LOGISTICS TREND RADAR CHANNEL
The Era of Logistics
Over the first two decades of this millennium, advancing technology, new business models, and dramatic shifts in customer behavior have reshaped the logistics industry as well as most other industries. We invite you to explore 29 key trends through a selection of videos and the innovations that can help you navigate the transformative changes to come.
Social & Business Trend Topics
Future of Work
Automation, an ageing population, the rise of the millennial workforce, and the COVID-19 pandemic are greatly transforming work in the logistics industry. Humans working collaboratively with robots, flexible work systems, continuous learning, and upskilling will help businesses future-proof, stay competitive, and attract and retain the workforce of the future. Speakers: Jordan Toy & Jana Koch.
Sustainable Logistics
Ecological imbalances and growing demand from customers and governments for sustainable solutions have cultivated an urgent need for environment-friendly practices in supply chains, from raw material extraction to managing product end of life. Together with optimized processes, zero-emission mobility, and carbon offset solutions for facilities, this momentum will help the logistics industry go green. Speaker: Ashwini Bhagodia.
Rethinking Packaging
With a global market size hovering near $1 trillion, packaging is a vital component of the logistics industry. The continued growth of e-commerce and increasing calls for more sustainability are driving new creative and cost-efficient solutions, with focus on recyclability, reusability, compostability, and biodegradability. Innovation and technology will lead the way to better packaging tomorrow. Speaker: Ben Gesing.
Smart Containerization
Global cargo shipping was revolutionized by the adoption of the standard container, and this brought vast improvements in efficiency and ease of trade. However, the growing need for volume flexibility and increasing time and cost pressures are now necessitating new container formats and processes, especially in the context of shared logistics networks and urban delivery. Speaker: Ben Gesing.
Space Logistics
With the advent of satellite constellations and habitable bases, space logistics is an emerging niche within the industry. While the core of logistics remains the same, whether in space or on Earth, more stringent constraints and extreme conditions challenge the safe transport, storage, and delivery of materials and products beyond Earth’s atmosphere and back. Speakers: Klaus Dohrmann & Jonathan Firth.
Fresh Chain
Orders of groceries, meals, and pharmaceuticals are driving growth in the fulfillment and delivery of temperature-controlled goods through standard networks, creating new challenges for picking, packaging, and transporting shipments with temperature integrity. To enable this fresh chain of single shipments, the industry must develop and implement special processes, innovative cold-chain packaging, and optimized infrastructure. Speakers: Tanja Grauf & Manuel Stellmann.
Multisourcing (Nearshoring)
Progressively leaner supply chains have sped production and have optimized delivery costs worldwide, but they have revealed their heightened vulnerability in the face of unpredictable man-made and natural forces. Sourcing from multiple suppliers along a supply chain, from raw materials to last-mile delivery, can effectively mitigate risk by adding regional flexibility and build competitiveness for logistics players on the global stage. Speakers: Klaus Dohrmann & Richard Wilding.
Sharing Economy
The societal shift from ownership to the sharing of goods, assets, and services through digital platforms has been one of the most groundbreaking trends in recent years. Logistics providers can both facilitate and participate in these networks through workforce allocation, transport utilization, and on-demand warehousing and fulfillment to achieve new levels of efficiency and value creation. Speaker: Ben Gesing.
Omnichannel Logisitcs
The next generation of omnichannel retail – including “webrooming,” showrooming, and no-line commerce concepts – requires logistics networks to be not just present but also proficient in tailoring to the needs of customers in all channels. Dynamic delivery, fulfillment, and return options necessitate seamless technological integration, data sharing, and collaboration among manufacturers, retailers, and logistics providers. Speaker: Ben Gesing.
Mass Personalization
Mass Personalization refers to offering bespoke products or services to meet the demands of individual customers, produced and delivered with mass-production efficiency. For logistics providers this trend will drive greater demand in distribution centers for value-added services within consolidation, fulfillment, postponement and customization activities, as well as more high-touch services in the last mile. Speaker: Jordan Toy.
Servitization
The transformation of traditional product-based business models into outcome-as-a-service models places end users at the heart of strategies and relationships while providing valuable insights into product usage. To fully enable servitization concepts, companies will have to adopt condition-monitoring technologies and service billing models. Speaker: Klaus Dohrmann & Ian Machan.
Logistics Marketplaces
Logistics marketplaces aggregate shipper demand and carrier supply across increasingly complex supply chain networks. Providers of these digital brokerage services offer a centralized marketplace to manage not only delivery rates and schedules but also additional services such as shipment visibility and customs document management, providing customers with an enhanced and tailored digital experience. Speaker: Ashwini Bhagodia.
Silver Economy
As global populations rapidly age, the logistics industry will need to adapt to the rise of the silver economy, offering new services for elderly customers and new opportunities for older workers. Health and safety in regards to seniors will be a primary core theme as new technology assists in augmenting and replacing physical and cognitive tasks. Speaker: Jordan Toy.
Next-Generation Security
As entire supply chains digitalize and connect, vulnerabilities must be shielded from the increasing likelihood of cyberattacks. In addition to long-established security best practices, supply chains in the future will also need to leverage new, intelligent technology to ensure physical security and to bolster measures against the growing sophistication of counterfeit and contraband activities. Speaker: Ben Gessing.
Technology Trend Topics
Data Analytics
Logistics is being transformed through the power of data-driven insights. Thanks to the vast degree of digital transformation and the Internet of Things, unprecedented amounts of data can be captured from various supply chain sources. Capitalizing on its value offers massive potential to increase operational efficiency, improve customer experience, reduce risk, and create new business models. Speaker: Dominik Goetting.
Internet of Things
The Internet of Things (IoT) has potential to connect virtually anything to anything and accelerate data-driven logistics. Everyday objects can now send, receive, process, and store information, and thus actively participate in self-steering, event-driven logistics processes. IoT promises far-reaching payoffs for logistics providers, generating actionable insights that drive change and new solutions. Speaker: Celina Pfeiffer.
Robotics & Automation
The first wave of automation using intelligent robotics has arrived in the logistics industry. Driven by rapid technological advancements and greater affordability, robotics solutions are entering the logistics workforce, supporting zero-defect processes and boosting productivity. Mobile or stationary, robots will adopt more roles in the supply chain, assisting workers with warehousing, transportation, and even last-mile delivery activities. Speaker: Dominik Goetting.
Quantum Computing
Millions of times faster than supercomputers, quantum computers will unlock an unprecedented level of calculating power capable of processing highly complex logistics algorithms in real time and rapidly simulating and iterating product and service models for a better-performing supply chain. Like technological breakthroughs before them, quantum computers will also present new opportunities and risks for cybersecurity. Speaker: Jordan Toy.
Bionic Enhancement
Bionic enhancement refers to supporting systems worn close to or within the human body that augment capabilities of the human body and mind. Advanced wearables and exoskeletons can support logistics workforces, especially older workers, in areas such as training, communication, process execution, and optimization. Most importantly, they can minimize health and safety risks in supply chains. Speaker: Tanja Grauf & David Duwe.
Blockchain
Removing complexity from global supply chains, blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) can facilitate greater trust and transparency among stakeholders and customers, supporting the automation of administrative and commercial processes. Smart contract concepts and the potential adoption of cryptocurrency as viable payment will also create opportunities for new services and business models in logistics. Speaker: Ben Gesing.
Cloud & API's
As cloud-based service applications for the logistics sector continue to disrupt traditional supply chain management, application programming interfaces (APIs) form the basis of on-demand logistics services (or LaaS) and real-time data processing. This allows carriers and third-party logistics providers to integrate and scale software services using centralized cloud-based platforms, replacing existing electronic data interchange (EDI) solutions. Speakers: Ben Gesing & Antony Cotrell.
Augmented & Virtual Reality
Blending the digital and physical worlds, augmented reality (AR) can augment logistics quality and productivity, empowering workers with the right information at the right time in the right place. Virtual reality (VR) technology enables logistics providers to design, experience, and evaluate environments in a digital world for optimizing material flows and training processes. Speakers: Tanja Grauf & Jon Arnold.
Digital Twins
As unique, virtual representations of potential or actual physical objects and processes, digital twins enable companies to design, visualize, monitor, manage, and maintain their assets more effectively. Led by the engineering, manufacturing, automotive, and energy industries, these simulated replicas help unlock new service-based business models built on valuable insights from operational data. Speaker: Klaus Dohrmann.
Drones
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or “drones” can be used to deliver goods in the first and last mile, as well as for intralogistics and surveillance operations. Though popularized in the media in recent years, UAVs will not replace traditional ground-based transportation. However, they will augment delivery with point-to-point and automated operations. Speakers: YingChuan Huang & Ivet Vidinova.
Next Generation Wireless
Beyond 5G, progress across a wide range of wireless communication technologies is now creating new opportunities for industry to improve visibility, enhance operational efficiency, and accelerate automation. Next-generation wireless technologies will enable the next communication revolution, moving beyond today’s goal of connecting everyone to a world in which everything, everywhere is connected. Speakers: Ben & Chris.
Self-Driving Vehicles
With technological advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and ever-increasing investment in the development of sensors and vision technologies, self-driving capabilities will fundamentally transform the way vehicles are assembled, operated, utilized, and serviced. From long-haul trucking to last-mile rovers, self-driving vehicles will upgrade logistics by unlocking new levels of safety, efficiency, and quality. Speaker: Jordan Toy.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is finding strong adoption within logistics thanks to the parallel progress of machine learning, computing power, big data analytics, and acceptance by industry leaders. AIstands to improve supply chain efficiency with its prediction and vison recognition capabilities and by driving intelligent workflow automation and delivering new customer experiences. Speaker: Ben Gesing.
3D Printing
Encouraged by opportunities for greater customization, less waste, and more localized manufacturing and delivery, 3D printing will add new diversity to manufacturing strategies, with many combining, not replacing, traditional fabrication with 3D printers. Logistics providers can orchestrate complex hybrid manufacturing networks and utilize networks of 3D printers to offer new logistics services. Speakers: Dominik Goetting & Richard Foster.
