Smart Distributed Production: Usage of Machine Learning to minimise delivery routes

**Project summary**

The crisis caused by COVID-19 has significant impact on global and UK supply chains, disrupting production and shipping alike. One result of this disruption is, that over 90% of businesses expect a significant onshoring of activity ([https://www.theengineer.co.uk/poll-pandemic-reshoring-uk-manufacturing/][0]) and Additive Manufacturing (AM) is one solution to a successful onshoring ([https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2020/05/onshoring-in-the-post-coronavirus-future-local-goods-for-local-people/][1]).

A key challenge is the fragmentation of the AM Market, where over 50% of the market is split between thousands of small, highly specialised Service Bureaus ([https://amfg.ai/the-additive-manufacturing-landscape-2020-report/][2]), often in remote areas of the UK. To aggravate the matter, these Service Bureaus form loose partnerships among each other, routing parts from A to B and back, resulting in repeat journeys which would be avoided if handled centrally.

This leads to inefficiencies in the delivery process, which requires a central solution to overcome. As a direct response, Autonomous Manufacturing Limited (further called AMFG) will offer the market a solution that offers:

1. Intelligent Packaging of multiple parts and orders
2. Intelligent Part Routing between Service Bureaus
3. Intelligent Delivery planning

[0]: https://www.theengineer.co.uk/poll-pandemic-reshoring-uk-manufacturing/
[1]: https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2020/05/onshoring-in-the-post-coronavirus-future-local-goods-for-local-people/
[2]: https://amfg.ai/the-additive-manufacturing-landscape-2020-report/