The buzz around data and AI is resonating across operations worldwide, capturing the attention of industry leaders and innovators. However, many professionals find themselves asking two crucial questions: Where do we start, and how do we find practical use cases?
The potential for AI
We spoke with Claire Charlton, Wincanton’s Head of W² Innovation, to find out how we are using the Labs programme to help answer some of these questions.
We were keen to explore new technologies and ways that data-driven solutions and AI could help us to deliver smart insights and enhance our decision making through our W² labs programme, especially for Wincanton’s flagship digital transport solution EyeQ, says Claire Charlton Head of W² :
“There is a lot of excitement about the potential for AI in transport operations right now, so we wanted to see how AI could be used practically to enhance our transport offer. We shortlisted 20 applications within our Digital Transport category, and then selected two start-ups for the programme. Autofleet and Assetfloow complimented our existing cutting-edge capabilities and also impressed us with their pitches because they demonstrated how their solutions could enrich our insights, improve decision making, and save costs.”
Data-driven solutions
We spoke with Assetfloow and Autofleet to find out more.
Assetfloow specialises in Behavioural and Predictive AI, leveraging Behavioural Intelligence to optimise asset management and operational efficiency, reducing costs and maximising productivity for businesses. The business has developed a new model of AI Forecast. When they ran it against several leading models, it outperformed in both speed and accuracy for all benchmarks (retail, healthcare, mobility, energy and finance). As the models are based on behavioural analysis, all outputs are explainable, so customers can understand "what", "why" and "when".
Ricardo Santos, Co-Founder and CTO of Assetfloow explained:
“We pitched our solution because we recognised the potential of W² Labs to provide the support, mentorship, and exposure needed to scale our innovation with a great partner such as Wincanton. Our predictive AI will empower Wincanton to make data-driven decisions, anticipate inventory needs, and optimise resource allocation.”
Autofleet’s AI-powered Optimisation Engine automates day-to-day decision-making and workflows by leveraging advanced algorithms, machine learning, AI, and data to power sustainable transportation and delivery services.
Autofleet recently announced Nova – the first AI-powered large language model (LLM) specifically designed for fleets. Nova harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and natural language processing to fleet domain data, allowing fleet operators access to previously inaccessible insights, optimisation opportunities, and actions.
Adam Simkin, Chief Operating Officer of Autofleet said:
“Programmes like the W² Labs are extremely important for developing ideas. They provide invaluable support through mentorship, resources, and industry connections that can significantly accelerate the growth and refinement of a product.”
In addition to our explorations through the Labs programme, Wincanton is setting industry standards and driving industry leading efficiency and innovation with our own Strategic Data Platform and Data and Reporting Centre of Excellence.
Transforming the world of logistics
We spoke to our Head of Data Jake Harrison, who told us:
“Data and AI have become key drivers of innovation and growth in the logistics sector. These trends allow organisations to build and manage data infrastructure, generate and apply insights from data, develop and deploy data-driven solutions and establish reporting best practices. But it's not just about the technology. It's about the people and the culture. At Wincanton, we foster a data-focused culture, empowering our team to lead the charge in this data-centric era.”
Through its involvement in the Department for Transport Freight Innovation Fund, Wincanton is also providing an operational test bed for Flexible Power Systems (FPS). FPS support end-to-end management of EV transport operations via its real time platform which automatically synchronises vehicles, chargers and operations to deliver operational efficiency and resilience.
We spoke to Michael Ayres, Managing Director about data management and AI within the FPS Operate Platform, who explained:
“Our Operate platform aggregates data in real time from EV fleet, energy, and operations functions. The resulting integrated and enriched data sets facilitate our platform’s automated reporting and exception handling based on a single source of truth. They also allow us to dynamically optimise vehicle schedules and charger profiles for cost and resilience.”
“We apply AI to situations where problem scale, uncertainty, or the need to co-operate with a human decision maker makes traditional machine learning and optimisation approaches infeasible.”
Talking about the Freight Innovation Fund test bed Michael added, “We really value the insights that Wincanton can provide us into how a sophisticated logistics operator can derive benefits from the data analytic and optimisation functions of our platform.”
In summary, advancements in Data Management and AI are pivotal in transforming the world of logistics. Organisations can combine and enrich data from multiple sources to provide real-time insights, predictive analytics, and intelligent decision support. This helps operators to optimise the use of their assets and resources, especially in today’s dynamic and uncertain environment.