Profit from digitization of logistics!

Profit from digitization of logistics!

With the progress of digitalization in all fields, the logistics industry, including Amazon, is undergoing major changes. It used to take several days to deliver, but now it is the time when it will arrive the next day if it is in stock.

Think about logistics digitalization that will generate profits in the "high-tech, high-touch" era

● 1. Roles that change with technology

The use of technology in the logistics field is advancing.
How should we utilize the new technologies that are born one after another in our business?

The most important point in utilizing technology in the logistics field is "overall optimization."
There is no overall optimization ahead of the partial optimization stack.
It is necessary to consider the use of technology from a bird's-eye view of logistics and logistics from the entire supply chain.

In the retail / distribution industry, it is important to understand logistics while considering the ideal way of real stores in the online era, and in the manufacturing industry, we must seek optimization including overseas transactions in the globalization era. It's like having to.

It's been a long time since it was called the omni-channel era, but until now customers could only buy the products they wanted at the store, so the role of the real store is to line up the products that the customer wants and hand over the products in exchange for money. Was the main.

However, in the domestic retail market, where EC purchases are approaching 10%, the merit of purchasing products at real stores has diminished.

Customers choose to buy at EC or go to the store to buy.
In order to get people to visit the store, we must not only sell the products side by side, but also increase the value provided by the space.
It is necessary to provide value that can only be provided in real life, such as being excited when going to the store, having fun chatting with the clerk, delicious, having fun, and being able to consult.

It is an era in which we must design a total optimal process for creating a space that does not stick to such things and how to change the way things are carried in the online era.

But the reality is not so sweet.
Due to labor shortages, store staff are busy with product delivery and ordering operations, and are far from serving customers.
In the end, the reality is that just arranging the products in the store is all you can do, and you can't afford to create the value of the space.

From now on, people want to be free from labor as much as possible and select jobs that provide value.
To do so, we need to actively invest in new technologies to save labor and automate labor.

● 2. Combining technology and human interaction

An acquaintance of the author works at Seven-Eleven, but it seems that the role of veteran staff is to place orders.
According to an acquaintance, even veteran staff spend nearly an hour every day on ordering.
For example, if you use AI to input information such as weather requirements and the presence or absence of events, it is not so difficult to display the required number by time zone.
If you place an order based on that information, anyone can easily place an order in a short time, if not fully automatic.

There is no point in skipping that spare time, so by devoting it to customer service and improving space value, it will be possible to provide customers with the benefits of shopping at real stores.

Many people are still skeptical about AI, but if you clarify the purpose of use and identify the area, it will be surprisingly effective.

With the advent of technologies such as AI and IoT, and the need for people who can handle data statistically, technologies will also change the role of people's work.

For example, recently, the role of inside sales has been attracting attention.
The traditional style of Saesleman is to go around and earn by foot.
However, with the recent development of technologies such as online conferencing systems, a sales model that allows customers to negotiate with customers while staying in the office and complete the closing process without going to the customer is becoming popular.

The development of technology will change the abilities that companies demand from human resources.

● 3. Logistics is also an era of "high tech and high touch"

The imagination of new value by combining technology and human interaction is called "high-tech high-touch".

Logistics is also required to change not only in carrying goods but also in what value it provides to customers.
However, as in the case of the retail business, we are busy with daily inspections and slip arrangements, and the day ends just by doing labor and miscellaneous tasks.

Logistics issues in companies are not limited to the logistics department, but are issues for the entire supply chain, so individual company optimization and partial optimization are not sustainable.
Without the perspective of building logistics from an overall perspective, the risk of being left behind from the times and losing competitiveness as a company increases.

However, at present, individual companies are individually optimizing, and data sharing between companies is not very advanced.
In logistics in the high-tech and high-touch era, instead of the approach of "carrying things" in the overall design, "what are the issues and values ​​of society?" And "what are customers looking for?" It would be desirable for each company to work together.

● 4. State-of-the-art technology redefines logistics

Today, the manufacturing industry is shifting its business model from selling products to providing services.
A famous example is the compressor manufacturer Kaeser.
In the past, compressor equipment was sold to factories, but now we are shifting to a business model of selling compressed air by weight.
It is a conversion from "device selling" to "air selling". When I searched the company's site,

As mentioned above, a catch phrase called "compressed air expert" is used.
The copy that makes you imagine "selling things" instead of "selling things" is adopted.
I think it is a copy born from a shift in the idea of ​​"selling compressed air" rather than "selling compressors."

The case of Toyota also attracted a lot of attention in the industry.
At the 2018 press conference, President Toyota made a surprise appearance and announced that he "decided to transform into a mobility company."

We have a vision of treating a car as a network terminal and using the data collected from it to provide services to customers.
Data is in a cloud environment, and it has a world view that industry is built on it, and human resources and companies with such a world view and motivation will be needed in the future.

Even in a digital society, we must carry what we need.
It is also true that the logistics domain, which can replace the real flow of goods with digital, can collect the most reliable and valuable data.
That is the greatest value of digitizing logistics operations.
If you look at it only from the perspective of improving work efficiency, you will be late.

In other words, it is not cost reduction, but logistics digitization that produces real profits.
Technology is used to achieve this.

● 5. Summary

For many companies, the use of cutting-edge technologies like AI is still partial.
However, I think it should be the future to build a platform that allows us to see the entire supply chain, including logistics, by making full use of technology.

However, no matter how advanced the technology is, the axis of providing customer satisfaction remains the same.
Thinking about what you can do from the customer's perspective is paramount to your business.
The Japanese have the advantage of valuing fineness, precision, and process.
We believe that the successful combination of these strengths and technology will enable us to build a globally competitive logistics.