Logistic processes need optimization to reduce negative environmental impact, logistics costs and efforts. It reduces miles traveled and boosts delivery, productivity, eliminating empty miles, decreasing trip volume, increasing resource utilization, and doing much more. The logistics and the supply chain industry has evolved significantly. Computer-aided business approach has become essential more than ever. Logistics is the backbone of every economy, and as the world continues to recover from the pandemic, the need for extraordinary practices is emerging to keep up with the challenges. Here are top trends that will possibly drive the logistics sector in 2022.
Sustainable solutions and green logistics The interest in achieving sustainability tag will keep escalating in 2022. Many logistics companies are adopting eco-friendly solutions and green technologies to gain a balance between financial growth and environmental care. Depending on IT tools helps shorten the driving time, thus reducing CO2 emissions. Concurrently, electric delivery trucks and vehicles started taking over the place of the old fossil-fuel-operated ones. Many nations are in support of this endeavor by pushing companies to implement more sustainable solutions.
Robots, autonomous vehicles, and AI technologies There will be a dominance of robotic solutions in the warehousing and delivery areas. Robots have begun dominating over inventory activities with their automated systems to pick, move and organize packages. To add on to this, autonomous trucks are expected to begin working in the near future, along with delivery drones. Self-operated air delivery showed efficiency in the last few years, supporting the healthcare field during the pandemic. Ever since, it has been under the limelight to become a prominent player in the supply chain industry. Artificial intelligence plays an important role in this field to control robotic behavior and optimize it by advanced calculations, like finding the best route or predicting potential failures. The role of artificial intelligence extends to support intelligent sea and air navigation systems, besides risk assessment simulators. Logistics companies will be requiring more technology-aided solutions to cut costs and prevent sudden trouble.
Better relationships with suppliers
Not long ago, supplier relationship management (SRM) was not a common practice, however recently more companies have started to consider building a long-term mutually-beneficial relationship with suppliers and service providers. Research shows that companies with advanced supplier-collaboration capabilities tend to standout from their peers. This aids reduction of sudden changes and emergencies. Building a good relationship with suppliers heavily affected the logistics industry. Nowadays, many businesses are trying to keep an updated database of trusted logistic service providers to be more flexible in critical situations. The interest in SRM software is predicted to keep growing throughout 2022.
Digital transformation and cloud-based solutions The worldwide lockdowns caused due to Covid-19 affected businesses negatively, and since then, more companies have been adopting digital collaborative methods in place of traditional communication methods. Logistics companies evolved speedily and adapted to agile cloud-based platforms to organize their daily interactions. These solutions provide a unified online hub to connect service providers, clients, and 3rd party contractors from all corners of the world. It aids archive their conversations and documents them over the cloud to be accessed anywhere and anytime.
Last-mile delivery and micro fulfillment Online shopping has taken over the world by storm, bringing forth several challenges for logistics companies, as the requirement for cheap and fast delivery boosted dramatically. Many retail e-commerce models offer free or discounted shipping, this puts a lot of pressure on logistic service providers. The problem of last-mile delivery is the cost of delivering packages to the end consumer, and it acquires the most significant share of the shipping cost, regardless the geographical positioning of consumer. The last-mile delivery is expected to keep growing in 2022 as long as retail e-commerce is in the lead. Establishing more warehouses eliminate delivery time, reduce costs, and use multiple other methods that we have already talked about, like advanced delivery methods, green technologies, and AI computation. These solutions will be in more demand as the world is shifting towards online stores for everyday shopping, from buying groceries to ordering cars.
The logistics industry constantly seeks faster and more cost-effective solutions to keep our clients satisfied. Investing in modern trends and new technologies is critical to improve supply chain services towards operational excellence.
