Kaizen Meets Hitachi AI for Workflow Productivity

Via Conor Cusack:  Quite an interesting application direction:

Hitachi puts AI Boss in Charge to Boost Productivity By David Nield
Forget about robots taking over your job — they might be more likely to take over the role of your boss and get you working smarter. Hitachi has been experimenting with software systems that can issue workflows and assign employee duties, and so far there’s been an 8 percent increase in warehouse efficiency and productivity.

According to Hitachi, the new programs are designed to assess fluctuations in demand and productivity levels based on a large database of previous corporate activity. The main benefits over previous automated systems are the way in which the new AI is able to adapt in real time to changes in workflow and unexpected activities — variations that would typically require new code to be added. .... " 

I wrote:  Impressive.  Hitachi talked to us back then. Note mention of Kaizen continuous improvement. Good starting point for cognitive.   I have lots of questions, am looking for more in depth write ups.    Looks like a classic workflow optimization, the kind that was done with flow process models in the past.  Now in real time? Adaptive interactions to changing data?   Dealing with modeling related changeover processes?   Actually managing workers directly?   Which cognitive methods?  While virtual assistants are very interesting,  an AI application of the style of the Hitachi case would be more readily sold to an enterprise, since it can be directly compared to current business process practice.   Impressions?  .....   Continuing Linkedin discussion.

Sales by Kaizen

Kaizen:  Continuous improvement in sales.  " ... It's in sales that I am most intrigued by the possibilities of a kaizen strategy. A slim majority of sales people make or exceed quota -- in recent years, 58 percent, plus or minus a little. The interesting thing about selling, for me, is that there's usually only one evaluation point: Did you close the deal? What if we used a more incremental approach to assess sales? ... "