Being a ship supplying company comes with various responsibilities. Both provisions and technical stores supplying have their own challenges. Although different, these challenges derive from the difficulties of maintaining the supply chain smoothly. Eliminating those supply chain-related problems mostly boils down to effective stock management.

Now, stock management is never easy for any business, regardless of scale, but in maritime supply, it operates on a different level. Full-service ship suppliers offer literally limitless range of options, whether it's a regularly stocked item or not, making it impossible to track them all. Some rather unusual requests we've had in the past include used tractor tires (that the crew loved for cross-fit), building a sauna onboard (still in use to this day), and setting up indoor cycling stations—whatever was needed, we delivered.

However, when it comes to standardized maritime goods (again, there are millions of different items, but they are structured) and provisions, stock management is the name of the game. This is where AI comes into play. By inputting historical sales data month by month, we generate forecasts for the upcoming months. But this alone is not really sufficient to acquire accurate and precise forecasts, as it doesn’t account for other factors, and in the real world, there’s always something major happening that changes the trajectory of events. For instance, this year, the Houthi attacks altered all the relevant dynamics regarding maritime traffic. This is an example of an "unknown-unknown," meaning it is unprecedented and unexpected. What advanced AI-powered prediction models can do is analyze the changes, create different scenarios, and finally estimate the traffic for a certain area, which in the end help us manage our stock accordingly.

This is especially important for the Bosphorus, where vessels have a narrow time window for supply during transit, leaving little to no margin for error. With accurate estimations, ship suppliers can foresee the unknown and prepare accordingly, resulting in smooth operations without delays and, more importantly, happier crew members. After all, being able to provide provisions that are fresh and without exceptions is a duty of the highest importance for some of the most valuable people: seafarers.