For the last two years, CSCMP's NY/NJ Roundtable has run an essay contest to support scholarship and education in supply chain students at area colleges and universities. The grand prize? The winning student is invited to attend CSCMP's national marquee event, EDGE, for free, and is granted special access to local and national board members.
While EDGE is still scheduled to take place in Orlando, FL from September 20 - 23, the scholarship program and sending a student to EDGE has been adjusted due to the impact of COVID-19. So, to continue our support and promotion of these fantastic students from area colleges, we would like to present this year's winner in written form.
This year's student scholarship essay winner is Ramy Gadelsayed, an undergraduate student at Baruch College set to graduate in 2021. Presently, Ramy is growing in his internship at LinkedIn. You can view his profile and connect with him by visiting here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramy-gadelsayed/
Reposted with permission is Ramy's contest-winning essay. Enjoy!
"Supply chain management is the chain of sequence from supplier to customer and with the expansion of the global marketplace, supply chain management has become tremendously important for all companies. Advancement in technology has influenced the supply chain of every industry and now these technologies are affecting all parts of the supply chain from purchasing, delivery, to transportation and warehousing. Even customer satisfaction has been impacted. Automation and robotics are the commonly known technologies that have a great effect on supply chain management. Large industries are now focusing on this technology from different perspectives such as cost-efficiency, work efficiency and personnel management. Robotics has changed the entire nature of production, saving a great deal of money in the process. These innovations have resulted in major changes in the approach towards the supply chain system, making it much more efficient.
Robotic automation advancement has changed the supply chain based on technologies such as automatic drones and self-driving vehicles. These technologies can workday and night, which has allowed companies to boost sales and become more cost-efficient. A study conducted by Yong explains, “A market intelligence firm, warehousing and logistics robot units will grow from 40,000 units in 2016 to 620,000 in 2021” (Yong, 2018). Conversion to automation is increasing every year and spreading globally. However, robots are not able to make managerial decisions but in the near future that could also change. It is common to see that the automation technology has developed the production process in many business firms around the world. Industrial machinery is now automatically working with only a single command of the computer.
Advanced robots and automation devices improve work consistency and reduce production errors. Advanced machinery has made the supply chain process one of the most important parts of any business. Automation has also impacted problem of labor shortage. An article by Fitzgerald explains, “Robots are helping in defining the supply chain of the future by helping companies decrease long-term costs; provide labor and use stability; increase worker productivity; reduce error rate” (Fitzgerald). In many large organizations, automation is working efficiently in the whole process of warehousing with automatic vehicles furnished with recording cameras and weight carrying sensors. These automatic vehicles are working according to the given instructions in the warehouse for managing the stock and for loading and unloading process. These robot vehicles have the skill to stop work, if they sense anything unusual, which shows that they are also a useful tool to help current employees."
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, J. (n.d.). Using autonomous robots to drive supply chain innovation. Retrieved March 10, 2020, from Deloitte: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/manufacturing/articles/autonomous-robots-supply-chain-innovation.html
Yong, H. N. (2018). Emerging Trends of Technologies in Supply Chain Management