Over the years a lot of development has taken place, in the ships and in the technology itself.
International cargoes were manually packaged and loaded into ships by port workers until 1956 and it was Malcom McLean, owner of a US trucking company, that realised what a waste of time and money that was. The whole process, loading and unloading, was highly complicated and the worktime invested could have been useful elsewhere.
During this time, McLean had the revolutionary idea to create a standard-sized trailer that could be loaded onto boats in one step and hundreds of these containers would find space on the boat.
Thanks to McLean`s idea, the length of time that ships stayed in the port was extremely shortened and the need for port workers had been reduced. His improvements became more and more a standard process and a lot of other companies followed his ideas.
The lack of standardization was still an issue and needed to be adapted. As a result, now a 20-foot and 40-foot shipping container is the most common size. Along with a few uncommon sizes, McLean pathed the way for a global standard container size.
Arrive Logistics is a freight brokerage base in Texas. The Coronavirus pandemic also effected the freight markets and therefore in response they are cutting approximately 10% of their workforce.
“It’s a difficult decision and conversation,” Woodhead said. “We’re a people-first organization, and we carried that philosophy into how we handled this. We take our people very seriously and wanted to treat these conversations with the most respect we could give them.”
Not only Arrive Logistics has to take dramatic measures to ensure that the company will survive through this dilemma, Logistics platforms see a 25 % fall I order volume as the outbreak is still continuing.
“Eight percent of the overall trading volume happens through our platform, we used to get around 80,000 to 90,000 container bookings every month, that has fallen by a good 25%,“
Another player in the shipping space, Freightwalla, which manages cargo movement for exporters, said the entire industry was facing multiple challenges and the situation was changing dynamically. With labour being asked to stay at home and many fleeing to their hometowns, industrial production had been hit, in turn, affecting the export sector.
Unfortunately, an end of the pandemic is not yet in sight and therefore many businesses will have to take drastic measures to ensure their survival. The first wave of cutting workforce is just starting and it remains unclear how many will follow.
The EU Commission set a target to cut emission of big trucks and buses by 30 percent by 2030. This is part of the international program to fight the climate change and make the world greener again.
Almost every truck operates with diesel and to meet the goal of a significant reduction of that consumption, optimised aerodynamics could offer an improvement. The most aerodynamic shape is a drop shape, which can be find in birds. The aim is to reduce the air resistance as much as possible.
The picture shows the different kinds of shapes and how the airflow develops around it. The last picture is similar to nowadays common truck and offers the most surface and therefore the most resistance.
You probably know that phenomena from a really windy day. If you walk straight into the wind direction, the resistance and effort to get forward will be much more increased instead of walking sideward. This is the basic idea behind a new aerodynamic truck shape and could reduce the fuel consumption tremendously.
In the video below below, you can see how the company MAN tries to approach this future scenario by closing the gap between the trailer and the driver cabin and creating a drop similar shape.
Do you think that in the near future all trucks could look like that? Or do you have concerns about loading capacity and the efficiency will suffer?
Today I want to present to you the topic of digital twin for warehouse and distribution centers.
The goal is to get an insight, how it could be implemented and in which way that technology operates. I found a german startup company that present that topic really lively and shows in a graphical way how it could improve the daily business.
If you want to learn more about the company “Logivations – Consulting & Technology” click here.
Logivations uses a combination of a 3D model and feeds it with current live data. This data includes tracking, throughput or inventory of individual products or materials. Furthermore, they simulate the material flow, staff deployment and the use of forklift trucks.
According to the implemented data, the company is now able to identify unproductive processes and eliminate them. Below you will see a picture how a digital warehouse could look like:
Packing Process
Not only the pick-up time and the placement of the products can be optimized, also the packing process itself can be revolutionized. Choosing the correct transport container can significantly increase or decrease your transport costs. A twin tool can help you to identify the correct transport method and how to transport them in the safest and most cost-effective way.
A 3D-package builder is able to choose the correct transport container considering all relevant figures such as product dimensions, outer packaging, material flow and joint packaging restrictions. The results can you see below and can be directly depicted to the workstation over tablet or monitor. Therefore, the employees will get a guideline in order to help them to increase their efficiency.
However, the digital twin technology is not only useful for current products that need to be packaged, it can also be helpful for new products. Once you put in the data of a new customer order, you can calculate precisely how much it will cost and what storage or transport facilities are needed to fulfil that order. You will be able to determine whether it is beneficial for your company to accept that order or if the customer wish is simply not profitable for you.
In conclusion, the digital twin technology can support the whole business organisation – starting from manufacturing until the customer received the order. The importance of that technology will tremendously increase in the next few years and enable the fact to simulate even unpredictable scenarios, like we currently see in the worldwide corona crisis.
If you want to learn more about that topic, “Logivations” offers a free webinar about optimized picking tours. It is held in English and on 6th of April.
I would like to present you a future technology trend for logistics that will become more important in 2020. Digital twins are one of the most exciting developments that have risen over the past years. The digital twin technology allows the physical world and the digital world to be melded into one. Below you will find a short video, which explains what a digital twin is and in what kind of business areas it could be useful:
Process Optimization for Shipments
A digital twin can virtually predict everything that will happen in the physical world and therefore businesses are able to get a valuable insight for future planning and developments. A simulation with a digital twin can be used to collect product data, analyse packaging und use that information to identify weaknesses.
Imagine it would be possible to simulate a whole product process, starting from manufacturing until it reached the customer. Everything in that process can be analysed and, in the end, optimized. Potential problems can be identified before even shipping the real product, which allows cost reduction and improves efficiency.
Some companies already apply this new technology in their daily routine, for instance DHL. They describe 5 ways how digital twinning will revolutionize logistics:
If you are interested in that topic, please let me know. I really enjoyed that futuristic topic and maybe I will do another post to discuss this topic even further.
The blog of Logistics at MGEPS at UPV 