Anna Berenberg’s Post

Double profits? ✅ Deliver 13% more containers? ✅ Do it with 15% FEWER ships? ✅ Seems impossible, right? Not for our Google Operations Research team. They've cracked the code with our new Shipping Network Design API. Kudos to Jon Orwant and team for optimizing the container shipping industry! 🚀 #shipping #optimization #GoogleOR #supplychain #innovation #logistics

Exciting research towards more efficient ocean transport, with network sizes approaching realistic scenarios. To achieve real improvements, liners will need to consider more factors, incl. - Robustness: both demands and transit times are volatile - how well does the solution cope with delays, congested ports? - Strategic fit: networks aren't planned in isolation - how does the solution fit with alliance partners, competition on lanes, long-term customer contracts? So, it will be powerful to build an interactive tool on top to experiment and iterate. Excited to see this in action!

This news fills me with immense pride and gratitude. 🙌 When I joined Google, my mission was clear: eliminate waste in global supply chains. And now, it is actually possible! We optimized ground transportation with Google Maps & Geo, tackled aviation through our partnership with Swiss Air under The Lufthansa Group, but with 90% of global trade moving by sea, conquering this last frontier was crucial. Achieving 35% more containers moved on 7% fewer vessels both increases the profitability, enables greater service and less CO2. These numbers are unprecedented even for experts in this field. I'm humbled to have worked alongside the brilliant minds of Jon Orwant, Tom Tangl, Virgile Galle, and the entire incredible team. Their dedication to innovation is inspiring, and I'm grateful for their trust in my business insights to ensure our science and technology deliver maximum value. Even as my focus has expanded wider on driving strategic business transformation across all industries, the impact of this work is undeniable. It's not just valuable for logistics and transportation, but for every business with a supply chain and every consumer who wants to create a better future. And where every point in this article may not be clear to you -do yourself and find the closest operations research scientist and explore how you can deploy it. Now it's your turn to make a difference! I'm thrilled to see how bringing bright minds together can create such a ripple effect of positive change. #supplychain #optimization #sustainability #operationsresearch #innovation #Google #sustainablefutures #enablingpartners #enablingcustomers Julio Sincero Alejandra Estanislao Corinna Cortes Will Grannis Warren Barkley John Abel Paula Natoli Samrah Khan Carrie Tharp Eva Fors Adaire Fox-Martin Tara Brady Dr. Daniel Holz

Jon is modest in his statements. These techniques are important and show demonstrable improvements to a complex problem (global shipping) and results in significant savings. Even if you're not in shipping, I suspect your organization and industry can also benefit from some operations research magic. Have a read through the article.

As a mathematician, I have my doubts. Most of us know that around 90% of global goods travel by sea on cargo vessels. Efficiently routing these ships involves a complex problem of network design, scheduling, and container routing. Google’s Operations Research team claims to have developed the Shipping Network Design API, which supposedly offers a groundbreaking solution that scales better and is faster than previous methods. They suggest that by addressing these challenges simultaneously rather than sequentially, the API improves efficiency, doubling profits, increasing container delivery by 13%, and reducing the number of vessels by 15%. By utilizing advanced optimization techniques such as double column generation and constraint programming, Google asserts that the API significantly enhances shipping operations, solving problems at a world-scale level for the first time. However, it remains to be seen whether this innovation can truly boost throughput and maximize profits as claimed, setting a new benchmark for the industry. If it were that easy, and given the resources of the major shipping lines, wouldn't everyone already be doing it?  #CargoChallenges #GoogleClaims #EfficiencyQuestions #OptimizationTech #IndustryInnovation

Did you know that 90% of the world's goods travel over the ocean? But, what are the best, most efficient routes for these ships? Google Operations Research team is proud to announce the Shipping Network Design API, which implements a new solution to this problem. Our approach scales better, enabling solutions to world-scale supply chain problems, while being faster than any known previous attempts. It is able to double the profit of a container shipper, deliver 13% more containers, and do so with 15% fewer vessels. That's many more goods being shipped for a lot less carbon! #transport #googlecloud #sustainability #maritime #supplychain #logistics

🚢 Revolutionizing Global Shipping with Google’s New API 🚢 Excited to share an incredible breakthrough from Google’s Operations Research team! They’ve unveiled a powerful solution to the Liner Shipping Network Design and Scheduling Problem, tackling one of the most complex issues in global logistics. 📈 Key Highlights: • Advanced Optimization Techniques: Utilizing double column generation and CP-SAT constraint programming to enhance scalability and efficiency. • Unprecedented Performance: Doubling the profit for container shippers, delivering 13% more containers, and achieving this with 15% fewer vessels. • LINERLIB Benchmark Success: Demonstrating remarkable improvements across key metrics like vessel usage, container throughput, and profitability, even in large-scale scenarios like WorldLarge. This groundbreaking Shipping Network Design API is set to transform how we manage global supply chains, making shipping more efficient, reliable, and cost-effective. #SupplyChain #Logistics #Shipping #Optimization #GoogleInnovation #OperationsResearch

Google just solved a massive global logistical issue using Constraint Programming! Typically, global shipping routes are planned by solving design, scheduling, and routing one-by-one. According to Google, "solving them all simultaneously is more difficult but is also more likely to discover better solutions." They were able to double weekly profits of shipping solutions by using a combination of two optimisation methods, with some smart shortcuts to boost efficiency. This also cut down on the number of vessels used, a big upside for the planet 🌎 Forms of AI less known to the public, like Constraint Programming, are really powerful tools which have huge implications on global scales, often more far-reaching than their fan-favorite counterparts! Thanks to Niklas Dewally for sharing this great article with me <3

It's an interesting read for those of us in the shipping industry. Google Researchers have developed a new API for optimizing cargo ship routes and schedules, addressing the Liner Shipping Network Design and Scheduling Problem. They are claiming their solutions enhances efficiency, allowing container shippers to significantly increase profits, deliver more containers, and reduce vessel usage. And also by simultaneously solving network design, scheduling, and container routing, it outperforms previous methods in scalability and results. For more information, read the full article here. https://lnkd.in/gpxivwi8 #Logistics #Shipping #Optimization #Innovation #MaritimeIndustry #SupplyChain #Sustainability #Technology

🌀 Infinite Context Length 🌀 Google researchers introduced a paper where they talk about having an infinite context length. They achieve it with a new attention technique called "Infini-attention". Infini-attention features three important things - 1. Compressive Memory: Instead of discarding old key-value (KV) pairs as in traditional models, Infini-attention stores these pairs in a compressive memory. This allows the model to "remember" and utilize past information efficiently, reducing the memory footprint required for processing large input sequences. 2. Dual Attention Mechanism: It combines local and global attention mechanisms. The local attention handles short-term dependencies within a closer range of the input sequence, while the global attention (via linear processing of the compressed memory) manages long-term dependencies across much larger segments of input. 3. Efficient Scaling: By reusing key, value, and query states from the standard attention computation and incorporating them into the compressive memory, Infini-attention supports efficient scaling to very long contexts, such as documents or datasets with millions of tokens, without a significant increase in computational demand. #context #LLM #google #gemini