and so

[00:02:07] much more but I always like to find out a little bit about the origin story of my guess.

[00:02:11] So can you share how that journey led you to your current role of SVP of Innovation at Logility?

[00:02:18] Yeah I think I have a fairly unique type of role in that I started out back in the Y2K

[00:02:27] implementation boom, if you will, of ERP systems implementing Oracle

[00:02:32] and supply chain and then I transitioned over to a software company, Cerner, who ironically

[00:02:38] was acquired by Oracle later in their life or just recently within the last couple of years,

[00:02:44] but I started working at their beta client which was a hospital local in Kansas City and

[00:02:50] from there I was really interesting in that I started to figure out that being a

[00:02:55] third-party implementer was much different than working for the software company itself.

[00:03:00] Their expectations were different as far as you know I was focused on supply chain but

[00:03:05] they had a whole suite of products for surgery and pharmacy that interacted with supply chain

[00:03:11] solutions that I had no experience with and so there was an expectation that as you working

[00:03:17] for the software company would know the whole platform of the software and so from there

[00:03:22] I really got interested in how the sausage was made if you will and started to explore

[00:03:28] opportunities within the software realm and from there I just took an interest in product

[00:03:33] management, how software was delivered, how software was designed and really have served

[00:03:38] in those various roles across multiple supply chain software companies for the rest of my career.

[00:03:45] Well I would say that over the last few years I think much of the world took the supply chain

[00:03:50] for granted but with what happened with the pandemic and global uncertainty there's

[00:03:55] nearly a whole episode of discussions around that but I think now people realize how fragile

[00:04:00] it can be but on a more positive note Legility has been recognized for its digital supply chain

[00:04:06] platform so can you tell me a little bit more about this platform what sets it apart in the

[00:04:11] industry and also how it aligns with the current supply chain demands and our evolving

[00:04:16] expectations? Yeah it's interesting I used to say I worked in supply chain and people

[00:04:21] didn't necessarily know what that meant but I do think the pandemic has definitely brought

[00:04:26] it to the forefront of people's mind and experience and there's a better understanding

[00:04:31] of what I do now than what there has been in the past and then you know as far as the

[00:04:36] digital supply chain platform that Legility provides it really focuses on a unique

[00:04:41] combination of depth and breadth of its solutions across supply chain planning. It can

[00:04:47] meet companies where they are in their transformation, it can grow with them as

[00:04:51] they mature, it's designed to automate routine tasks and then surface critical information that

[00:04:58] allows them to be proactive in their decision making so it leverages best practices,

[00:05:03] it has deep market expertise and it brings those things together in a platform that

[00:05:09] allows for the interaction in the interoperability of different supply

[00:05:14] chain solutions whether it be demand, supply, inventory, manufacturing optimization that allows

[00:05:20] our clients to really gain quick wins from where they're focusing but then expand into the

[00:05:26] platform and leverage that and mature along with them so they're not looking for a

[00:05:31] different technology solution 10 years from now they have the solution that's going to grow

[00:05:36] with them and really be part of their supply chain transformation journey. And it has been

[00:05:42] quite a ride over the last few years from as we said the pandemic to people working from

[00:05:47] home at scale, people recognizing the value in the supply chain and understanding

[00:05:51] a little more about how it works and more recently of course we've got the

[00:05:55] introduction of generative AI into your services so how is Legility enhancing

[00:06:01] decision making processes for supply chain managers using this technology because I think

[00:06:06] there's a lot of hype about it at the minute but I'd love to focus on the real

[00:06:09] world problems that it helps to solve and you seem to be doing just that.

[00:06:13] Yeah so I think from a gen AI perspective our major focus has been on the use cases

[00:06:18] and answering those specific use cases that are going to provide value to our clients and so

[00:06:24] part of looking at that landscape is looking at what specific use cases will help particular

[00:06:32] clients drive that value and we're focused on really driving insights and so in democratizing

[00:06:37] planning in a way that allows multiple people to quickly gain visibility to either patterns

[00:06:45] within the data particular things that they're trying to put together for reporting for

[00:06:50] analytics and be able to get that information quickly at their fingertips in a way that hasn't

[00:06:56] been available to them in the past it was more of a reporting function and the ability to

[00:07:02] utilize gen AI to gain those insights and then be able to quickly put together data based on

[00:07:10] your supply chief supply chain officer asking you what's the latest demand patterns for a

[00:07:14] particular product set or product family and being able to gain those insights without having

[00:07:19] to do a ton of work or additional work to get to that information is really where I see

[00:07:25] some of the power of what the first phase of our gen AI solution is going to provide and

[00:07:30] then as it matures and grows it will start to even provide even deeper insights into that data

[00:07:36] that would be more difficult for supply chain planners to get their head around.

[00:07:41] And just to bring that to life a little I appreciate you probably can't share any names

[00:07:44] but are you able to provide maybe a specific example of how AI driven solutions at Legility

[00:07:50] have helped transform a client's supply chain operations is there anything you can think of

[00:07:54] there that would just bring this to life? Yeah so there's a couple things I think we

[00:07:59] know I can't name any client names but like you said there are a couple areas where clients have

[00:08:03] focused on and been able to provide some level of value and I think one of the areas that has

[00:08:09] really helped them that is there's a couple areas one is algorithm selection the ability to

[00:08:16] take multiple algorithms and be able to apply them in order to improve your forecast accuracy

[00:08:21] and that really lends into when you improve your forecast accuracy your ability to drive

[00:08:26] that value through the supply chain from a inventory perspective and they have been

[00:08:32] able to reduce their inventory by almost 20% which has had an upwards capital value of

[00:08:38] almost five thousand dollars or five million dollars freeing up free cash flows so there's

[00:08:44] there's the ability to utilize certain aspects of our solution that can provide

[00:08:52] real tangible value to the bottom line from freeing up cash flow.

[00:08:57] And the integration of AI in supply chain management is often seen as a

[00:09:02] as in transformative for obvious reasons but from your perspective here what would you say are the

[00:09:07] most significant impacts of AI are on the traditional supply chain practices because

[00:09:14] I think it's an area that a lot of people don't automatically associate with technology.

[00:09:19] Yeah I think there's a couple areas one is latency you know it really reduces the time

[00:09:24] to find insights it's the key is that AI is not going to create a ton of what I would consider

[00:09:29] new insights but it's going to uncover insights that have been there all the time that you

[00:09:35] haven't necessarily been able to find based on pattern recognition and what the AI is looking

[00:09:40] for to help provide and maybe find those subtle patterns that you that supply chain

[00:09:46] planners haven't been able to find in the past and so what might be something that's not easily

[00:09:52] detected to the naked eye you're going to be able to find those insights and it's going to reduce

[00:09:56] the latency and the ability to action those insights in a very more tangible quicker way

[00:10:05] than what has been done in the past. And then the other part is really I'm a huge sports guy

[00:10:10] and I think there's the there's the whole analogy that it will I'd like to say it helps

[00:10:14] you take more shots you know if you in in football and again this is American football

[00:10:20] increasing the number of possessions and the value of those possessions is really key to winning

[00:10:24] so you know the way to utilize UI is it's going to allow companies that utilize it effectively

[00:10:31] to basically take more shots and not only take more shots but the effectiveness of those more

[00:10:36] shot effectiveness of those shots is going to increase and so it really is rare that it

[00:10:43] technology like this comes along that can be this transformational in a way that looks at data

[00:10:50] and also increases your insights to be able to drive value within new organization.

[00:10:56] Oh so you're a big sports guy is it just American football or is it

[00:11:00] lots of sports there that you're into there? I'm interested in all sorts of sports I run

[00:11:06] the gamut football, baseball, soccer or English football, golf you name it I probably know a

[00:11:13] little bit about it. Who are your teams who can we give a shout out to?

[00:11:18] Well I'm a huge American football fan I've been a Kansas City Chiefs season ticket holder

[00:11:24] for 26 years and so I have been along the magical ride of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelsey

[00:11:32] and Taylor Swift over the last few years so yeah it's been a great time to be a Kansas City

[00:11:39] Chiefs fan. It really has and I love how you've been on that whole journey because it hasn't

[00:11:43] always been a bed of roses isn't it? No I started my Chiefs fandom going to nine

[00:11:52] playoff games over 20 years and my record was zero and nine so yeah so the last three

[00:11:58] years have been pretty special as far as the ride that it's been on.

[00:12:01] I love that and back to your work for a moment I'm curious how do you balance innovation with

[00:12:07] the practical needs of your diverse clientele in industries and everything from high tech,

[00:12:12] retail and healthcare it feels like there's got to be quite a balance there but how do

[00:12:16] you do that? Yeah it's interesting that you know people ask kind of what the what the

[00:12:21] uniqueness are and there is uniqueness to industries but what I always find interesting

[00:12:25] in supply chain is that supply chain is about finding patterns right and if you can find those

[00:12:31] individual patterns you can leverage those across multiple industries and so if you focus

[00:12:37] on how we identify the demand patterns with whether it be low and lumpy forecastable items or

[00:12:45] high volume forecastable items and then utilize that type of mindset you start to

[00:12:51] find uniquenesses in industries but the patterns tend to be very common across industries so it

[00:12:57] allows you to look at pattern recognition in a way that I think allows us to develop

[00:13:03] supply chain solutions that can be very unique to an industry but aren't as unique

[00:13:08] as people think they are because the patterns are common across various industries.

[00:13:13] And the pace of technological change is moving at such a speed at the moment if we

[00:13:18] were to look ahead for a few minutes what emerging trends or technologies do you believe will

[00:13:24] further shape the future of supply chain management is there anything that you're

[00:13:27] monitoring closely or anything that excites you there? Well I mean I think everything

[00:13:32] is going to end up being powered by some level of AI but I think it's where the AI

[00:13:37] is going to be used which is going to be interesting. I think there's going to be a lot

[00:13:41] of focus on prescriptive guidance and the ability to provide more foresight if you will not only

[00:13:51] the data and what it's telling you but be prescriptive in what it's telling you and telling

[00:13:55] you what you should do based on what the data is telling you so it is going to give you more

[00:14:00] insights into how you should react to certain data and not just show the data to individual

[00:14:08] supply chain planners. So I think there's going to be a lot more prescriptive type

[00:14:13] aspects of supply chain moving forward and then there's the whole intelligent automation.

[00:14:19] We talk about working internally whether you're working on the business or in the business

[00:14:24] and I do think that the automation that's going to be out there is going to automate

[00:14:29] routine tasks that are going to allow supply chain professionals to work more on the business

[00:14:36] and not in the work more in the business or work more I messed that up but work more on

[00:14:42] the business than in the business. So we are at a time now where AI everywhere seems to be being

[00:14:50] discussed and last year many businesses dismissed it others banned it and banned their employees

[00:14:55] from using it in the workplace others were anxious about what to do with the company

[00:15:00] data being learned on being used to train machine learning algorithms we've been able

[00:15:05] to overcome those obstacles and I think more and more businesses are adopting this and don't

[00:15:10] want to be left behind but if we do have anyone listening looking to adopt similar AI driven

[00:15:15] tools what would you say are the key factors that they should be considering to ensure that

[00:15:20] they maximize the benefits of such technology and also doing it safely of course.

[00:15:26] Yeah I think it's going to be interesting to see how the AI plays out with different

[00:15:31] point solutions as opposed to corporate type AI solutions. I do think companies need to think

[00:15:37] about AI in a diversified manner and look at specific business cases or use cases that are

[00:15:46] what needs to drive value and where you can get those use cases from and so there's going

[00:15:51] to be I believe a portfolio of solutions that are going to be provided to CIOs and companies

[00:15:57] that are going to look at what opportunities do I have to utilize AI where can I contain you

[00:16:03] AI to be focused on value and specific use cases and from legilities perspective we are

[00:16:10] very focused on supply chain use cases in being able to take that data and present it

[00:16:16] up and also play in the larger ecosystem of the company and what other AI initiatives they have and

[00:16:23] so there's going to be a balance of AI solutions that are out there and I would tell companies

[00:16:28] looking to adopt those types of solutions to think about it as a portfolio approach

[00:16:33] in which you're diversifying how you're thinking about AI where your AI is being driven

[00:16:39] where AI is being incorporated into your solutions and look for those specific use cases that can

[00:16:45] drive value based on what you're trying to accomplish. And you're working with everyone

[00:16:51] from retail to healthcare as I said a few moments ago and I would imagine that some industries that

[00:16:57] you work with are more regulated than others is that proving to be a headache at all

[00:17:02] the whole regulation question? Not a lot because usually AI our AI generated data tends to be

[00:17:09] very focused on demand and pattern recognition not necessarily on a lot of personal data. Now

[00:17:15] that doesn't mean as AI expands and we look for additional insights that those

[00:17:20] that data might become available for us to incorporate and we're going to have to

[00:17:24] think about what that looks like in as far as what type of data we're pulling in and our

[00:17:29] ability to utilize that data to drive a forecast but right now our data set is

[00:17:36] contained to what our supply chain data portfolio is and there is not a ton of what I would consider

[00:17:44] you know personal PCIP type data that is driving that at this point. Well it sounds

[00:17:49] like it's an incredibly exciting road ahead I'd love to stay in touch with you get you back on

[00:17:53] maybe next year and see how things are continuing to evolve so thank you so much for

[00:17:58] taking the time to come on here and share your insights but before I let you go I

[00:18:01] want to ask you to leave one final gift to everybody listening I always ask my guests to leave

[00:18:07] everyone with either a song that we can add to our Spotify playlist guilty pleasures are allowed

[00:18:12] and also a book at Amazon wishlives Amazon wishlist I don't mind which but what would

[00:18:18] you like to leave everyone listening and why? Yeah so I think I have some recent bias here

[00:18:22] but I've always been interested in organizational behavior as part of driving change early in my

[00:18:28] career one of the doctors that we were talking with at Cerner was mentioned the fact that there's

[00:18:35] never a lack of good ideas within a software company it is the execution of those ideas

[00:18:41] that really is what drives value it's not the ideas themselves because you know I hate to say

[00:18:46] ideas are cheap but everybody has some level of ideas it's how you execute against those ideas

[00:18:52] and part of being able to execute those ideas is to be able to influence people and so one

[00:18:58] of the books that I have some recency bias with that we have been doing that we just completed a

[00:19:03] book club for internally with the leadership team is called the influential mind it focuses

[00:19:08] on how to influence others and how to leverage that influence and driving change and it's just

[00:19:15] one of those things where I think if as we get more into technology and how technology is

[00:19:21] being adopted the ability to to influence others and drive that change and adoption is going to

[00:19:27] be become even more critical skill set especially with the adoption of AI as we automate different

[00:19:33] types of you know tasks that have been required a lot of legwork in the past and we start asking

[00:19:41] people to work on the business rather than in the business the ability to manage and

[00:19:46] influence people is going to be critical and I really think that is a book that has inspired

[00:19:51] me to to think about how we drive change not only within legibility but within our clients

[00:19:56] so love that well I will get that added straight to our Amazon wishlist I've got to say as a Kansas

[00:20:02] city chiefs fan living in Nashville where there's the Taylor Swift education center

[00:20:07] I am a little bit disappointed you didn't choose a Taylor Swift song for the playlist but

[00:20:15] anyone listening just wants to find out more information about legility the work you're doing

[00:20:20] contact you or your team where would you like to point everyone? Yeah so we you know you can

[00:20:24] definitely visit our website at legility.com I'm available on LinkedIn you can reach out to me

[00:20:31] I try to post and write blogs out there on LinkedIn and yeah there's a various sales

[00:20:37] organization so if you have any interest reach out to your legility sales rep and let us know

[00:20:42] we are always here to help you think about what your supply chain transformation journey

[00:20:46] might look like. Well every day I always try and get people thinking differently about

[00:20:50] technology how it impacts worlds that they probably don't hear much about or understand

[00:20:55] fully and for me I've just loved hearing more about how the the legility digital supply chain

[00:21:01] platform is leveraging artificial intelligence as well as advanced analytics to automate planning

[00:21:07] accelerate cycle times increase precision there's so much great work you're doing here so I do

[00:21:11] urge people to check you out but more than anything just thanks for joining me today.

[00:21:16] Thanks Neil I appreciate it. So as we wrap up today's enlightening conversation with Scott

[00:21:20] I think it's clear that the future of supply chain management is poised for dramatic changes

[00:21:27] and yes it's going to be shaped by AI and intelligent automation the potential is to not

[00:21:34] only predict but also prescribe actions within the supply chain. I think that's what's on the

[00:21:40] horizon and ultimately promises a even greater efficiency and decision making prowess and in an

[00:21:46] age of data driven decision making that's got to be a good thing right? But what do you think

[00:21:52] the future holds for AI in the supply chain management industry and how can businesses

[00:21:58] better prepare to integrate these advancements? I'd love for you to share your thoughts with

[00:22:03] me please join the conversation techblogwriter at outlook.com, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram at

[00:22:08] Neil C Hughes send me a quick DM if you want to join me on the podcast we can do that if

[00:22:12] you want to just send a quick question I'm the easiest guy in the world to get hold of

[00:22:16] and also tomorrow we've got a completely different topic that we'll explore together so

[00:22:21] hopefully you'll join me again but more than anything of course thank you for

[00:22:24] listening as always and until next time don't be a stranger