Logistics Technologies that are going to change the Industry

Globalization has revolutionized trading in so many ways, from bigger and faster vessels to robot-operated ports and vast computer databases tracking cargos, global trading has come a long way. But it all still relies on millions and millions of paper documents.

With the ongoing digital revolution, the freight Industry will surely look very different in the upcoming years.

Unlike the previous revolutions, such as “The Containerization” that took place in the 1960s, where it was all about big vessels and equipment worth millions of dollars with the big players having an unfair financial advantage, this time around there are no such unfair advantages, it’s a technical revolution, it’s about the ability to catch up with the rapidly evolving technology.

Here are Logistics Technologies that are going to change the Industry:

BLOCKCHAIN

With hundreds of pages that need to be physically delivered to dozens of different agencies, banks, customs bureaus and other entities for a single shipment, the whole trading process becomes very tedious and expensive. According to a recent survey, the processing and administration costs go up to 20-25% of the overall transportation cost.

These major inefficiencies that have plagued the world of logistics for decades, and Blockchain, the electronic ledger system, has emerged as a solution. With the help of Blockchain, the involvement of physical paperwork can be minimized if not completely abolished. Moreover, Blockchain can also help in reducing processing times for goods at customs checkpoints, thus making custom clearance quicker.

INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT)

As there are numerous parties involved in any transportation, the major issues faced by organizations are the lack of transparency and connectivity between all parties involved. With the Internet of Things (IoT), a centralized cloud-based network can be set up, allowing all the devices to capture and share critical data, thus increasing real-time visibility, connectivity it enables the organization to effectively track their shipments, and the conditions of these shipments, thus making the process faster and efficient.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

It has been of great interest for many organizations in the past, but the high costs of integrating high-end industrial robots for complex logistics operations acted a barrier for many years. Now, with technology getting cheaper, more accessible and easier to integrate, many manufacturers are looking forward to capitalizing on it.

In recent years, it has proved to be very effective in crucial port-operations, such as Fleet management – Warehouse management, Self-driven vehicles and more.

Many big players have successfully adopted Artificial Intelligence to mitigate costly repairs and downtime, thus decreasing maintenance and insurance charges making the productivity levels reach previously unimaginable levels of optimization.

PREDICTIVE ANALYSIS

Predictive analysis, the new buzzword, is a practice that is being used by many companies, which allows them to anticipate the status of the market, by identifying emerging patterns in the marketplace and give a strong piece of information, enabling them to create customer specific strategies to act upon. 

By continuously monitoring and analyzing the shipping data, the performance of the carriers and liner rates, one can build strategies to optimize the supply chain.

ROBOTICS

Robotics has been a part of logistics, for a very long time. In Freight Industry, where it is mandatory to be very consistent and precise in the day to day tasks that are repetitive in nature, the adoption of robotics and automation is not very surprising.

DHL's new robot picker

With the incorporation of the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, many shipping companies have successfully cut down labor and maintenance cost and also have increased quality and performance of the process.