Logistics leader hosts India Innovation Day
Deutsche Post DHL Group has expressed a strong interest in Indian start-ups, saying that it is “working with some very interesting companies coming out of India that have something to offer to the rest of the world in logistics”.
The logistics giant is bringing together some 400 industry executives and stakeholders at it conference on 4 Sept 2018 centered on the topic of innovation, aiming to inspire the mix of start-ups and customers to take innovation in logistics more seriously.
“We want to inspire our business community,” said Pang Mei Yee, Vice President, Head of Innovation, Asia Pacific, Customer Solutions & Innovation, DHL, of the India Innovation Day 2018 in Mumbai.
Among the many start-ups showcasing their solutions at the event is local start-up FarEye, which has developed a solution being used by DHL across its Indian network, and which DHL has invested in.
FarEye created the world’s first programming language to build logistics applications with a simple drag and drop feature, enabling enterprises to reduce time to build new logistics processes from quarters to weeks. The solution uses a blend of mobility and geo-intelligence to provide real-time multi-enterprise visibility of logistics functions.
“We feel very positively about innovation in India. One example of how much faith we have in the country is DHL SmarTrucking, which was piloted in India over a three-month period that covered over 2,770,000 kilometres before being launched in May. DHL SmarTrucking leverages the Internet of Things and data-driven insights for route optimisation, reducing transit times by up to 50% compared to the traditional trucking industry, and 95% reliability with ease of use, end-to-end visibility, temperature-controlled capabilities and real-time tracking,” said Pang.
The conference will also showcase a wide range of Indian start-ups and their innovations. These include the likes of Locus, a highly-advanced decision-making engine for supply chain optimization to help reduce costs, and achieve efficiency, consistency and transparency in operations.
“We want to inspire the participants and share with them opportunities and the need for innovations,” said Pang, adding that it will be the first large-scale DHL innovation event to be held in India.
Pang wants to inspire the logistics industry and urged them to experiment with a wide range of solutions that are already available from Indian start-ups, rated as the largest community of its kind in the world.
The technology-focused conference is driven by, among other factors, the strong projection of growth in the Indian e-commerce market. Pang cited studies that Indian e-commerce will grow from USD53 billion in 2017 to USD107 billion in 2020.
DHL is well-positioned to enable e-commerce in infrastructure-stressed India, with the country among its leading test-bed markets for technology-driven businesses.
“We want our conference participants to learn more about the many applications of technology in logistics, such as Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Robotics and Big Data Analytics,” said Pang, acknowledging that for DHL there was still room to grow. fiinews.com
