Category: Development

Transportation and shipping by air is quick, but costly. Boat is a lot cheaper, but extremely slow. So why not send all those boxes and parcels on an un-piloted, amphibious Boeing 777-sized drone that can take to the air end to end and finally drop off as much as 200,000 pounds of cargo at a seaside port? It would transmit the cargo at about partly the cost of standard air freight. Making a transportation drone that merge high speeds, low costs, and large payloads may sound like untainted desire, but in a period of increasingly growing international transportation volumes, Nautilus’ vision is more than just simply fascinating.

That’s the idea behind Natilus vision, a Richmond, California-based startup who plans on flying FAA-approved tests of a 30-foot trial product that’s about the volume and mass of a military Predator drone. The flight will mark the foremost major step toward overturning the global freight forwarding industry. Ultimately, CEO Aleksey Matyushev says, the company anticipates flying the prototype on 30-hour test runs, shipping up to 700 pounds of cargo, between Los Angeles and Hawaii. One motive for buoyancy is the certainty that most cargo planes today were formerly passenger planes that have just been modified for cargo. With a plan in mind for a propeller-driven cargo drone that is suitable for volume as disparate to the present weight-centric models, Natilus’ aircrafts will be totally unlike the present industry standard.

The objective is to end production of the full-size, over 200-foot drone before 2020, then have it go through testing and guarantee before commencement of actual commercial flights. Natilus expect to build hundreds of the drones, some of which will be sold straightforwardly to customers—preferably to companies like UPS and FedEx as well as “standard freight forwarders” like Whole Foods and Costco.

The startup is prepping vast, 200ft-long drones that would ship up to 200,000 pounds of cargo over the ocean. They’d tentatively reduced the cost of air freight in half by removing the crew and improving fuel effectiveness. And despite the fact that the drone is likely wouldn’t be allowed to fly over populated areas, that wouldn’t raise an issue— it’s intended to land on water and unload its goods at a seaport. The belief is that after landing, they would taxi into a typical port, where cargo would be unloaded by means of cranes. According to the startup, the aircraft would cover up the course from Los Angeles to Shanghai in about 30 hours.

Though Natilus is still quite a few years away from delivering the drones—it presently function with just three major staffers and less than a million dollars in funding—Chris Connell, president of the global perishable goods transporter. By 2020, Natilus’s gigantic unmanned planes could transport 200,000 pounds of goods across the world. But foremost, the 30-foot prototype must pass test runs. For now, Natilus is paying attention on getting its 30-foot prototype, which is about 70% complete, set for summer test-run in San Pablo Bay, just northeast of San Francisco. If those go fine, then it’s complete steam further on the 777-sized model, provided that supplementary funding and the manufacturing talent needed to build it become visible.

Technology as the backbone of cloud computing is facilitating advance innovation in global Logistics & Supply Chain industry.  Alternatively, distorting boundaries between countries have unlocked the market for cross-border e-commerce therefore generating a necessity for digitized logistics. Data remains the ultimate constituent of the Logistics operations and the request for evaluating the data-patterns and revolving raw functioning data into actionable perceptions will be the future of Logistics. In the ever-changing business, staying forward in delivering the service is the most crucial and companies need to adopt big-data algorithms, data-visualization skills and keener analytics to increase process effectiveness and reduce the delivery times. Here are some of the supply chain trend you need to watch in 2018:

Perfect Order Deliveries

The complications of last mile deliveries make the chances against achieving a flawless order irresistible, and perfect orders are the vital measure of customer fulfillment. Perfect orders are the proportion of orders distributed to the precise place, with the precise product, at the precise time, in the exact condition, in the correct package, in the accurate quantity, with the precise documentation, to the correct customer, with the precise invoice. Accomplishing the perfect order spot assist in decreasing cost as a wrong shipping which can lead to gaining of physical cost to fix the error, penalties and revenue loss.

Rise of Elastic Logistics

Elastic Logistics basically means elasticity to magnify and shrink abilities to support with the demands inside the supply chain model at a given time. Supple automation solutions upsurge the quickness and resistance of the logistics infrastructure to cost efficiently meet the market variabilities. With optimum operation, companies can convey delight while keeping the expenses in one piece, and the search to beat the claim will be just increasing.

Artificial Intelligence & Block chain

Block chain & Artificial Intelligence has hit the logistics industry early this year and through the safety and limpidity apprehensions, block chain remains the appropriate and confident choice for the Logistics companies for its impermeable mode to hoard and share the transactional data and increases reliability with a guaranteed transaction

Increased Adoption of Drones and Smart-Glasses

The placement of smart-glasses and drones that upturn exponentially and industries can assure faster and effective deliveries. Incorporation with smart glasses will help in making deliveries at ease by hands-free route quests, face recognition for error-free deliveries and personalized deliveries. With the increase in unmanned airborne vehicles and smart glasses implementation, the functioning efficiencies of primary and preceding mile logistics can be improved, augmented elasticity and speed of delivery in accomplished and overcrowded cities.

Automated handling (AGV)

Driverless transport schemes have until now principally been used for extremely monotonous tasks, such as transport of small parts. We forestall that slight aisle trucks (VNA), spread trucks and low level order pickers (LLOPs) will gradually be used in automated transport and in the setting away and withdrawal of palletized goods.

Connected machines

For clever producers, the use of IOT (Internet of Things) strategies increases the effectiveness and efficiency of industrialized actions, assisting in reducing new vehicle delivery times. By joining their lift trucks, businesses can have their fingers on the beat of the whole fleet in actual time and guarantee all moves easily.

Generally, the trend is moving near binding the new-age skills for driving efficiency, increasing delivery capability score and making new revenues while heaping on the huge prospect that lies at the dawn of cross-border e-commerce while constructing a supple and a sustainable Supply Chain.

The cost of diesel has extended to its maximum level in more than two years, after diesel prices rise for the fourth in a row. According to information released this week by the Department of Energy Information Administration (EIA), diesel hopped up 5.3 cents to $4.157 for every gallon, which mark the fifth straight weekly gain. Moreover, prices have moved up to a cumulative of 23 cents during this period and 41.2 cents in the past three weeks alone. Diesel prices is about 41.2 cent for every liter now which is the maximum level ever since September 2015, according to the statistics from research. Much of the price upsurge is down to the extensive price of indiscriminately Brent crude oil on international markets. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the universal alliance that controls a third of crude production, decided to cut its production by 1.2million barrels. OPEC’s oil production freezes also helped push the pump prices even higher. Ever since the oil marketing companies started the day-to-day modification, prices of petrol and diesel have merely been going upward. The unassuming cause is that the rise in price is steady and it goes undetected.

An investigation of the price over the last two years indicated that although there were times when the common man relished the advantage of lower prices, the government’s tax programs for the petroleum sector has by large deprived people the twinge din. Even when the government commenced the largest subsidiary tax restructuring, the goods and services tax (GST), they certified that the petroleum products do not come under the system. Because of this the prices differ at locations depending on the appropriate state taxes. In nutshell, the upper taxes confirmed that the common man never got the benefit of the lower crude oil prices. A transport sustainability expert told LM that the rise in diesel prices is thoughtful of the fluctuations and challenges taking place within the universal economy. This week’s price is the extraordinary point for diesel ever since checking in at $4.207 per gallon, and it max the previous recent high of $4.116 from the week of October.

As formerly stated, irrespective of the instability in diesel prices, shippers are conscious of the influence diesel prices can have on their outcome for better or worse. And they continued to be preemptive on that front, too, by compelling steps to decrease traveling distance and travel lengths and probable as well as cut down on void miles.

As China loads more oil for their increasing economy; pressures persist high in the Middle East; OPEC decreases output in an effort to escalate the price of a barrel of oil; the U.S. decide not to build new refineries or accept the necessary pipeline infrastructure to take improvement of all accessible fuel sources; this making corporations to be challenged by fluctuating fuel costs.

To minimalize the effect of diesel costs, organizations need to change their exertions to cooperate with their trucking suppliers to confirm that every struggle is being made to exploit equipment operation, decrease out-of-route miles, and take lead of fuel plans that recognize the lowest diesel prices.

Technology has brought a paradigm shift in Supply Chain management and logistics. The new business processes and great innovations have changed the flow of goods from the manufacturers, retailers or wholesalers until it gets to the customers. The face of logistics and supply chain management have been hugely impacted by innovations in communication technology, information technology and the transformation of identification technology from manual to an automatic one. The improvement in efficiency, reduction of costs, increased competitiveness and changes in strategies have changed in today’s business.

The impacts of communication technology

Technology has greatly enhanced logistics through innovations in communication technology. Adoption and development of communication technology have led the adoption of emerging technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange, Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSAT), Geographical Positioning System (GPS), and Automated Guided Vehicle System (AGVS) has led to various advantages such as:
• Improved customer relations creating entry barriers
• Speedy transactions
• Reduction in order cycle
• Real-time interactions such that customers and trucking companies can instantly locate the position of the delivery
• Elimination of some human warehouse operations that reduces costs
• Improved efficiency and reliability of logistics systems
• It has enhanced the supply chain management through improved accuracy, increased efficiency and reliability of the logistic system.

Benefits of information technology

Information technology has led to the ease of the analysis and availability of information when needed. Information technology has led to:
• The emergence of e-procurement where online auctions can take place, and there is the establishment of long-term strategic relations between manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors.
• The emergence of collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPRF) that is crucial for information and financial planning.
• Effective inventory management that leads to proper inventory control
• Better visibility of the movement of inventory due to effective logistics and warehouse management
• Emergence of proactive customer management in place of reactive customer management
Various tools have been adopted such as:

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)- ERP is integrated software that contains all business operations. It has led to improved customer response, reduced costs, and improved service levels.

Distribution Requirement Planning – It is a sophisticated IT planning system that controls that leads to an efficient distribution system while consolidating the widespread distribution centers. It contributes to reduced inventory costs, improved inventory visibility, and reduced inventory levels.

Automated Inventory Tracking System – It is a crucial tool for tracking inventory and assists in the optimization of inventory.

Automation has also brought good impacts

There has also been the emergence of the Automatic identification that is crucial for tracking of the goods and trucks giving the ability to estimate the time needed to reach to the customer. Through automation, there is improved accuracy, reduction in costs, increased speeds, convenience in data storage and ease in processing of information. The various automatic identification technologies and their positive impacts include:
Barcoding: The bars are simply the data of items in a coded manner. Data that is printed include material content, the name of the manufacturer and the processing date. Barcoding offers the following benefits:
• Simplifies the identification of the items when storing, retrieving, inspecting and dispatching.
• Minimizes the amount of paperwork required.
• Human error is minimized.
• Enhances the productivity of logistic system through reliability, speed, and accuracy.
RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Tag: This is a form of identification technology that permits non-contact reading. It is efficient in the environment where barcodes cannot be utilized. Major benefits include:
• Enhancing the capability of manufacturers to improve the levels of inventory
• mproving the complicated tracking and distribution activities of services
• Enhancing the logistics and planning operation of a state’s public transport agencies.
• Implementing the automatic collection of toll on a broad network of highways

New technology is inevitable and the far reaching benefits

In the trucking business, lack to embrace new technology that is constantly updated will quickly push you out of business due to stiff competition. Choosing the right technology that properly aligns with the organization’s strategy, infrastructure and policies is a leeway to strategic opportunities and success. It will lead to increased efficiency accompanied by quick delivery.