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arxiv:2307.03875

Large Language Models for Supply Chain Optimization

Published on Jul 8, 2023
· Submitted by akhaliq on Jul 10, 2023
#3 Paper of the day
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Abstract

Supply chain operations traditionally involve a variety of complex decision making problems. Over the last few decades, supply chains greatly benefited from advances in computation, which allowed the transition from manual processing to automation and cost-effective optimization. Nonetheless, business operators still need to spend substantial efforts in explaining and interpreting the optimization outcomes to stakeholders. Motivated by the recent advances in Large Language Models (LLMs), we study how this disruptive technology can help bridge the gap between supply chain automation and human comprehension and trust thereof. We design -- a framework that accepts as input queries in plain text, and outputs insights about the underlying optimization outcomes. Our framework does not forgo the state-of-the-art combinatorial optimization technology, but rather leverages it to quantitatively answer what-if scenarios (e.g., how would the cost change if we used supplier B instead of supplier A for a given demand?). Importantly, our design does not require sending proprietary data over to LLMs, which can be a privacy concern in some circumstances. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework on a real server placement scenario within Microsoft's cloud supply chain. Along the way, we develop a general evaluation benchmark, which can be used to evaluate the accuracy of the LLM output in other scenarios.

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how would the cost change if we used supplier B instead of supplier A for a given demand?

Paper author

how would the cost change if we used supplier B instead of supplier A for a given demand?

Great question! The cost could definitely change if we switched suppliers, even for the same demand. Supplier B might charge different prices or shipping rates than Supplier A, so the total cost would probably change.

For example, it costs a lot more to ship coffee beans from another continent than from a supplier just a few miles away. The shipping fees alone might make Supplier B way more expensive for the current needs.

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