DHL Supply Chain, the Americas leader incontract logistics and part of Deutsche Post DHL Group, todayannounced plans to deploy emerging technologies in 350 of its 430facilities in North American facilities and transportation controltowers as part of a $300 million investment. Selected technologieswill vary by customer needs, based on the outcomes of research andpilot programs completed by DHL’s internal innovation teams andcollaboration with dozens of external innovators.
The availability – and practical utilization –of these technologies is expected to help the diverse customer baseincluding those addressing e-commerce and omnichannel challenges tominimize complexity, remove capacity constraints, and maximizeservice to their customers. Accelerating the implementation ofselected technologies such as robotics, augmented reality, roboticsprocess automation, IoT and DHL’s proprietary end-to-end visibilitysolution – MySupplyChain – is the objective of DHL Supply Chain’sglobal digitalization strategy.
DHL Supply Chain North America CEO ScottSureddin said, “This investment is about a holistic view ofemerging technologies that enables our customers to achieve theirgrowth and profitability goals. Our customers’ needs are nothomogenous as each business and segment has unique challenges andlevels of maturity. Therefore, it is important that our customerscan benefit from our experiences and expertise with a variety ofemerging technologies.”
According to a recent DHL report, theexponential growth of e-commerce and its implications on servicewas identified by 65 percent of responding companies as having asignificant impact on their supply chain. Executives are turning totechnology in support of faster delivery times to efficientlymanage fluctuating demand. In alignment with this trend, DHL isalready leveraging emerging technologies at approximately 85 of its430 North American facilities.
“While many technologies are already in activedeployment, collaborative piece-picking robots, artificialintelligence applications and self-driving vehicles stand to havethe most promise today,” added Sureddin. The potential impact oncustomers’ businesses, which in some deployments have producedproductivity gains upwards of 25% and throughput capacity gains of30%, are two of the main drivers for accelerated investment in thecoming years. DHL’s experience with these technologies stands tominimize infrastructure costs and maximize service levels.
