The
World Economic Forum’s (WEF) White Paper entitled ‘The Digital Transformation
of Industries’ in collaboration with Accenture, identifies five themes that are
central to the digital transformation of the logistics industry over the next
decade. These include:
1
- Digitally enabled information services will put data at the heart of a
logistics business through initiatives such as logistics control towers and
analytics as a service, and help in reducing operating costs while improving
efficiency of operations.
2
- Digitally enabled logistics services will help in trade growth through
the creation of digitally enhanced cross-border platforms. It will also allow
logistics companies to satisfy the growing need of customers for faster same-day
deliveries, and promote the concept of city logistics, which will allow firms
to operate in ‘megacities’.
3
- New delivery capabilities will allow logistics to harness technologies
such as autonomous trucks and drones to find more efficient ways to deliver
shipments while 3D printing and crowdsourcing offer new ways to think of
manufacturing and logistics processes.
4
- Circular economy will foster a more sustainable product life cycle,
helping to lessen the logistics industry’s environmental footprint by reducing
carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, air pollution and waste material.
5
- Shared logistics capabilities, through shared warehouse and shared transport
capabilities, are expected to increase asset utilization in the near future.
The time and complexity required for these initiatives to reach scale across
the market vary significantly. This analysis has, however, identified certain
underlying requirements that are the building blocks for the digital
transformation of the logistics industry.
Two
of the most important ‘no regret’ capabilities are:
- Companies
should improve their collection of data from all along their value
chain.
- Enterprises should ensure they have the capability to analyse big data streams to derive insights that improve operational efficiency and enable the launch of new services, such as last-mile delivery.
Article
first appeared in Transport World Africa: 
