5 ms·

Software That Shapes Workers’ Lives

72 points by jbegley 8y ago

ucaetano 8y ago
> Could S.C.M. software include a “workers’-rights” component—a counterpart to PP/DS, incorporating data on working conditions? That exists, it is called compliance software, and usually serves as an input (of constraints) to the SCM. It might be labor compliance (hours worked, breaks, etc.), it might be food safety compliance (max temperature, max time in storage, etc.), drug compliance, etc. The article is a bit of a joke, it reads like assigning a humanities professor to report on resource optimization techniques. Oh, wait, that's exactly what the article is! But well, it is the New Yorker, no reason to expect something different.
- anigbrowl 8y ago
  It's no more of a joke than assuming that software developers are going to take ethical considerations into account by default. Categorically dismissing the whole field of humanities seems like the arrogance of ignorance.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- dang 8y ago
  Would you please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html, which ask you not to snark and not to post shallow dismissals here? Your comment would be fine with just the first paragraph. Smearing the author like that is uncivil, and dissing the publication just adds noise.
  - thanatropism 8y ago
    To be fair, it was a qualified dismissal (a proof by counter example, essentially) followed by color (or off-color) commentary. There's probably more polite ways of saying "this is the typical bias of non-stem core commentators on stem core issues". But we can't all to polish our submissions to essay or press release standards, and devaluing negative off-hand remarks will only incentivize positive off-hand remarks, i.e. sycophancy. Take these as off-hand remarks on the concept of civil discussion. I fully acknowledge your role and experience as the relevant qualified expert.
momofarm 8y ago
interesting, he says that software like SAP could 'predict/forecast' the spiking demand from customer. I wonder how this could be done. Because we know how unpredictable of these demand are.
- cosmie 8y ago
  That unpredictability is the reason for a demand planner. They basically act in a similar role to a project manager, except over the demand forecast for a product portfolio. SAP (the ERP system) snakes it's way through the entire company, from sales to transportation to sensors directly on factory production lines. SAP can be configured with various forecasting models that use all that data as input, and the demand planner is a steward over both that model and all the inputs in there. And accounts for fuzzy stuff like unusual spikes anticipated from marketing events, or other macro level market happenings that require manual intervention or adjustments to account for. All of the hard stats happen within SAP, and the demand planner really just fiddles with the knobs til the output "feels right". While there's likely a team somewhere in the company that is responsible for the statistical models themselves, the demand planners rarely touch them directly or even truly understand them. They just work with whatever is configured in the system for them, and if it doesn't feel right they might fiddle with and override the output until they get to a forecast that makes all the stakeholders happy. I started my career in this area. Specifically, working on a process improvement team in a company with a top ranked global supply chain, working on validating novel approaches towards demand and supply planning. I'm far from an expert, but got intimately familiar with the underlying systems and processes in this area. If there's anything in particular you'd like to know, feel free to reach out!
  - Pamar 8y ago
    I would for sure like to learn more. 1) which gain in efficient use of resource can such a system produce? 1%? More? Less? 2) is there a book or some article about this idea so that I can learn a bit more and think about how to introduce this in my own business? 3) are there other products for this, apart from SAP itself?
    - 8y ago
rconti 8y ago
Suddenly I want to take this SAP class! I imagine it's something like the worst of Oracle Forms, but nonetheless it's really surprising and cool that the class was one-on-one.

72 points by jbegley 8y ago

> Could S.C.M. software include a “workers’-rights” component—a counterpart to PP/DS, incorporating data on working conditions? That exists, it is called compliance software, and usually serves as an input (of constraints) to the SCM. It might be labor compliance (hours worked, breaks, etc.), it might be food safety compliance (max temperature, max time in storage, etc.), drug compliance, etc. The article is a bit of a joke, it reads like assigning a humanities professor to report on resource optimization techniques. Oh, wait, that's exactly what the article is! But well, it is the New Yorker, no reason to expect something different.

anigbrowl 8y ago
It's no more of a joke than assuming that software developers are going to take ethical considerations into account by default. Categorically dismissing the whole field of humanities seems like the arrogance of ignorance.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
dang 8y ago
Would you please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html, which ask you not to snark and not to post shallow dismissals here? Your comment would be fine with just the first paragraph. Smearing the author like that is uncivil, and dissing the publication just adds noise.
- thanatropism 8y ago
  To be fair, it was a qualified dismissal (a proof by counter example, essentially) followed by color (or off-color) commentary. There's probably more polite ways of saying "this is the typical bias of non-stem core commentators on stem core issues". But we can't all to polish our submissions to essay or press release standards, and devaluing negative off-hand remarks will only incentivize positive off-hand remarks, i.e. sycophancy. Take these as off-hand remarks on the concept of civil discussion. I fully acknowledge your role and experience as the relevant qualified expert.

momofarm 8y ago

interesting, he says that software like SAP could 'predict/forecast' the spiking demand from customer. I wonder how this could be done. Because we know how unpredictable of these demand are.

cosmie 8y ago
That unpredictability is the reason for a demand planner. They basically act in a similar role to a project manager, except over the demand forecast for a product portfolio. SAP (the ERP system) snakes it's way through the entire company, from sales to transportation to sensors directly on factory production lines. SAP can be configured with various forecasting models that use all that data as input, and the demand planner is a steward over both that model and all the inputs in there. And accounts for fuzzy stuff like unusual spikes anticipated from marketing events, or other macro level market happenings that require manual intervention or adjustments to account for. All of the hard stats happen within SAP, and the demand planner really just fiddles with the knobs til the output "feels right". While there's likely a team somewhere in the company that is responsible for the statistical models themselves, the demand planners rarely touch them directly or even truly understand them. They just work with whatever is configured in the system for them, and if it doesn't feel right they might fiddle with and override the output until they get to a forecast that makes all the stakeholders happy. I started my career in this area. Specifically, working on a process improvement team in a company with a top ranked global supply chain, working on validating novel approaches towards demand and supply planning. I'm far from an expert, but got intimately familiar with the underlying systems and processes in this area. If there's anything in particular you'd like to know, feel free to reach out!
- Pamar 8y ago
  I would for sure like to learn more. 1) which gain in efficient use of resource can such a system produce? 1%? More? Less? 2) is there a book or some article about this idea so that I can learn a bit more and think about how to introduce this in my own business? 3) are there other products for this, apart from SAP itself?
  - 8y ago

rconti 8y ago

Suddenly I want to take this SAP class! I imagine it's something like the worst of Oracle Forms, but nonetheless it's really surprising and cool that the class was one-on-one.