TED Talks – Gemini Data

Top 6 TED Talks About Supply Chain Management

Jenn Snider — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 12:39:00 +0000

From drone-driven delivery networks to supply chain resiliency, we’ve been featuring our favorite supply chain-related TED talks over the past several weeks. Here are our six favorites:

The Key to Fixing Broken Supply Chains

Dustin Burke, from Boston Consulting Group, highlights the challenges of supply chains and the importance of making them more resilient to crises such as natural disasters and pandemics. Burke discusses three key ideas that could help make supply chains more resilient: sharing risk, radical transparency, and automated recommendations. Watch the video.

How Supply Chain Transparency Might Just Save the Planet

Markus Mutz, CEO of OpenSC, lobbies technology to create transparency and traceability in supply chains. This helps to verify sustainability and ethical production claims in a data-based and automated way, trace individual physical products throughout their supply chains, and share that information with consumers. Watch the video.

What Happens Inside Those Massive Warehouses?

Robotics entrepreneur Mick Mountz takes you inside the mysterious world of those massive fulfillment warehouses and highlights the potential of using technology and automation in warehousing to increase productivity and efficiency. Watch the video.

Your Company’s Data Could End World Hunger

Analytics expert Mallory Freeman on the impact of planning and logistics for humanitarian operations to feed, clothe, and shelter hundreds of thousands more people – and the case for companies to engage in data philanthropy. Watch the video.

Let’s Go All-In on Sustainability

Ikea veteran and sustainability expert Steve Howards talks about how sustainability has gone from a nice-to-do to a must-do and the importance of businesses taking responsibility for their supply chain impacts. Watch the video.

No Roads? There’s a Drone for That

Andreas Raptopoulos, founder and CEO of Matternet, talks about how one billion people around the world lack access to all-season roads, making it difficult to transport critical supplies, medicine, and goods to market. He envisions a new way to transport goods in this challenging environment using a fleet of small, autonomous drones to fly goods between designated points.

Using Drones to Make the Logistics Network of the Future

Jenn Snider — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 17:34:56 +0000

One billion people around the world lack access to all-season roads, and modern infrastructure, making it difficult to transport critical supplies, medicine, and goods to market. This lack of infrastructure is a major obstacle to development, and it can have a devastating impact on people’s lives.

In this TED Talk, “No Roads? There’s a Drone For That,” founder and CEO of Matternet Andreas Raptopoulos envisions a new way to transport goods in these challenging environments. His firm’s technology uses a fleet of small, autonomous drones to fly goods between designated points. These drones are able to carry small payloads over short distances, and they can navigate autonomously using GPS and other sensors.

This technology has the potential to revolutionize the way goods are transported in developing countries. In a scenario where urgent medication is needed in a remote location, drones could deliver the medicine within hours. This could save lives and improve access to healthcare in some of the world’s most remote and underserved communities.

This approach is also being used to address the challenges of urban transportation. In megacities, which face significant congestion issues, drones could provide a new layer of transportation between roads and the internet. This could help to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality.

While this technology is still in its early stages of development, it has the potential to make a major impact on the way goods are transported around the world. Drones like these could help to improve access to healthcare, reduce traffic congestion, and improve air quality. This technology has the potential to make a real difference in the lives of billions of people.

Binge-watch more of our favorite TED Talks. https://www.geminidata.com/ted-talks/

When Ikea Went All In on Sustainability

Jenn Snider — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 17:28:24 +0000

When Ikea decided to put sustainability front and center in their business strategy, what happened?

Ikea veteran and sustainability expert Steve Howards talks about how sustainability has gone from a nice-to-do to a must-do.

Howard discusses how he has dedicated his life to sustainability leading him to join IKEA, a company that takes sustainability seriously. He highlights three significant numbers:

3 billion – The number of people joining the global middle class by 2030
6 degrees – The increase in global temperatures we are heading towards
12 cities – The number of cities with a million or more people at the beginning of the last century.

These numbers emphasize the importance of sustainability in combating the challenges of rapid urbanization, increasing wealth, and climate change.

Howard details how IKEA has made sustainability a core part of its business strategy, focusing on both products and materials. For example, IKEA has chosen to only sell LED light bulbs, which are more energy-efficient and long-lasting than traditional incandescent bulbs. The company had also committed to using 100% “Better Cotton” by 2015, a more sustainable alternative that reduces water and chemical usage in cotton farming. The speaker argues that setting 100% targets makes it easier for businesses to focus on achieving their goals and encourages companies to be decisive and invest in new, sustainable technologies.

Additionally, Howard highlights IKEA’s efforts to use renewable energy in its operations. The company has installed 300,000 solar panels and owns 14 wind farms in six countries, with the initial goal of producing more renewable energy than it consumes by 2020.This approach not only benefits the environment but also makes financial sense, as solar panels pay for themselves within several years and provide free electricity afterward.

Howard also stresses the importance of businesses taking responsibility for their decision impact on supply chains. IKEA has implemented strict codes of conduct, and employs auditors to ensure good working conditions and protect human rights in its factories. The company also collaborates with NGOs and other organizations to promote responsible forestry, and has set ambitious targets for the use of certified wood in its products.

Finally, the speaker encourages businesses to measure what they care about and lead change in areas they value, such as gender equality in leadership positions. They note that while many companies are already taking action on sustainability, it is essential for all businesses to weave sustainability into their business models. By making sustainability affordable and accessible to everyone, businesses can help create a more sustainable world.

Binge-watch more of our favorite TED Talks. https://www.geminidata.com/ted-talks/

How Big Data Could End World Hunger

Jenn Snider — Thu, 03 Aug 2023 17:23:18 +0000

What is data philanthropy and how could it revolutionize NGOs and the way we respond to humanitarian crises?

Mallory Freeman – analytics expert at UPS – shares her experience with the World Food Programme in Rome, where she intended to solve world hunger through data optimization. She initially proposed using data to create the shortest, fastest, cheapest routes for food delivery but discovered the necessary data wasn’t available. Though initially unsuccessful, she remained involved in the humanitarian sector.

Over six years, she witnessed a transformative increase in data usage in the humanitarian world, specifically in decision-making processes. She shared an example where her team used a tool to sift through 900 million options for planning meals within a $6.5 million budget, which successfully reduced costs by 17% and fed an additional 80,000 people in Iraq.

Despite these strides, Mallory emphasized the need for companies to contribute to data philanthropy to solve world-scale problems. She proposed three ways in which companies could assist: by donating data, donating decision scientists, and donating technology. She explained that this would not only benefit the humanitarian sector but also companies themselves through uncovering valuable insights about potential customers, contributing to corporate social responsibility, and improving employee retention.

She concluded by asserting the potential of data philanthropy in revolutionizing humanitarian efforts and stressed the importance of long-term partnerships between companies and humanitarian organizations. She affirmed the potential for data to feed, clothe, and shelter hundreds of thousands more people, urging companies to participate in this data-driven revolution.

Binge-watch more of our favorite TED Talks. https://www.geminidata.com/ted-talks/

The Key to Fixing Broken Supply Chains

Jenn Snider — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 17:22:31 +0000

Transparency in supply chain processes is more crucial than ever in identifying and addressing risks.

In this TED Talk, Dustin Burke from Boston Consulting Group, highlights the challenges of supply chains and the importance of making them more resilient to crises, such as natural disasters, pandemics, and relatively unexpected shocks. Burke discusses three key ideas that could help make supply chains more resilient: sharing risk, radical transparency, and automated recommendations.

Burke notes that companies need to know not only who their suppliers are but also who their suppliers’ suppliers are, where they get their raw materials, and who else is buying from them. He also argues that better data should lead to better decision-making and that advances in data mining, artificial intelligence, and machine learning can help predict problems before they arise, notify managers, and recommend actions to take.

Burke concludes by urging businesses and governments to be more imaginative in how they use these ideas to make supply chains more resilient.

Binge-watch more of our favorite TED Talks. https://www.geminidata.com/ted-talks/

The Secrets of Fulfillment Warehouses

Jenn Snider — Wed, 19 Jul 2023 17:16:22 +0000

Our latest TED talk showcase has Mick Mountz taking you inside the mysterious world of massive fulfillment warehouses. Mountz is the founder of fulfillment robotics company Kiva, later acquired by Amazon and is now the head of Amazon Robotics.

Mountz introduces a new approach for managing inventory in warehouses using hundreds or thousands of mobile robots in a pick, pack, and ship setting. He explains the inefficiencies of traditional pick-pack workers, who spend 60-70% of their day wandering around the warehouse.

Mountz shares his journey of developing this new approach, starting with a brainstorming exercise that tested his ideas at the limits of infinity and zero. He explains how the system works by using mobile shelving and robots to move inventory around and deliver them straight to pick workers, resulting in a more productive and accurate way to fill orders.

The side effects of this approach include turning the warehouse into a massively parallel processing engine, using adaptive algorithms to tune the floor of the warehouse, and the ability to scale the system to any size. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the importance of letting things start to think, walk, and talk on their own, as interesting processes and productivity can emerge.

Binge-watch more of our favorite TED Talks. https://www.geminidata.com/ted-talks/

How Supply Chain Transparency Might Just Save the Planet

Jenn Snider — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 16:54:33 +0000

“I refuse to believe that anybody here in this room, or frankly, anybody on this planet, really wants to buy a product that harms the planet or our fellow humans if given the choice.”

So argues Markus Mutz, CEO of OpenSC, a social venture co-founded by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and BCG Digital Ventures.

This TED talk, “How Supply Chain Transparency Might Just Save the Planet,” posits that the lack of transparency and information available when it comes to consumer products, and harm to the planet and its inhabitants, is to blame. He argues that humans make decisions that harm the planet or other humans because they lack the necessary information to make informed decisions. The solution he says is to use technology to create transparency and traceability in supply chains. This helps to verify sustainability and ethical production claims in a data-based and automated way, and to trace individual physical products throughout their supply chains, and share that information with consumers.

This approach uses various technologies, such as RFID tags, QR codes, and blockchain, to accomplish this. Mutz believes that in the future, algorithms will be able to use this information to make purchasing decisions that align with consumers’ values. Ultimately, consumers will support good producers and retailers who produce sustainable and ethical products, while bad actors will be forced out of business.

Mutz says that we are engaged in the detrimental act of destroying the very entity essential for our survival: our planet. The multitude of distressing issues we confront today, such as climate change and the existence of modern slavery within supply chains, can be ultimately traced back to decisions made by individuals. It is our choice, opting for one method of production over another, that contributes to these problems. Consequently, as consumers, we find ourselves inadvertently making choices that cause harm to either our planet or our fellow human beings. This harm arises from selecting products that are detrimental.

Finally, Mutz declares, he is unwilling to believe that anyone inhabiting this planet, truly desires to purchase a product that inflicts harm upon the planet or our fellow humans when given the opportunity to choose otherwise.

Binge-watch more of our favorite TED Talks. https://www.geminidata.com/ted-talks/