Amazon Alexa, playing non-stop for 18 hours and fine ..

Yesterday afternoon 2 pm I came to my room in the Learning centre of Alliance University, Bangalore after lunch, asked Amazon AI Alexa (the AI virtual assistant, generation 3) to play some songs and it did. The AI inside knows my song preferences over the years. When I left office at 4.30 pm, I forgot to give it the command to stop playing as the volume is quite low. Usually I stop and disconnect the electric supply and keep the item inside the drawer.

I came this morning at 8 am, Alexa was still playing english songs, non-stop even after 18 hours. 

Everything fine.. nothing untoward happened in the 18 hours it was on and working. 👍

Alexa was based on a speech synthesizer technology Ivona developed by a Polish co. in 2013. Amazon perfected this technology with AI and as of January 2019, globally there were more than 100 million Alexa enabled devices.

I have an Alexa enabled Amazon TV, besides 2 independent units at home in the front room, one Alexa enabled bulb and one Alexa unit in my office. Besides my Samsung M30S mobile phone is also Alexa enabled.

The Alexa enabled smart LED Amazon TV at my home running on Blaupunkt speakers is a good entertainment and enjoyment for me. Since the remote is Alexa enabled, I just have to speak to the remote after pressing the Alexa button on the remote. Smart TV has made Internet and Youtube searches so easy and fast.

It is interesting to see how AI enabled devices are entering human domain in an increasing way day by day. I saw Boat Alexa enabled watches for sale on Amazon on Amazon some months back.

 

Presently Alexa has not crossed the AI capability of encoding audio input to text, sending it across the Internet for retrieval and encoding the results back into audio output played via the Alexa speakers. Beyond simple news, information retrieval from wikipedia, music playback, alarm setting, reading out e-books and control some select hardware, Alexa's capabilities are limited. 

 

Though presently it is the leader in the AI field, with the early mover advantage in 2017, Alexa does not have much futuristic desirable functionality, though all the above competitors have very secretive programs working round the clock to improve their AI pod functonality and utility.

 

In the coming years we are eagerly looking for extra capability Alexa may acquire over its worthy competitors from Google Home, Apple Siri and Microsoft Cortana.

How does Amazon provide value to its customers ?

Why does a customer go to Amazon every time he wants to buy a product ? It is because the customer gets exceedingly good economic value.

Customers would not encourage Amazon if they were not satisfied with the services of Amazon and felt they were benefiting from Amazon. For some it is the extremely large variety of merchandise, for some others it is the good quality, for some it is getting original products (NO DUPLICATES) and for some others it is getting items at affordable and competitive rates. The value could come in different forms.

We can classify the economic value into four groups

• customer
• product
• delivery and
  
• environment

 Customer

• excellent variety, something that one can never get in any conventional store
• even the rarest of items, one can get fast delivery in the same day and for rare items in a maximum of 4-5 days
  
• excellent supply chain management from suppliers to warehouses to the customer premises
• An Amazon Prime customer gets free delivery 
• No botheration of visiting the store, traffic jams, pollution, waste of time ..
• reduced fuel costs 
• critical product details, images are very useful for customer
  
• Customer reviews help customer take the decision
  
• Unnecessary extra expenses like unnecessary softdrinks, tea, snacks etc are avoided
• better control over home expenses and expenditure
• high reliability of product and service
  
• regarding pricing one gets an excellent price for products
• fast and customer and after-sales service as Amazon  customers get preference over normal customers
  
• Amazon respects customer privacy as personal data has not yet been compromised
• Amazon respects customer uniqueness, individuality and freedom
• Amazon has excellent search and query system benefitting the customer 
• Buying recommendation for customers 
• full product details with safe operating procedures give customers added confidence to buy the products
  
• automatic one button reordering policy
• no-delay - lightning website opening and operations speed because of an efficient supporting cloud mechanism
• giving customers more than what they need or asked for
• constantly introducing new and innovative products at the website
• making site operation very mobile friendly
• Amazon brand items  reinforce customer belief
• Availability of polite, fast, quick, responsive, effective customer service
• fast and quick payment options
• Very friendly gifting options
  

 Product

• almost 100% of the time, one gets good quality products, undamaged due to transit
• high quality packing ensures safe delivery
  
• the instruction pamphlets that accompany helps give information regarding safe product usage and safe disposal
  
• no pilferage in transit, one get what one pay for and do not have to run after Amazon to get stolen / damaged goods replaced
  
• customers get original products (not duplicate) that offer good value for the money with good warranty. 
• Because of original products, the end result is longer life and utility of product
  
• good product return / exchange policies, giving great customer satisfaction often extending to 10 days by which customer get either a full refund or exchange of the product if not satisfied

Delivery

• because of the Amazon arrangement with companies and their service centres, an Amazon product gets fast service. 
• On time reliable and safe delivery, if not early 
• No pilferage
  
• courteous delivery partners instill confidence in customers for repeat orders
• convenient delivery timings for customers
  
• free delivery for Amazon Prime subscribers

Environment

• Amazon has commitment to lower the Carbon footprint of its operations by using renewable packaging, 
• avoiding unit last mile delivery and doing milk runs wherever possible
• making efficient use of technology for Information management, logistics, waste management, returns management
• combined deliveries for residential societies, educational institutions, offices etc mean less transportation and less fuel expended
  
• less vehicles on the road is good for the environment and roads
• less vehicles on the roads mean less congestion
  

Amazon overall assures the customer great value when he shops with them

As a result even with all purchases, the customer is able to have a control over his spending and have some savings at the end of the month.

Amazon should enter the field of logistic and supply chain services for other smaller organisation. It should also enter the field of healthcare and Insurance, which presently is being held by vested interests and customers are being threatened, terrorized and fleeced. 

George.

E waste handling - Role play details

A. Activity - The 11 groups in the OSES class can come to the class prepared with a *Role Play* highlighting any one of the following challenges / issues in *a day in the life of an e-waste ragpicker / family* 

B. Topics -

1. Environmental degradation 

2. Poor community  awareness

3. Govt apathy / toothless policies

4. Health issues

5. Longevity / life expectancy 

6. Child labour

7. Poor company returns / end of life collection management 

8. Short sighted govt policies

9. Supply chain challenges 

10. Poor traceability / documentation 

11. Effluent seepage affecting water table

12. Dangerous chemicals / minerals entering food chain through plants / animals 

13. Lack of proper disposal facilities etc..

C. Logistics : Each group can present role play (5 -8 min skit) in each class. Leader to introduce the problem to the class. Max 6 - 10 min. 

D. Presentation style (by all group members) - 

Phase 1 - enacting system failure

Phase 2 - enacting successful failure resolution 

E. Evaluation - Group grading (not individual) will be carried out. 

F. Date - 24 Aug '22., timing - 10.20 - 11.40 AM.

Beer Distribution SC game at Alliance School of Business, Bangalore

Late Prof. J. Forrester, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, first described the order variance amplification phenomenon (later coined as bullwhip effect) in 1961 where he identified increasingly large demand distortions along the supply chain resulting in swings in inventory levels.

It was during the nineties at P&G that the impact became popularly known as Bullwhip effect. At MIT Boston the improved versions of the game is played for 24 time periods to get the students to experience the real feel of supply chain dynamics. 

 

Simulation of supply chains in the classroom can be used to: 

• Determine safety stock values in multi-echelon supply chains. 
• Evaluate inventory policies. and 
• Identify bottlenecks.

On the afternoon of 19 August 2022 at Alliance School of business Bangalore we played the Beer distribution supply chain game for MBA sem 1 sec C students. Totally there were 3 supply chains. The game was a great learning experience for the students as some of them were experiencing real life commercial situations for the first time in their lives. There was information sharing possible vertically between the stakeholders of a supply chain and laterally between the members at the same level during the game.

Supply chain A was the winner as their initial supply chain costs were the least.

The real benefit from the game happens after the playing during the analysis phase while discussing the dynamics in the post-game classroom sessions. Click here to go thru earlier versions of the game played by the author across educational institutions. 

Discussions will be centred in the introductory classes at the basic level around how the profitability of the supply chain gets eroded when supply chain costs escalate. This is at best the simplest level of understanding.

 

In higher classes we also bring in the concept of order variance amplification (aka Bullwhip effect) leading to profitability erosion due to escalation of hidden inventory holding and shortage costs. The amplification of the variance of orders placed on upstream entities leads to the high costs which adds to the erosion of profitability.

Even sixty years after introducing this concept at Massachusetts Institute of Technology classrooms in Boston by Prof. J. Forrester, the game when played at other top business schools of the world, has not lost its novelty and usefulness in giving the participants real life feel of understanding the impact of supply chain dynamics on supply chain profitability. 

 

The author's beer distribution game sessions with classmates under guidance of Prof. Narayan Rangaraj at Indian Institute of Technology,  Mumbai was a great eye opener. We wish to thank late Prof Jay Forrester and other faculty members at MIT Boston and Prof. Narayan Rangaraj at IIT Bombay India for making possible playing this game that has great intrinsic learning for the student community of the world.

In the Alliance School of Business Bangalore classroom, supply chain A played a very sensible game allowing coordination and communication among themselves (not across echelons) which helped them keep their unit sc costs low and emerge the winner. It offered good learning for everyone. 

 

These days supply chains are a vital aspect of any activity, be it manufacturing or service, even not-for-profit organisatons have vast supply chains. Understanding the impact of holding inventory (and also not having enough of it) across the supply chain is a great lever in hte hands of the CEO in controlling costs. 

 

We shall be playing this ROLE PLAY GAME with all first MBA sections to help them improve the understanding of how supply chain inventory management plays an important role in making or breaking companies.

Click here for a ppt on the game details

George 

Autonomous Maintenance

https://safetyculture.com/topics/autonomous-maintenance/

Industry 5.0 - How can it benefit humanity.

Industry 5.0 is about the nature of the harmonious human-machine relationship that will be brought between the major stakeholders in the business, the customers, businesses, society, employees, technology, machines, suppliers and shareholders. 

In modern industry we find, 

• customers are looking at improved valued offerings, 
• businesses are looking at sustainably meeting its goals keeping in mind the needs of the future generation of customers, 
• society which is the final beneficiary, 
• employees whose work besides getting convenient has become more cognitive in nature, 
• technology that keeps evolving and finding new unmet customer needs to be satisfied, 
• machines that work with high uptimes meet the customer demand, 
• suppliers who give high quality material inputs to the conversion process and the 
• 
  shareholders who give the needed investment to the business. 
  

While Industry 4.0 was focusing more on automation and efficiency, Industry 5.0 gives a human touch or improves the cognitive EQ of the process. 

The term Industry 5.0 refers to people working alongside robots and smart machines. It's about robots helping humans work better and faster by leveraging advanced technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data. It adds a personal human touch to the Industry 4.0 pillars of automation and efficiency. - www.mastercontrol.com

Industry 5.0 talks of the merging of digital, physical and biological technologies. 

The figure on the right is from Industry 5.0, Pravin Reddy et al, Journal of Industrial Information Integration, March 22 and makes it very clear how from an era of mass production with automation, AI, IoT etc in Industry 4.0, we are moving to an era of mass personalisation in Industry 5.0.

Rail transportation, Super Vasuki, India's longest train ..

In any country, the transportation of people and freight over large distances is necessary for national economic development. Migration of people over large distances and heavy freight movement are the results of fast economic development in any country and faster modes of transportation

In the 75 years of India's economic growth after independence, we have seen great growth in the transportation sector, especially in freight transportation and the role of Indian railways in this growth cannot be neglected. To reaffirm it's role in national economic development, the government with the help of Indian Railways is stressing on building permanent capacity augmentation in freight transportation across the country.

Different freight transportation modes

Reaffirming the role of freight transportation in the growth of the country, Super Vasuki, India's longest freight train, from South East Central Railway, 3500 metres long, with 6 locomotive engines and 295 coaches did it's first trial run between Korba in Chattisgarh and Rajnandgaon Nagpur carrying 27,000 tonnes of coal on the 15 th of August 2022.

In India we have not had trains of this length and hauling capacity before. It was done as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebration. (click here) . It took 11.2 hours to cover a distance of 267 kms, an average speed of 24 kms per hour. Being a trial run it is very reasonable to expect such low speeds as it is the first run. Especially at India's 75th year of independence it is a great sight seeing such long trains in service.

Sishen–Saldanha, South Africa. Run on 26–27 August 1989, comprising 660 wagons, 7.302 kilometres (4.537 mi) long and a total weight of 71 765 tons on a 1,067 mm gauge line. The train comprised 16 locomotives (9 Class 9E 50 kV AC electric and 7 Class 37 diesel-electric). - wikipedia.org

Though the train from top view was found to have been partly loaded, the total load of total 27,000 T of coal moved over a distance of 267 kms in a time of 11 hours was a great task. This paves the way for more long distance freight trains hauling more freight to  move over railway tracks, helping in the fast industrialisation of our country. 

The graph on the right tells us a bit about the transport economics of multiple modes of transportation (taken with courtesy of www.transportgeography.org). 

While the cost curves are known for centuries the slope of the different lines tells us that road is least preferred over rail and sea when the distances are large. The costs are only dependent on the distances involved. The fixed costs (the y coordinate at x=0) are lowest for road, then progressively increases for rail and is maximum for sea, while the increase in running costs (slope of the lines) is very steep for road, less steep for rail and least steep for sea modes.

Let us try to find how the values of D1 and D2 vary over the different regions of the world. (click here)

In the most populous and presently fast developing regions of the world including Asia and Africa, D1 is at between 500-750 kms while D2 is near about 1500 kms

In the developed economies of Europe, D1 is at 1050 kms and in US it is around 1200 kms. The average rail haul length is US is around 3050 kms with 65% of trains in US hauling loads for average 3200 kms. 

In a peninsular country like India, national rail transportation is economical and short distance inland transport in Indian hinterland while sea based transportation appears attractive in terms of cost and distance only for coast to coast transportation.

George