Sean Stephens, business development executive with Lyngsoe Systems, and Steve Beck, senior sales manager with Zebra Technologies, break down five trends that are disrupting the manufacturing and distribution sectors.

Volatility is the new normal, Stephens says, citing a serious labor shortage and skyrocketing fuel prices as major challenges.

Beck says it’s hard enough getting product across an ocean, through the port and into a warehouse, but once it’s there, the high labor turnover rate stymies efforts to get orders to customers within their specified timeframes.

Artificial intelligence is at the top of every conversation about manufacturing and distribution today, but it’s ineffective without clean, accurate data. “Bad data drives bad AI modeling,” Beck says.

Stephens adds that many operations are rushing to adopt AI without defining what they want to derive from it.

Radio frequency identification has been around in some form since World War II, but it’s been slow in moving from pilots to becoming a proven technology. Now, however, RFID is experiencing “mass adoption,” especially in healthcare, logistics and other aspects of the supply chain. “It works,” says Stephens. “It’s very effective.”

RFID chips, antennas, labels and hardware have all improved significantly, Beck says, with long read ranges and nearly 100% accuracy. At the same time, the price of the equipment has come down, to the point where “you can start labeling a pack of gum.”

Many organizations continue to struggle to acquire the visibility needed to track orders through the supply chain, especially in a time of reduced labor forces. Performance tracking and asset utilization are also crucial elements in the visibility equation.

Automation generally is essential to today’s supply chains, with the need to effectively manage AI, machine vision and RFID, Beck says.