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，尽管——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 identified digitalization and automation in the supply chain as an imperative for online retailers looking to grow and compete over the long-term. In its latest white paper, the company, which this year announced an investment of at least USD 2.2 billion in digitalization through 2025, provides new insights on how specific challenges within the e-commerce supply chain can be overcome with the support of new technologies.
Change at the Speed of the Consumer: How E-Commerce is Accelerating Logistics Innovations was authored by Professor Lisa Harrington, President and CEO of lharrington group llc. It looks at six principal areas where e-commerce is challenging the supply chains of merchants and logistics companies: customer expectations for a perfect buying experience; consumers’ desire to buy and receive goods ‘anywhere, anytime’; exploding demand for urban delivery; competition for labor and wage inflation; the emergence of new online sales models and unexpected surges in demand; and environmental concerns. The impact of these challenges is most keenly felt in the areas of fulfilment and last mile delivery. Labor in the U.S for example, which is the world’s second largest e-commerce market accounts for 40-60% of warehousing operating costs. With real estate company CBRE predicting in 2018 that an additional 450,000 warehouse workers will be needed in the U.S. by the end of 20191 and unemployment at a consistently low rate, this presents a risk in terms of both cost and recruitment, particularly during peak periods. Increased urbanization, combined with heightened pressure – from both socially conscious consumers and municipal authorities, in particular – to reduce the environmental impact of transport operations is forcing retailers to seek out creative ways of balancing delivery convenience with reduced mileage for diesel-powered vehicles over the last mile.
Across each of the profitability challenges, technologies already exist that allow companies to reduce unit costs, better forecast needed inventory or increase productivity to absorb additional growth. Robotics and automated sorting systems, for example, allow companies to process higher order volumes without the need to engage large numbers of temporary workers. Advanced Warehouse Execution Systems, combining Internet of Things capabilities, machine learning, business intelligence and data mining agents can increase performance and responsiveness to meet rising customer expectations. While autonomous vehicles for last-mile delivery still await regulatory approval in many markets, digitalization can already support better demand forecasting to allow inventory to be placed closer to the end customer and to optimize transport routings, reducing time on the road. As many of these technologies evolve further and new innovations come to the market, companies that are able to deploy them effectively within their supply chain will be best positioned to address the costly inefficiencies, volatile order trends and demanding customer expectations that characterize the fiercely competitive e-commerce market.
“The insights from this new white paper show that profitability is still a major challenge for many e-commerce companies, despite – or often actually because of – the dynamic growth of the sector. It also gives our customers a comprehensive overview of the specific areas where that challenge is most prevalent, and which technologies currently offer the most potential to support them,” said Ken Allen, CEO, DHL eCommerce Solutions. “DHL’s innovation approach is targeted at identifying, piloting and deploying across our global network the most effective technologies and solutions in each of these areas. We will continue to actively expand robotics and automation across many parts of our operations, for example, and we see artificial intelligence becoming an enabler throughout our business in the future. There is no ‘silver bullet’, but companies must embrace new technologies and innovate to thrive.”
Acknowledging that innovation can itself be a profitability challenge, particularly if approached at the wrong pace or with excessive outlays of capital, the research also detailed a three-step approach to innovating successfully: focusing on innovations 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 huge variance across markets and regulatory environments, and the competitive differentiation that comes from relationships and in-depth knowledge of customers’ supply chains, we still see people playing a critical role in the industry for the foreseeable future,” said Allen. “The companies that will win the race to future success are those that are able to combine the expertise of their people with software and machines most effectively.”
