Enhanced visibility of critical supply chains with new data platform
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The Cambridge University's Institute for Manufacturing is improving supply chain transparency, sustainability, and resilience for businesses and governments alike with Google Cloud.
The Cambridge University's Institute for Manufacturing is improving supply chain transparency, sustainability, and resilience for businesses and governments alike with Google Cloud.
A powerful data platform for a more resilient world
From pandemics to geopolitics, global events can have an outsized impact on global supply chains, leaving manufacturers short of materials—and consumers short of products. Add to this the growing imperative for manufacturers to decarbonize supply chains to combat climate change, and it's more important than ever for businesses and governments to have clear visibility into where their goods come from. However, while many companies might know their immediate suppliers, the origins of raw materials deeper in the supply chain often remain a mystery.
To address this challenge, Dr. Mukesh Kumar and the Industrial Resilience Research Group, part of the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) at the University of Cambridge, aimed to improve supply chain visibility by using publicly available data to trace materials from their source to the final product. However, the sheer volume and complexity of the data made it difficult to achieve this kind of visibility at scale with the existing academic tools and limited computing power at their disposal.
With Google Cloud, we have a scalable cloud platform to bring the University of Cambridge's world-leading academic research to life. Together with Google Cloud's powerful AI and data analytics capabilities, we have the tools to help us solve critical challenges impacting industrial resilience, resource security, and economic security.
Dr. Mukesh Kumar
Head of the Industrial Resilience Research Group, Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge
It wasn't until Dr. Kumar began collaborating with Kiran Srirama, engineering lead and field CTO at Google Cloud, that the vision for a comprehensive observatory began to materialize. Srirama recognized the potential of the research and worked closely with the IfM to shape the initiative into a mature, scalable solution that could solve real-world industrial challenges. Working together with the Google Cloud team and official Google Cloud partner Datasparq, the IfM set about building the Global Supply Chain Observatory (GSCO), combining Google Cloud infrastructure and AI solutions with powerful tools such as Google Earth Engine for satellite imagery analysis.
"With Google Cloud, we have a scalable cloud platform to bring the University of Cambridge's world-leading academic research to life," explains Dr. Kumar. "Together with Google Cloud's powerful AI and data analytics capabilities, we have the tools to help us solve critical challenges impacting industrial resilience, resource security, and economic security."
Understanding the sentiment behind supply chain vulnerabilities with Gemini
To gain visibility of global supply chains, the GSCO ingests a vast amount of data from a wide variety of sources, including public reports, satellite imagery from Google Earth Engine, and news articles. This raw data is stored in Cloud Storage before being moved into BigQuery, where it's organized and prepared for analysis, with Gemini models being used for data processing and cleaning, and Vertex AI to classify the data for forecasting.
The IfM then applies its advanced analytics and machine learning models to the clean, structured data, helping to provide visibility into supply chains and stress-test any vulnerabilities. As a result, governments and businesses gain powerful insights into crucial supply chains and how they can be made more robust. One key application is sentiment analysis, which is critical for understanding the "human" element of supply chain disruptions. By analyzing global news, social media, and other sources, Gemini can detect early rumors or panic that might trigger hoarding or other behaviors that disrupt the flow of goods.
With Google Cloud, the UK-India Critical Minerals Supply Chain Observatory can process thousands of data points in real time. We have gone from having just 10% visibility of certain supply chains to enhanced country-level visibility, helping governments future-proof essential mineral supply.
Dr. Mukesh Kumar
Head of the Industrial Resilience Research Group, Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge
These insights, once validated by human researchers, can help businesses and governments make proactive decisions to avoid shortages.
The GSCO's first major application is the UK-India Critical Minerals Supply Chain Observatory, due to be released in early 2026. Funded by bo'h the UK and India governments, this project aims to secure a resilient supply of essential materials like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earths.
With 4,000 data points spanning more than 10 different data types, the platform will provide policy makers in both countries with a unified view of the entire mineral supply chain. This includes a clear understanding of production stages, trade flows, and weaknesses in their industrial system. Governments can use these insights to make strategic decisions on everything from foreign investment and mining acquisitions to stockpiling and long-term planning. The platform will also help businesses gain a deeper understanding of their supply chain's complexity, allowing them to shorten routes, reduce costs, and build greater resilience.
"With Google Cloud, the UK-India Critical Minerals Supply Chain Observatory can process thousands of data points in real time," explains Dr. Kumar. "We have gone from having just 10% visibility of certain supply chains to enhanced country-level visibility, helping governments future-proof essential mineral supply."
A practical collaboration to shape
future government policy
The IfM is now building on its UK-India application with a similar collaboration between the governments of the UK and Japan, using its Google Cloud-based Observatory to enhance supply chain transparency for another key global player. At the same time, the IfM is working to improve accessibility to the platform by making it easier for users to gain powerful insights. The team is exploring a natural language interface, powered by the Gemini family of models, that would allow non-technical policy makers and business leaders to ask simple questions and receive clear, actionable answers, enabling faster and more confident decision-making.
The IfM also plans to expand the Observatory's scope beyond critical minerals. The team has begun work on a new project focused on the food and agriculture sector, starting with the soybean supply chain. This will allow them to apply the same data-driven methodology to other vital industries, helping to address issues like climate impact and resilience. For Dr. Kumar, scaling up the platform and achieving these ambitious plans are only made possible through the IfM's collaboration with Google Cloud.
At the University of Cambridge, we're always pushing boundaries, but without Google Cloud, the initial secure data storage and scalability challenges wouldn’t have been easy to solve. It’s enabled us to translate academic research into a real-world industrial context and have a significant impact on how industries and governments operate.
Dr. Mukesh Kumar
Head of the Industrial Resilience Research Group, Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge
"At the University of Cambridge, we're always pushing boundaries, but without Google Cloud, the initial secure data storage and scalability challenges wouldn't have been easy to solve," says Dr. Kumar. "It's enabled us to translate academic research into a real-world industrial context and have a significant impact on how industries and governments operate."
Part of the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, the IfM educates the manufacturing leaders of the future, while conducting world-leading research to help companies and governments manufacture a better world.
Industries: Manufacturing, Education
Location: UK
Products: Google Cloud, BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Gemini, Google Earth Engine, Vertex AI
About Google Cloud partner - Datasparq
Official Google Cloud partner Datasparq is a consultancy that helps businesses work out where data and AI can make a difference and makes it happen.
