Consultant Insight: DHL Supply Chain’s road to digital transformation

Supply chain providers are investing in warehouse automation to alleviate labor shortages, assist workers by improving productivity measures, and speed up final-mile deliveries. [caption id="attachment_68221" align="alignright" width="261"] Cathy Roberson, Cargo Facts Consulting senior consultant and Air Cargo Next columnist[/caption] According to fulfillment and warehousing provider ShipHero , warehouse automation can cost anywhere from $1 million to $25 million, depending on the technology purchased and the requirements. Automations can include upgrades to robotic conveyor belt systems, robots, inventory management software and more. Inside a DHL Supply Chain facility Such investments are part of many providers’ plans for digital transformation. Indeed, this is the case for DHL Supply Chain . A recent tour of a DHL Supply Chain facility in Columbus, Ohio, revealed how the company’s investments in automation benefit it and how the investments are also becoming a roadmap for other DHL divisions. According to the company, it is focusing automation investments on its most labor-intensive processes, such as picking boxes or individual items and loading and unloading pallets or individual boxes, which it estimates contributes about 33% of total direct hours today. With its collaborative robots that assist in picking, DHL Supply Chain estimates that it has increased productivity by 70% and reduced training time by 80%. But it’s not all about robots. Utilizing machine learning and warehousing analytics has resulted in improvements, such as preventing more than 5,000 short orders and reducing indirect planning time to four hours from 16 hours. Picking the right partners The DHL facility tour also demonstrated the importance of partnerships. DHL Supply Chain collaborates with vendors such as Locus Technologies , Boston Dynamics, 6 River Systems and Packsize to develop and test new concepts. Today it has more than 1,300 digitalization projects underway and notes that it has more than 100 partnerships to “ensure speed and drive innovations.” [caption id="attachment_57134968" align="alignleft" width="225"] 'Stretch,' one of robots at DHL Supply Chain's facility in Columbus, Ohio, can unload 350 boxes per hour from the back of a trailer and put them on a conveyer.[/caption] Its partnership with Boston Dynamics culminated in Stretch, one of several robots showcased on the tour. Stretch unloads packages from the back of trailers and places them on a conveyor. According to DHL, Stretch can unload about 350 boxes per hour, a rate DHL expects to improve as the robot’s machine learning algorithm and computer vision get better at understanding how trucks are loaded with randomly sized boxes. DHL Supply Chain’s partnership with Addverb Technologies produced Zippy, which automates the sortation of goods. Among its benefits are flexibility in adjusting the sortation destination, increased throughput, reduced lead times and improved safety. DHL Supply Chain is focused on 12 types of technologies across the logistics process, such as packaging technologies, asset tracking and management, indoor robotic transportation and more. DHL Supply Chain plans to expand its partner ecosystem as it focuses on increasing outsourcing trends due to the growing complexity of supply chains. While its customer base spans all industries, 25% of its fulfillment signings are from e-commerce businesses.

Consultant Insight: DHL Supply Chain’s road to digital transformation

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