Complexity in the supply chain often arises when a number of relatively straightforward activities combine together in a complex way. This is especially the case with shipping. While there have been several technological breakthroughs that have aided shipping, from tag and trace to blockchain, to achieve further technological solutions would be of great benefit to the global sector. Many analysts believe this to be, in the near future, quantum computing.
On this basis, many companies are investing in quantum computing as the solution that could optimize shipping routes in the face of changing and unpredictable conditions. In addition, the amass of qubits could help with the discovery of new materials, and to help shipping firms determine option pricing quickly and accurately.
Quantum computing is the exploitation of collective properties of quantum states, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform computation. It remains that true quantum computers that at least a decade away
Yet, as research into quantum computing continues to advance, this is something that major shipping firms need to begin to plan for. Furthermore, once the technology becomes available to global markets, it has the potential to offer significant return on investment and solutions for supply chain professionals especially.
Building on this, the quantum computing software development company, Classiq contends that it could one day solve problems as in the case of the Suez Canal blockade earlier this year.
Yuval Boger, Chief Marketing Officer at Classiq tells Digital Journal about this future state: “Global shipping companies had to scramble when the Suez Canal was recently blocked. Quantum computers can solve this class of problem (called “the traveling salesperson problem”) very efficiently, and much quicker than a classical computer can.”
The travelling salesman problem is a philosophical dilemma based upon the the following question: “Given a list of cities and the distances between each pair of cities, what is the shortest possible route that visits each city exactly once and returns to the origin city?” The “deceptive” part is that the math to support the problem quickly grows overwhelmingly complex.
This is a non-deterministic polynomial-time hardness (NP-hard) problem centered around combinatorial optimization, important in theoretical computer science and operations research. To date, scientists in Japan have come closest by solving 22 cities.
Boger returns to the possibilities for shipping, noting: “Through quantum computing, shippers can quickly determine optimal shipping sequences including which route is fastest, which is most cost-effective, which has the least environmental impact, and even how these might change during the day with changing traffic or weather conditions.”
Considering what this might mean in real-term, Boger explains: “If Uber, UPS, or a global shipping company could save, for instance, 15-20 percent in their transportation costs, quantum computing becomes less of an investment and more of a formidable competitive advantage with huge bottom-line value.”
