DHL scans ‘Trends Radar’ report for logistics advancements

Do “self-learning machines” and “bionic enhancements” fill you with wonder about the future of logistics or just cause anxiety headaches? Fortunately, we’ll all have several more years to decide how we feel about these technologies and others listed in DHL’s third annual “Logistics Trend Radar” report.

The sentient machines and bionics, DHL said will take more than five years before they begin to emerge and will have a “medium” impact on the logistics industry, the report said. All told, DHL identified 26 total technology advancements (see above), ranging from low-impact “digital identifiers” and “smart labels” to increase transparency emerging in more than five years to high-impact game-changers, such as big data analysis, cloud logistics and “the internet of things,” which are already emerging and will be ubiquitous in less than five years.

“Predicting trends is notoriously challenging,” said Markus Kückelhaus, vice president of innovation and trend research at DHL. “It is difficult to know ahead of time which trends will have long-term effect on businesses and which ones are simply parts of a short-lived hype.” This report, he said, can help identify and understand trends early on in their development to help DHL’s customers “stay ahead of the curve.”

The report, created by DHL Trend Research, looks at ongoing transformations in “macro trends,” such as the changing energy and trade landscape, as well as “micro trends,” including the “unbundling” of the industry via new, online logistics startups.

Some of the most impactful trends, DHL said, will be in the realm of artificial intelligence and personalization, featuring autonomous “intelligent supply chains” that employ data-driven, machine-learning technology and can open up new dimension of optimization. This technology, the report said, could begin transforming manufacturing, logistics, warehousing and last-mile delivery as soon as the end of this decade.

“Key trends featured in this year’s ‘Logistics Trend Radar’ could transform the global logistics industry, and with 15 of the 26 trends likely to make an impact in under five years, it is crucial that anyone involved in supply chain management and logistics understands these potentially game-changing developments and the implications for their own business or sector now,” said Matthias Heutger, DHL’s senior vice president of strategy, marketing and innovation.

Many of these changes are being driven by consumer behavior and the desire for personalization, such as on-demand delivery, which will enable consumers to have their purchases delivered where and when they need them. The section of the report titled “Batch Size One” explores what could happen once consumer demand for personalization goes head to head with mass production over the next 20 years. Once manufacturing is reduced to the batch size of “one” per customer, factories would have to be massively decentralized and will require logistics providers to be much faster and more flexible to react to nearly instantaneous changes.

DHL’s  2016 “Radar” report also includes sector-by-sector analysis, plus a review of ongoing trends covered in earlier reports and insights from industry experts and logistics entrepreneurs. The full report is available for free download at dhl.com/trendradar.