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LaDonna Thornton, Assistant Professor in Supply Chain Management at the 91看片, co-authored the editorial 鈥淗ow to deal with the Human Factor in Supply Chain Management鈥� published by the International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management. The editorial discussed the growing need for technology, but the absolute necessity of human decision-makers in the workplace.

鈥淪upply chains are very complex,鈥� said Thornton. 鈥淎ll of these complexities to service the customers are becoming taxing on people within the supply chain. As the world becomes more complex to service customers, we need to start thinking about how employees are affected by this and what type of employees we need. And in light of COVID-19, how do we keep employees safe, while meeting customer needs? Are there opportunities to augment what we do with technology? Technology isn鈥檛 the perfect solution, either. It鈥檚 time to take a step back and re-examine how complex we鈥檝e made things and really start to evaluate where we can take the human factor and the new technological advances, put them together, and get the best of both worlds out of that.鈥�

Data analysis can provide the raw information to better inform decision-makers. Sometimes, however, those making the decisions go against the data. 鈥淭hey say, 鈥榃e鈥檝e always done it that way,鈥欌�� Thornton noted. 鈥淲hereas, you can have artificial intelligence that can analyze the information and help you make a more informed decision that isn鈥檛 necessarily based on historical precedent. You have intuition versus actual data that can give you a predictive analysis so you can make a more informed decision.鈥�

Technology has already replaced the human factor in many service-oriented areas, particularly phone calls or computer chats with supposed company agents. Instead, they are often bots programmed to answer questions. 鈥榃hen will my delivery arrive?鈥� 鈥楥an I cancel my order?鈥� 鈥淎rtificial Intelligence is going to answer as many questions as it can based on the data it has,鈥� Thornton said. 鈥淏ut I still think that there is a large segment of the population that doesn鈥檛 want to deal with that. They don鈥檛 want to talk to a bot. They want a person.鈥�

鈥淪ometimes technology can give you the answers cold and fast,鈥� she added. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 looking at the people that are within that supply chain and how to better serve them. How does this play into consumer welfare?"鈥�

Thornton is a behavioral researcher in supply chain and noted that for as much data analysis and information technology and Artificial Intelligence can provide, it鈥檚 just that 鈥� artificial. It can鈥檛 feel. It doesn鈥檛 have compassion.

鈥淪ometimes technology can give you the answers cold and fast,鈥� she added. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 looking at the people that are within that supply chain and how to better serve them. How does this play into consumer welfare? How do we meet the safety concerns of customers in this new delivery environment created by COVID-19?

鈥淟ook at delivery complaints 鈥�. There鈥檚 a woman who says, 鈥業 didn鈥檛 get my delivery. I can鈥檛 leave the house, I鈥檓 elderly and I have a preexisting condition. I鈥檓 depending on this delivery for necessities鈥� Maybe when you use the AI, it says, 鈥楾his delivery parameter does not work. We鈥檙e going to have to delay the delivery.鈥� Whereas talking to a human you can make a connection, talk through it, and make an exception. There is a strength and a comfort for some customers in having a human decision-maker there.鈥�

Thornton鈥檚 editorial concludes that human decision-makers bring individual competencies that are ethically-oriented to supply chain management decision processes. These competencies, paired with the decision guidance about complex problems provided by Artificial Intelligence, can create a formidable supply chain manager.