SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGIES
Logistics in motion: analytics at network scale Analytics is typically managed within your own four walls. However, DHL Supply Chain takes a different approach entirely. As the entity responsible for thousands of customers’ supply chains simultaneously, the logistics leader’ s data view spans entire networks. As a result, its insights relate not only to internal performance, but also to the patterns and pressures shaping global logistics in real time.
Craig Howie, Chief Information Officer at DHL Supply Chain UK & I, explains the fundamental change being asked of the capabilities of analytics:“ The shift we’ re seeing is from analytics as a reporting tool to leveraging data as the foundation for strategic decision making and running our operational nervous system.”
This nervous system is built on a data strategy that is designed to give DHL colleagues and customers a single source of truth across both functional and operational landscapes. Better reporting is only one component of this shift; realtime data has not changed just the speed of decision-making, but the nature of decisions themselves.
“ Our control towers can re-route and re-plan, absorbing volatility in volumes and factoring in variables like new store openings, promotional uplifts and eventdriven demand spikes without those events causing service failures,” says Craig. One technology playing an increasingly vital role in disruption responses is digital twin technology, which models the outcome of different routing and operational choices before committing to them, while also including their environmental impact.
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