Top 5 airfreight logistics tech trends for 2018

We’re already a full month into 2018 and the e-commerce-driven demand for airfreight show few signs of abating. While the outlook for the year is generally positive and confidence in the industry is high, there are still many bottlenecks in the supply chain that need to be addressed, including increased safety and transparency, improved product quality and faster processing of cross-border shipments. Fortunately, there are countless technology firms willing to help forwarders, carrier and shippers manage these issues and increase the overall efficiency of air cargo transport. To help make sense of the array of options, we at Air Cargo World have chosen the top 5 tech trends we expect we will hear about the most for the rest of the year – creating products and services that may soon become the next gold-standard for the industry. On the following pages, check out some of the top, cutting-edge solutions we found: Flexible warehousing These are not your big static boxes anymore. Today’s warehouses have been transformed into dynamic hives of logistics activity. And it’s no longer about just one big building, but a network of large and small facilities strategically placed to serve the ever-shifting needs of customers. The warehouses of tomorrow are increasingly reliant upon robotic vehicles and are designed to be customizable to meet today’s on-demand needs, serving as both retail outlets and e-commerce distribution centers . In some cases, warehouse space is being leased for short-duration storage during peak times only and then released for use by other customers. Since Amazon.com purchased Whole Foods last year, expect that warehouses will have to pick up the pace of delivery in ever-decreasing window of time from order to final destination – in some cases, just a few hours. In March, keep an eye out for Air Cargo World ’s cover story on the major changes coming to the warehouse industry. Talk of blockchain implementation Blockchain is the airfreight buzzword that refuses to go away – mostly because there is so much obvious potential for it to automate and secure the mechanics of the supply chain. Note that we specifically said “talk”; while 2018 may not be the year of blockchain’s big breakthrough in air cargo, the heated discussion about possible real-world uses will be with us for quite some time. There is, of course, a reason for the blockchain technology hype . By establishing a shared, automated record of all the transactions that occur in a network, blockchain grants trusted parties exclusive access to data in real time. The companies that hope to introduce the technology as a way of digitalizing global cross-border trade say it’s one of the best methods to achieve transparency without compromising security or privacy. One of the most promising logistics developments is actually happening in the maritime sector, where Maersk and IBM have formed a joint venture to implement a blockchain-based global trade digitalization platform. If this proves successful, it will almost inevitably migrate to the air sector as well. The Internet of things and interconnectivity After being discussed ad nauseum for that last decade in Silicon Valley, the “internet of things” (IoT) may seem like a dated – and awkwardly termed – concept. However, it is still gaining enough traction in the logistics field that we may begin to see some widespread implementation this year, using well-established technology such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) and GPS tracking systems. Because airfreight involves the movement of so many tangible items – from ULDs to trucks to 777s – it is uniquely well-suited to IoT technology. For instance, Lufthansa Technik AG subsidiary Lufthansa Technik Logistik Services (LTLS) is launching an IoT program to digitalize its warehousing operations with a digital warehouse pilot destined for Munich Airport (MUC). In other applications, DHL Supply Chain has launched a “ narrowband internet of things ” program at a DHL automotive site in Liuzhou, China, in partnership with Chinese technology conglomerate Huawei Technologies. French tech firm OCEASOFT has begun testing its mobile temperature data logger Cobalt ML3 , which uses IoT track temperatures of pharma products in real time long-range wireless data transfer. IoT technology is even being used to help curb theft of delivered packages from consumers’ porches. There appears to be no limit on the utility of this type of old-but-still-new technology. UAVs: Not just for last-mile anymore Small drones designed to deliver small, high-value commodities, such as pharmaceuticals to remote hospitals, have been around for years, and all of them are hampered by the same restrictions from most world regulatory agencies that ban their use beyond line-of-sight piloting and above a few hundred feet, out of concern for public safety. It’s a major issue, and it may not be solved for some time. But the types of drone aircraft being discussed this year are not the same as the little quad- or hex-copters favored by hobbyists. For 2018 the discussion will shift to much larger machine, capable of carrying larger payload several kilometers away. The announcement earlier this month that Boeing’s deep aviation pockets were putting muscle behind vertical take-off and landing UAV’s has reinvigorated the industry. Several other firms, including Sabrewing Aircraft Co. , Natilus and China’s JD.com are working on large, fixed-wing prototypes that can fly hundreds of kilometers to remove areas that may not have adequate infrastructure. UAVs, though largely grounded by regulation, are at least growing up. Artificial Intelligence and predictive software Right now, perhaps no other technology has the greater potential to be disruptive that artificial intelligence (A.I.), which crunches the collected “big data” from the supply chain and uses machine learning to identify hidden patterns of daily e-commerce. This is the industry that practically invented the phrase “I need it shipped there yesterday,” and with the mind-bending capabilities of the latest data-driven predictive software, shippers and forwarders may soon be able to anticipate bottlenecks like weather events, traffic slowdowns and other until-now-unforeseen variables that can gum up the supply chain. A.I. can also be used for anticipating not just potential problems, but future buying habits , so shippers can better estimate when certain products will be most popular and can react swiftly to move these commodities to distribution center closer to their customers. Alibaba’s research in machine learning has made great strides in the A.I. arena with its PAI 20. platform . Stay tuned for much more of this as the year progresses.

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