From its maritime activities to the media, CMA CGM is going all-in on artificial intelligence (AI). The group has 160,000 employees worldwide, a fleet of 620 operated vessels and 10 million square meters of warehouses. Behind this, a great deal of data is collected, the analysis of which can help improve daily operations. But it still needs to be able to collect and exploit it with AI tools. This is where Google comes in. The shipowner announced a five-year partnership with the American company on Thursday, July 18. A partnership that extends well beyond the digital giant’s cloud division.
Digital twins for warehouses
“It’s not a ‘plug and play’ solution”exclaims Hadi Zablit, CMA CGM’s Director of Information and Technology, about the partnership. This means that it is not enough to plug the shipowner’s software into any Google platform. The companies will work together to implement customized solutions. “CMA CGM brings its knowledge and data in maritime transport and logistics while Google provides its expertise in AI and data management as well as its ability to scale”Hadi Zablit explains. The idea, he adds, is to “work quickly with deliveries every three months.” To achieve this, the targeted use cases will be gradually expanded.
In the logistics part, digital twins will be developed. The idea is to model the warehouses and bring back a whole bunch of data in real time to optimize flows (i.e. avoid bottlenecks and anticipate staff needs) and do predictive maintenance. Note that warehouses can have different purposes, such as being used for air transport or an e-commerce platform, and therefore not require the same management.
Improved fleet management
“Differentiation in maritime transport is based on the optimization of unit costs, decarbonization and quality of service to the customer, which includes improving punctuality and delivery times”explains Hadi Zablit. Three points that the group hopes to improve with the use of AI. For example, the partners are looking to improve the operations management strategy, in other words the distribution of ships on the different shipping lines according to needs and contingencies. By relying on the American company, CMA CGM wants to have the same tool to manage its entire fleet simultaneously, to review the allocation of this fleet more frequently according to numerous parameters (weather, sea conditions, geopolitics, ship availability, customer needs, etc.). The idea is to quickly obtain different scenarios if a capacity need arises, demand drops or geopolitical tensions arise and extend transport times.
A second use case concerns the improvement of prediction capacity. “We are relying on AI to help us detect weak signals that will allow us to have more robust forecasts”explains Hadi Zablit simply. Today, forecasts are made based on the expressed needs of customers, macroeconomic elements or even geopolitics. Tomorrow, these data will be reinforced using information collected online and the history held by Google.
Finally, generative AI tools will be offered to journalists in the group’s media division, particularly for document synthesis and translation or text generation for social networks. AI is also being disseminated via the various training modules offered to all group employees. For its CEO Rodolphe Saadé – who finances the Kyutai generative AI research laboratory – this transformation is sustainable.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
