George Vander Linde tapped a code into the emergency room’s automated medicine cabinet. A drawer slid open and he flipped the lid, but found nothing inside.

Kroger Co. delivered stronger than expected earnings and sales, sending its stock up 9.7 percent as investors welcomed evidence that the grocer is growing even as it overhauls operations to compete with Amazon.com Inc. and discounters.

The new avocados rolling out to Costco stores in the Midwest this week don't look like the future of fresh produce. But they're quietly testing technology that could more than double the shelf life of vegetables and fruits.

Challenge: Trading partners need to trust that inventory will arrive when scheduled — particularly during item promotions. Historically, location and arrival time was obtained via driver phone calls. But these projected arrival times didn’t consider traffic and weather conditions, and they were often too optimistic.

Bottom line: Machine learning makes it possible to discover patterns in supply chain data by relying on algorithms that quickly pinpoint the most influential factors to a supply networks’ success — while constantly learning in the process.