Mike Reid, the Chief Operating Officer at Embark Trucks, said that “Anyone employed as a driver today will be able to retire as a driver.” What makes that statement surprising is that Embark is a leading developer of autonomous trucks. One might think that the goal of an autonomous truck company is to render drivers superfluous.
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Archive for Logistics Technologies
For robots in eCommerce fulfillment, last year was the year of pilots. This year customers are willing to publicly speak about the benefits they got from eCommerce robots at eft’s 3PL & Supply Chain Summit in Atlanta.
Read More →Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) are seen as smart, automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) as stupid. That is way too simple. AMRs are actually just one form an intelligent AGV can take. And both AGVs and AMRs exhibit a broader range of intelligence than is commonly understood.
Read More →Additive manufacturing has certainly gotten a lot of press over the years. In the supply chain space, the idea that inventory costs could be slashed by committing to additive manufacturing has been touted. In manufacturing, a common idea is that additive manufacturing can create more sustainable products by not lathing away materials that are wasted. But reality is beginning to catch up with rhetoric. Siemens, as both a provider of design and manufacturing engineering software and as an industrial manufacturer, is in a unique position to help lead the industrial additive manufacturing revolution.
Read More →I am writing this post from Orlando, FL, where I am attending JDA Focus 2018. The theme of the conference was “Expectations. Fulfilled.” and based on some of the new product strategies that were announced, it seems to be an appropriate theme. The big news from the conference was the launch of the JDA Luminate Platform, a connected platform that combines next generation digital technologies with product enhancements to JDA’s core solutions. I talked with […]
Read More →Is Uber Freight a going concern? Recent losses at the company, the shut down of UberRush, and the loss of key executives makes this a valid question. Experienced logistics executives are not surprised.
Read More →The oil and gas supply chain is complex. One set of complexities involves tank farms. The often-massive storage tanks and extensive auxiliary equipment and instrumentation represent expensive assets. Achieving operational flexibility involves coordinating a large set of technologies and business functions. This article describes oil tank storage and movement best practices.
Read More →Software as a Service (SaaS) is a rental model that allows you to purchase enterprise software without paying giant upfront license fees. In theory, this means software becomes an operational expense (OPEX) rather than a capital expense (CAPEX). As software markets shifted from CAPEX to OPEX, we were supposed to see dramatic changes to software markets. We have… And we have not. What we have seen is many enterprise software markets make a big transition […]
Read More →Supply chain analysts are far more caustious concerning the maturity of blockchain for business applications that the broader tech community. Perhaps too cautious. One day after analysts appeared on a HighJump panel on this topic, an article appeared in the Wall Street Journal that claimed that 1.1 million items from Walmart are being tracked by blockchain, helping the massive retailer trace these products journey from supplier to store.
Read More →The “Uberization of Freight” is a hot topic in logistics circles. My colleague Steve Banker wrote an LV blog post in 2016 that discussed the topic and its merits (see The Uberization of Last Mile Freight). It is a business concept that has been receiving large amounts of venture capital funding due to the great growth potential. After all, it is an economical solution to last-mile delivery of e-commerce orders – one of the most […]
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