Scale ai announces the selection of innovative projects in artificial intelligence applied to supply chains

MONTRÉAL, June 27, 2019 /CNW Telbec/ - scale ai, the AI-powered supply chain supercluster, today announced the selection of its first collaborative projects representing an investment of $5.1 million, including $2 million co-invested by scale ai. Further reinforcing scale ai's mission, these projects aim to make Canada an international leader in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) applied to supply chains. The announcement was attended by the Honourable Navdeep Singh Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.

Each industry-led project is composed of 3 to 7 partners collaborating to address supply chain challenges through the application of artificial intelligence. Each of the project teams brings together a consortium of partners, and may include industry adopters, technology leaders, small and medium-sized enterprises, universities and research centres.

The projects will tackle core issues identified by various sectors, including retail, manufacturing, agriculture and transport, by implementing artificial intelligence models. Ultimately, these projects will deliver concrete innovative solutions that will, among other benefits, improve product routing and traceability, increase demand forecasting accuracy, optimize task assignment for field employees, and increase planning efficiency to avoid overstocking and waste.

The selected projects will provide the following solutions:

• Decision support system for operation planning, storage allocation and crane scheduling (Ray-Mont, SimWell et Ivado Labs)
• Forecasting the complexity of field repairs and technician management (Bell, Exfo, VuPoint Systems, Ivado Labs)
• Community co-loading platform for farmers (Local Line, Flanagan FoodService, Ontario Fresh, collective of 7 farmers)
• Intelligent platform for agile customization (Nulogy, Mars Canada, Schenker Canada, Alliance, Linsey Foods, LakeCityFoods, Menasha)

"With these first selected projects, scale ai is entering its operational phase," says Julien Billot, CEO of scale ai. "Since the official launch of our activities a few weeks ago, we have received a significant number of project submissions and are working with our partners to select other projects very soon. I encourage all companies interested in applying AI into their supply chain to contact our teams to present their project proposals."

"Scale ai is just getting started transforming the AI sector, creating good jobs here at home and establishing Canada as a global leader in AI. These projects will capitalize on this leadership to produce tangible benefits for other sectors of the economy. These projects are part of a game-changing initiative that will dramatically reduce industry costs on a range of services, including shipping and inventory."

– The Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development

"As the largest investor in communications R&D in Canada, Bell is proud to contribute our expertise to the ground-breaking work under way at scale ai," said André Beaulieu, Bell's Senior Vice-President, Corporate Services. "We look forward to working with our technology partners EXFO and VuPoint Systems to develop innovative AI solutions to increase efficiencies in field services management at Bell and across the communications sector."

"In a context of globalization, the development of international trade inevitably involves the optimization of our supply chain" said Charles Raymond, CEO of Ray-Mont Logistics. "At Ray-Mont Logistics, it is this tireless will to always innovate and to include artificial intelligence in our processes that allows us today to be a world expert in this field. As a founding member of scale ai, we are proud to see that our smart terminal project is part of this shared vision of propelling the supply chain to another level. We have the ambition, the expertise and the creativity to build on this momentum by continuing to offer flexible, innovative and high quality solutions to our customers and partners."

About scale ai

Scale ai (Supply Chain and Logistics Excellence AI) is an investment and innovation hub based in Montreal. One of Canada's five innovation superclusters, its mission is to develop the next generation supply chain and promote Canada's leadership in artificial intelligence applied to the industry. The Canadian supply chain now represents about one million jobs and more than 10% of GDP.

Nearly 120 world-class industrial partners, research institutions and other ecosystem players have joined forces to create this innovation consortium. Together, these partners have committed to more than doubling Government of Canada funding to support this unprecedented initiative.

More information: scaleai.ca

SOURCE scale ai

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