AI is set to deliver big changes to the logistics industry
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Every day, logistics companies perform Herculean feats of coordination and organization to deliver millions of parcels across the globe. There is perhaps no entity that better understands the challenges involved in such an undertaking than DHL, the world’s largest logistics company. Every year, the company’s 350,000 employees deliver more than 1.2 billion parcels in over 220 countries and territories.
As in every industry, logistics today involves a degree of routine and repetitive work. But unlike industries such as manufacturing and retail, where AI is already well on its way to relieving humans of such work and freeing them up for more creative tasks, a similar transformation is only just beginning in logistics.
The advantages of such a transformation, however, are significant, and they touch virtually every aspect of the industry, from the back office to operations to customer-facing activities. Today, as AI becomes more accessible and more effective, according to a report released Monday by IBM and DHL, the time is ripe for industry leaders to harness the technology to improve their businesses.
“Looking ahead, we believe AI has the opportunity to significantly augment current activities in logistics from end to end. AI will fundamentally extend human expertise in terms or reach, quality, and velocity by eliminating mundane and routine work, allowing logistics workforces around the world to focus on more meaningful and impactful work,” write IBM’s Global Industry Leader for Rail, Freight and Logistics Keith W. Dierkx and DHL’s Senior Vice President for Strategy, Marketing and Innovation Matthias Heutger.
In many cases, Dierkx and Heutger argue in the report, logistics leaders can learn from the AI advancements driving change in other industries to inspire their own innovations. Take inventory management, for example. In the retail industry, AI-based computer vision is already in development by companies like Qopius to track an item’s brand, labels, logos, and price tags. The technology can also provide detailed insights into a shelf’s performance, including how much space is available and which items are out of stock. This technology has similar applications, the authors argue, in the logistics industry.
“In warehouse inventory management, the use of computer vision AI similar to that of Qopius holds the promise of potential real-time inventory management at the individual piece or SKU level,” the authors write.
AI-based computer vision could also come in handy in the sorting of letters, parcels, and palletized shipments. In the industry today, sorting is a challenging, manual process that requires a sophisticated array of conveyors, scanning infrastructure, handling equipment and personnel. To streamline this process, the authors suggest, the logistics industry should look to the AI-driven robotics innovations in the recycling industry. ZenRobotics, for instance, has developed a system of AI-powered robotic arms that can precisely sort unstructured recyclables on a moving conveyor at a rate of 4,000 items per hour. A similar solution for logistics, the authors argue, could reduce “the effort and failure rate of human activities.”
Cutting-edge AI-based solutions could also help improve order preparation in logistics warehouses. Operators in many supply chains already use voice applications to collect items for an order, but those applications typically been limited in their capabilities, meaning operators have had to rely on mostly scripted responses to use them. More advanced AI-based systems, however, could allow operators to interact with those systems like they would with any other person.
“The ability to automate input, storage, and retrieval of information via conversational voice interaction removes time and complexity from many warehousing tasks that require manual input or lookup of information,” the authors write.
Today, logistics is already something of a modern marvel. But with AI applied across the industry, it could enable feats even more incredible.
