Category Archives: Technology

According to V Raju, Senior Vice President CL – Chemical, Pharma & Food Sector, Avvashya CCI Logistics (All Cargo Group), “COVID-19 has only created disruptions for us in the supply chain and logistics and we need to learn to live in an uncertain world. Today the warehousing and last-mile distribution occupies such an important part in the entire supply chain management. What is more important for all the stakeholders to think about it is how can they modernise and digitalise their existing systems such that the manual intervention becomes the least.” He expresses his views at CargoTalk’s fourth digital conclave. “Let us talk about the introduction of Warehouse Management System (WMS) in warehouses so that we can find out the exact location of cargo and also plan our receipts and delivery and inventory management in time with the help of these WMSs.”

Keeping it simple in terms of what COVID-19 has done and what contactless means, Satish Lakkaraju, Chief Commercial Officer, Agility Logistics at CargoTalk’s fourth digital conclave says, “It’s clearly visible from the way we have been doing meetings in the past and how are we interacting now. It’s only operations that have still been on ground but the rest of the things are now contactless.” He continues, “It is highly encouraging to see government initiatives on digitalisation and contactless movement. In the past, our fear used to be that government is slow to react but for the first time customs is the least painful department to deal with as far as logistics is concerned.”

In order to enable customers with supply chain solutions on Google Cloud, o9 Solutions has announced a strategic partnership with Google Cloud. The new partnership extends the reach of o9 to companies looking to transform their capabilities around demand sensing and forecasting, supply chain planning, assortment planning, integrated business planning and more with the global infrastructure and deployment options that Google Cloud enables. The wide-ranging partnership will specifically target leading retail, consumer product manufacturer and telecom companies with unique capabilities to scale with o9 and Google Cloud. “The COVID-19 crisis has exposed significant weaknesses in how organisations run their value chains today,” said Igor Rikalo, President & COO, o9 Solutions. Data remains critical for effective planning, and Google Cloud’s data sources and scalability are key to deal with this new level of complexity. In addition, o9’s Enterprise Knowledge Graph (ie Digital Brain) is able to convert data (structured and unstructured, external and internal) to actionable insights to drive improved decision making.

Emphasising on community systems or common platforms for the industry where no one needs to share paper anywhere Amar More, CEO, Kale Logistics Solutions, said, “The exchange of data through these community platforms replaces paper. Secondly, to avoid congestion, one needs to inform the airport in advance about the time of truck arrival and do the documentation beforehand and not at the airport. This will not only help in avoiding congestion but also help in operating in a safer and efficient manner. Finally, for the industry to come out of this shock, we definitely need technologies that can help them reduce cost or earn more revenues.” On available technologies, he said, “The most pertinent technology is community platforms where we are replacing human interaction and paper with digital interaction. And, once we adopt them, the benefits are tremendous in terms of cost saving, customer satisfaction and transparency. I believe the time has come to adopt these technologies and to declare this war on paper.”

FarEye has raised an additional US$ 13 million as an extension to its Series D investment led by The Fundamentum Partnership and KB Global Platform Fund. The investment will accelerate company’s global expansion to address the steepening digital curve for logistics transformation. The need is being further accelerated by enterprises and end consumers demanding a high level of transparency, faster and more convenient delivery experiences. There is also an increased need for flexible supply chains to meet these demands. “We are seeing a surge in the need for real-time visibility in logistics for businesses to build customer-centric supply chains. With recently raised funds, we will continue to invest in the best talent in the Americas, Europe, and APAC to support our hyper-growth in these regions. With a vision to make FarEye one of the most customer-centric organizations globally, we aim to make every delivery delightful for the consumers.” said Kushal Nahata, CEO, FarEye.

Explaining the importance of digitising the processes, Parvinder Singh, Managing Director, Hans Infomatic,says, ”Many companies still have problems coming to grips with the concept, but there is no way for them to avoid digitisation. It is important for companies to understand that digitisation will only be successful if the cloud and IoT solutions are secure and facilitate privacy of their corporate and customer data. So be it securing data, file management system, HR management, employees performances or booking orders & fulfilling them and all major financial transactions including invoicing and receipt generation, everything is going to be digital and handled from remote areas. Hans Infomatic is committed to helping organisations stay connected; and facilitating remote access to information while being productive during such challenging times.”

Talking about what government has done or what can we expect from the government to do, Keku Bomi Gazder, CEO, AAICLAS stressed on how CBIC has enabled the faceless and paperless evaluation of our shipments. Considering the two portals that the Ministry of Civil Aviation has rolled out almost two years ago and how ICEDASH has improved the monitoring of customs clearance of imported goods, the government is faster than the private sector in digitisation. He believes, “It is more for us in the industry to keep up with the government rather than asking what the government can do.”

To enhance its customers’ experience and mitigate risks in the current challenging times, DMICDC Logistic Data Services (DLDS) has revamped Logistics Data Bank (LDB) portal. The redesigned LDB portal brings in a well-defined layout and navigation and delivers a visually pleasing platform to its customers. The portal now provides detailed voyage tracking of EXIM containers with end-to-end tracking map view. Earlier the information was provided only for next destination but now detailed information can be accessed about container port of loading and unloading. International location tracking plays a huge part in planning supply chain, and now imported containers can be tracked from the port of loading. Users can do multiple container tracking and group container tracking through a grid console to enable user-friendly engagement. “We did a lot of brainstorming to see how we could help shape the portal and information to better suit those who need it the most. LDB users can now see dwell time of containers at Ports, CFSs, ICDs on a real-time basis. We have also added the feature of gate cut off and expected vessel departure information to enable our customers to plan their daily operations efficiently,” said Surajit Sarkar, COO, DLDS. Speaking about the project update Mr. Ichiro Oshima, CEO DLDS said, “The new portal is designed to empower our customers to mitigate risks in the current challenging times. The interactive map with DPE/DPD and next delivery information will make it easier for users to plan and monitor their operations.”

DB Schenker has started operations at the Red Lion warehouse in Singapore, a regional hub for automated high-speed logistics. The warehouse worth is 101 million euros and is the single largest investment in any site globally in Schenker’s corporate history. Strategically located in the Airport Logistics Park of Singapore (ALPS) at Changi Airport, the site sets a new standard in combining the world’s most advanced technological developments with the highest levels of sustainable warehouse management for its customers. Jochen Thewes, Chief Executive Officer DB Schenker, says, “Our new logistics hub makes us even faster and more reliable for our customers. The record investment in Red Lion marks an unparalleled milestone for our corporate history of almost 150 years. We are happy and proud to reinforce our commitment to Singapore as the heart of our logistics operations in Asia.” Red Lion solidifies Schenker’s position in Singapore as the largest and most advanced third-party logistics provider in the ALPS. Combined, the mechanized air freight hub and contract logistics warehouse extend over 51,400 square meters on five floors, equal to the size of seven soccer fields. A next generation Warehouse Management System and a synchronized IT platform bridging the various automations enable Red Lion to increase warehouse productivity by up to 100% compared to manual processes, and to reduce lead time for customers by 40% compared to non-integrated facilities.

Ethiopian Cargo & Logistics Services has partnered with RTS on cargo revenue management (velocity) and pricing (AcceleRate) solutions. Fitsum Abady, MD, Ethiopian Cargo & Logistics Services states, “We are very optimistic that having Revenue Management and Pricing system will help us to maximise revenue by utilising the available capacity for high yield cargos. This revenue maximization would be achieved using an automated decision-making system that would be accurately forecasting cargo capacity by flight and a price range for evaluating pricing requests. It also helps allocate capacity to the appropriate products in such a way that maximizes profit. “ According to Mukundh Parthasarathy, Senior Vice President for Revenue Technology Services, “At the rate at which Ethiopian Cargo is growing, the solution would be instrumental in automating the revenue and pricing management.”