“ BEING FLEXIBLE IS VITAL BECAUSE NO ONE HAS A CRYSTAL BALL AND CAN PREDICT THE FUTURE ”
— Oscar De Bok , CEO , DHL Supply Chain
While automation isn ’ t a new innovation in the logistics industry , De Bok believes that flexibility has improved considerably and allowed the cost of robotics to streamline operations to be greatly reduced . “ This means that you ’ re far more flexible in the type of solutions you can develop and you can adjust solutions far more quickly than in the past ,” explains De Bok . “ The level of investment has substantially increased in the industry , and this has meant there is a lot more innovation within the logistics sector . That has created the possibility together with the increase of data analytics to enable us to make better decisions around how we can introduce collaborative robotics into operations , as well as still having the flexibility to upscale , downscale and adjust going forward .”
De Bok is well aware of the plethora of information at his organisation ’ s fingertips ; however , he recognises how important it is to leverage this data effectively . “ In the logistics industry , we sit on so much data and information , and this means we have lots of visibility over what ’ s happening in the market ,” he says . “ By leveraging machine learning in a better way , we can start telling our customers
33 supplychaindigital . com