DHL harnesses the benefits of automation – SHD Logistics

Over the last eighteen months the eCommerce space has seen significant growth, catalysed by the Covid-19 pandemic and global lockdowns which shifted even more consumer spend online. We have seen this across the board, with pure play etailers growing, bricks and mortar operations able to solidify their online operations, and even new market entrants able to launch with different business models such as subscription services. This acceleration in the market has been great for consumers, and a lifeline for businesses needing to find their way through challenging times, but has posed some challenges from a fulfilment perspective. A surge in the number and type of orders that need to be picked, packed and shipped can put pressure on businesses as they try to keep to their customer promises and brand ambitions, while maintaining employee satisfaction. At DHL Supply Chain we have been working closely with technology providers as part of our accelerated digitisation strategy to ensure were able to harness the benefits of innovations in automation to help our customers, delivering efficiency and service improvements to their operations as well as improve the working environment for our colleagues.

In the fashion eCommerce space we have seen our customers experience significant growth as we stayed at home but continued to shop online. Often the challenge in both mid- and high-end fashion is getting the cost-to-serve price point right, something that can be improved by making the order picking process more efficient and where automation can really help. For example, for some of our fashion customers globally we have been able to deploy the Geek+ goods-to-person solution, which eliminates the need for our colleagues to travel around the warehouse picking manually, helping to improve picking accuracy and drive efficiencies. This technology also allows us to improve the density of product storage, reducing the warehouse footprint needed and lowering the costs of the logistics operation even further. As with all the robotics partners selected by DHL, the rich data behind the Geek+ solution can also be used by our customers to gain an in-depth understanding of their consumer and their fulfilment operation, producing sophisticated heatmaps of how their stock is performing in real-time.

Looking to the future, shared user sites are becoming increasingly common and these goods-to-person robots have a real place in these environments, as sophisticated algorithms will allow them to work accurately in multi-user sites, and even simultaneously across different businesses.

Another area were working with customers on is in the beauty and pet care space, where high throughput and a requirement for personalisation and customisation is driving the need for an increasingly light-touch, end-to-end pick process. For pure play retailers, peak volumes can typically be four times the non-peak volumes, placing strain on the fulfilment operations as it adapts. At the same time, the shipping and unboxing experience is particularly important, as it may be the only real opportunity for the brand to interact with the consumer and so needs to be an opportunity to build brand loyalty. Across our global eCommerce business, working with 6 River Systems we have been able to deploy the mobile robot chuck to help our customers manage the challenges of fluctuating demand, while maintaining high quality control and delivering a great end-consumer experience. Using the chuck means that each order is able to be quickly and efficiently picked and packed across a high number of SKUs, and only needs one touch before it is shipped. Reducing the number of touchpoints is really beneficial to the protection and presentation of fragile beauty products.

Aside from the efficiency gains that innovations in the order-picking space can bring, its important for us to consider how we can improve the employee experience for our colleagues in these roles. At DHL we are focused on introducing technology that improves the working life of colleagues across the business, and in the warehouse it is no different. Adding automation into the environment means that our colleagues are able to move away from repetitive and manual tasks into a more technology-based role. In a competitive labour market we know that giving the opportunity to work with cutting edge innovation can be incredibly rewarding, and creates the sort of working environment where people want to stay. Likewise, while the strict requirements for social distancing may have passed, there are still ongoing challenges and the use of technology allows us to keep staff welfare front of mind by reducing the number of pack benches we need.

Working with a business like DHL is a great way for businesses to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the technology, without taking on the investment themselves. In these challenging times retailers dont want to stifle the growth opportunities, so tapping into our portfolio of solutions allows them to explore the possibilities without any of the risk. Its an exciting time to be in this space, as there is no doubt that order picking and fulfilment stands to benefit greatly from innovations in automation and robotics now, and into the future. We have already seen just how transformational it can be, and were still at the beginning of the journey.

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DHL harnesses the benefits of automation - SHD Logistics