全球的物流公司 DHL 已将供应链中的数字化和自动化视为寻求长期发展和竞争的在线零售商的当务之急。在其的白皮书中，该公司今年宣布在2025 年前至少投资 22 亿美元用于数字化，就如何在新技术的支持下克服电子商务供应链中的具体挑战提供了新的见解。
以消费者的速度变化：电子商务如何加速物流创新由 lharrington group llc 总裁兼执行官 LisaHarrington教授撰写。它着眼于电子商务挑战商家和物流公司供应链的六个主要领域：客户对完美购买体验的期望；消费者“随时随地”购买和接收商品的愿望；城市配送需求激增；劳动力和工资通胀的竞争；新的在线销售模式的出现和需求的意外激增；和环境问题。这些挑战的影响在履行和一英里交付领域*为明显。例如，作为全球第二大电子商务市场的美国，劳动力占仓储运营成本的40-60%。房地产公司世邦魏理仕预测 2018 年将增加450，1和失业率一直很低，这在成本和招聘方面都存在风险，尤其是在高峰期。城市化进程的加快，加上来自具有社会意识的消费者和市政当局的压力——尤其是来自具有社会意识的消费者和市政当局——减少运输运营对环境的影响，迫使零售商寻找创造性的方法来平衡交付便利性和柴油动力汽车的里程减少。一英里。
在每一个盈利能力挑战中，已经存在的技术可以让公司降低单位成本、更好地预测所需库存或提高生产力以吸收额外的增长。例如，机器人和自动分拣系统允许公司处理更高的订单量，而无需雇佣大量临时工。先进的仓库执行系统结合了物联网功能、机器学习、商业智能和数据挖掘代理，可以提高性能和响应能力，以满足不断增长的客户期望。用于一英里交付的自动驾驶汽车在许多市场仍在等待监管部门的批准，但数字化已经可以支持更好的需求预测，使库存更接近*终客户并优化运输路线，减少在路上的时间。随着许多这些技术的发展和新的创新进入市场，能够在其供应链中有效部署这些技术的公司将*有能力解决成本高昂的低效率、不稳定的订单趋势和苛刻的客户期望，这些都是竞争激烈的电子产品的特征。——商贸市场。
“这份新白皮书的见解表明，盈利能力仍然是许多电子商务公司面临的主要挑战，——或者实际上是因为——该行业的动态增长。它还让我们的客户全面了解该挑战*普遍的特定领域，以及目前哪些技术*有可能为他们提供支持，”DHL电子商务解决方案执行官 Ken Allen 说。“DHL的创新方法旨在在我们的全球网络中识别、试验和部署这些领域中*有效的技术和解决方案。例如，我们将继续在我们运营的许多部分积极扩展机器人和自动化，我们认为人工智能将成为我们未来整个业务的推动力。没有“银弹”，
承认创新本身可能是一项盈利挑战，特别是如果以错误的速度进行或资本支出过多，该研究还详细介绍了成功创新的三个步骤：专注于提供差异化的创新；对创新采取长期、战略性的观点；并架起人、软件和机器的孤岛。
“鉴于全球物流业的复杂性、市场和监管环境之间的巨大差异，以及来自客户供应链关系和深入了解的竞争差异化，我们仍然看到人们在该行业中发挥着关键作用。可预见的未来，”艾伦说。“能够在未来成功的竞赛中获胜的公司是那些能够*有效地将员工的知识与软件和机器相结合的公司。”
DHL, the world’s leading logistics company, has identifieddigitalization and automation in the supply chain as an imperativefor online retailers looking to grow and compete over thelong-term. In its latest white paper, the company, which this yearannounced an investment of at least USD 2.2 billion indigitalization through 2025, provides new insights on how specificchallenges within the e-commerce supply chain can be overcome withthe support of new technologies.
Change at the Speed of the Consumer: How E-Commerce isAccelerating Logistics Innovations was authored by Professor LisaHarrington, President and CEO of lharrington group llc. It looks atsix principal areas where e-commerce is challenging the supplychains of merchants and logistics companies: customer expectationsfor a perfect buying experience; consumers’ desire to buy andreceive goods ‘anywhere, anytime’; exploding demand for urbandelivery; competition for labor and wage inflation; the emergenceof new online sales models and unexpected surges in demand; andenvironmental concerns. The impact of these challenges is mostkeenly felt in the areas of fulfilment and last mile delivery.Labor in the U.S for example, which is the world’s second largeste-commerce market accounts for 40-60% of warehousing operatingcosts. With real estate company CBRE predicting in 2018 that anadditional 450,000 warehouse workers will be needed in the U.S. bythe end of 20191 and unemployment at a consistently low rate, thispresents a risk in terms of both cost and recruitment, particularlyduring peak periods. Increased urbanization, combined withheightened pressure – from both socially conscious consumers andmunicipal authorities, in particular – to reduce the environmentalimpact of transport operations is forcing retailers to seek outcreative ways of balancing delivery convenience with reducedmileage for diesel-powered vehicles over the last mile.
Across each of the profitability challenges, technologies alreadyexist that allow companies to reduce unit costs, better forecastneeded inventory or increase productivity to absorb additionalgrowth. Robotics and automated sorting systems, for example, allowcompanies to process higher order volumes without the need toengage large numbers of temporary workers. Advanced WarehouseExecution Systems, combining Internet of Things capabilities,machine learning, business intelligence and data mining agents canincrease performance and responsiveness to meet rising customerexpectations. While autonomous vehicles for last-mile deliverystill await regulatory approval in many markets, digitalization canalready support better demand forecasting to allow inventory to beplaced closer to the end customer and to optimize transportroutings, reducing time on the road. As many of these technologiesevolve further and new innovations come to the market, companiesthat are able to deploy them effectively within their supply chainwill be best positioned to address the costly inefficiencies,volatile order trends and demanding customer expectations thatcharacterize the fiercely competitive e-commerce market.
“The insights from this new white paper show that profitabilityis still a major challenge for many e-commerce companies, despite –or often actually because of – the dynamic growth of the sector. Italso gives our customers a comprehensive overview of the specificareas where that challenge is most prevalent, and whichtechnologies currently offer the most potential to support them,”said Ken Allen, CEO, DHL eCommerce Solutions. “DHL’s innovationapproach is targeted at identifying, piloting and deploying acrossour global network the most effective technologies and solutions ineach of these areas. We will continue to actively expand roboticsand automation across many parts of our operations, for example,and we see artificial intelligence becoming an enabler throughoutour business in the future. There is no ‘silver bullet’, butcompanies must embrace new technologies and innovate tothrive.”
Acknowledging that innovation can itself be a profitabilitychallenge, particularly if approached at the wrong pace or withexcessive outlays of capital, the research also detailed athree-step approach to innovating successfully: focusing oninnovations that provide differentiation; adopting a long-term,strategic view of innovation; and bridging the silos of people,software and machines.
“Given the complexity of the global logistics industry, the hugevariance across markets and regulatory environments, and thecompetitive differentiation that comes from relationships andin-depth knowledge of customers’ supply chains, we still see peopleplaying a critical role in the industry for the foreseeablefuture,” said Allen. “The companies that will win the race tofuture success are those that are able to combine the expertise oftheir people with software and machines most effectively.”