Truck and Track Spring 2021

www.truckandtrack.com Spring 2021 Truck and Track 67 LOGISTICS The world of logistics is constantly evolving and, working in it for over 35 years, I have seen a number of evolutions. That said, perhaps the biggest revolution is taking place now; Covid has almost certainly accelerated change, so too is the drive toward zero carbon 2050 or earlier, Net Zero. This change though is going to be so much more a complex one and the key to successful change will be data; data in an accessible, real time format, facilitating carbon free solutions, productivity improvements and cost reduction. 30 years ago, the industry was significantly knowledge driven. Route planning, stock levels, vehicle type where all the result of years of experience and know-how. Planning was still significantly a manual process, stock levels were a question of looking back at historical records then looking at the calendar and the choice of vehicle a sense of what is available and best for the job. It worked. Then, for a number of reasons, many companies started to perceive that maintaining and supporting this knowledge was not their key business, which might be brewing beer, or running shops for example. They associated logistics knowledge with cost, training and management time away from their main business. Businesses contracted out their logistics to new breed of third party providers. The way stock was held, where and why changed, providers made significant changes toward centralised and regional distribution centres. Stock was linked directly to sales history and foretastes; many smaller depots that had held stock in the past become stockless. Computer software became critical to the fabric of the industry, Regional Distribution Centres (RDC’s) modelled using the same software all appearing in the same place. Well maybe not quite, but modelling based on a common demand did throw up some common outcomes. Logistics systems were less dependent on knowledge and more on computer software. That worked too up to now. Now though change is rapid and complex, a third evolution or revolution is here, driven by: ■ Cloud based computing with accessible real time data ■ Improved communications technology in both capacity and speed – 5G will accelerate this change ■ Significant advances in data sciences – algorithms, artificial intelligence and machine learning ■ Semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles on the horizon To add to this ■ Increased home delivery ■ Low carbon and zero carbon technologies ■ Congestion and low emissions zones ■ Customers wanting to see a pathway to Net Zero Operational and data developments now need to be considered simultaneously, not in isolation. Just these eight factors I would argue they do not need to just add up, they need to be multiplied up to give an real understanding of complexity. Adding up our eight factors is not enough, the factor of eight is 40,320, that indicates the scale of future complexity better. One example, until recently, irrespective of the size or type of vehicle, logistics had in reality one fuel, diesel. Soon we will have a plethora of fuels and technologies. Different vehicles will have different capacities, different ranges, different refuelling and charging points, different filling and recharge times, different cities will have different low emission zone arrangements and we will have road user charging. The current state of digital technology will not successfully cope with this complexity. Sophisticated data and digital technology (and the sharing of it) will be the key to productivity and profit – as well as delivering net zero. This is change is akin of one froma hub spoke andmodel of RDC’s, to something far more akin to spider’s web of complexity. Complexity that will need to be dealt with and responded to in real time. That is why the Management Science team at the University of Kent, Kent Business School are developing sophisticated and complex data science solutions to this complexity. Advanced digital technology, perhaps bespoke to the type of operation is needed. ‘Out of the box’ software is unlikely to perform well-enough on its own. New sciences and new skills will be required. Earlier on, we mentioned the change to contracting out of logistics solutions. Formany a huge change in their employment and roles. It bought new technology too in the formof automation. Now though data is the key and those that have themost andbest ‘data response’ will be able to set the pace of change. For example, Amazon’s ability is to capture not just business, but data and knowledge. With this data artificial intelligence andmachine learning, most likelymeans Amazonwill continue to grow faster than their competitors and the value of their business will be greater. In this spiders’ web of complexity, without the data science anddata scientists, many will be caught in the web and not be the winners. If you would like to talk to us about this please contact Simon Barnes at the University of Kent. Simon is Funding and Partnerships Development Manager at the University, he is also a Business Fellow of the Connected Places Catapult for 2021. Simon Barnes, Research and Information Services, University of Kent, s.f.barnes@kent.ac.uk Data and Digital – A logistics revolution and the road to net zero Simon Barnes, University of Kent TRUCK & TRAILER SOLUTIONS WELCOME TO ALLPORTS GROUP allportsgroup.co.uk