Retail Logistics – It’s more than moving boxes
The first time I saw them dance, it was in New York.They looked so cool, turning and spinning as they flew across the floor of the show. They moved quickly, with a choreography that defied reason, yet every move was precise. But this wasn’t an avant-garde ballet in a trendy art house. These were warehouse robots from Kiva Systems on the floor of the National Retail Federation “Big Show” which draws an audience of more than 30,000 industry insiders each January. Amazon was impressed… they bought Kiva in 2014 and now you’ll find them in Retail warehouses around the world.
Managing the logistics function of a warehouse and distribution network may seem almost industrial at times. Schedules, load optimization and cross-dock handling seem far removed from the luxury showrooms of Saks and Nordstrom, but they are critical functions for any retailer. There was a time when these operations were managed with manual processes and calculations. Today, the volume and complexity of this function requires a more sophisticated approach. Predictive analytics and machine learning are just as valuable as variations in fuel costs. To meet these challenges, companies like Rubikloud have developed analytic tools that leverage machine learning to juggle all of this information to help manage forecasting accuracy, reduce stock out situations and save man hours.
Another area 
that’s having an impact on logistic solutions is the Internet of Things (IoT). Being able to connect devices attached to everything from ships, trucks and pallets has provided incredible access to information throughout the supply chain. It’s now possible to track and measure everything from temperature and humidity of produce to the real-time location of your truck fleet. These things allow a retailer to optimize their operational costs and be more efficient in the way they bring their goods to market.
I spoke with Gary Newbury, a subject matter expert in Last Mile Fulfillment and Retail Logistics about this evolution. He commented that “the biggest two challenges for any retailer is having full visibility of exactly where each item is within the supply network extending back into each supplier, and dealing with a mix of both pallet handling for stores and single item picking, supporting individual customer orders, cost effectively”.
All this technology requires a new way to manage the information. While there are some notable exceptions, most retailers are very reluctant to build a massive data centre where the information is processed and stored. The capital expense is just too great. The other aspect to consider is that the computing power and speed required to handle the analytics, forecasting and reporting, exceeds the capabilities of a traditional data centre. Companies are now looking to Cloud solutions that can be scaled up to match their seasonal peaks. That evolution has sparked a whole new issue for retailers. AWS (Amazon Web Service) is a Cloud offering that is readily available for retailers. The issue that the retailer face is that they look at Amazon as the competition, so they find it difficult to partner with them by using their Cloud service.
Logistics may not be one of the most glamorous parts of the retail industry but it’s changing as much as any other part of the business, as a result of the digital transformation that the industry is experiencing. With a future that promises driverless transport trucks and drone deliveries the face of distribution and logistics has become a lot more interesting.
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