JLR taps Everstream Analytics’ AI to dodge supply chain problems

By Nick Carey

LONDON (Reuters) – JLR said on Monday it has partnered with supply chain mapping and risk analytics firm Everstream Analytics, which will embed artificial intelligence into the British luxury carmaker’s system to help avert future global supply issues.

The new AI technology, JLR said, will allow it to monitor its supply chain in real-time and protect the production of its current models and next generation of electric vehicles (EVs).

JLR, a unit of India’s Tata Motors said Everstream’s technology has already enabled it to avoid disruption at global freight ports to deliver vehicles to clients.

“Through our collaboration with Everstream Analytics, we are harnessing the power of AI to proactively manage risks before they cause disruption to production,” JLR’s executive director for industrial operations Barbara Bergmeier said in a statement.

It said the technology uses a combination of AI, predictive analytics, machine-learning and human intuition to plot emerging incidents, such as natural disasters, strikes, data breaches and export issues on a global map.

In a post-pandemic world full of supply chain snarls, a growing group of startups and established logistics firms have created a multi-billion dollar industry to apply AI and machine learning to help businesses minimise disruption.

JLR was hit particularly hard by a global shortage of semiconductor chips that forced major carmakers to curtail production of certain models.

The carmaker has returned to profitability in the last two quarters and in the most recent quarter accounted for two thirds of Tata’s total revenue.

(Reporting By Nick Carey; editing by Barbara Lewis)