The Connected Supply Chain

From intelligent fulfilment to the last mile: how automation, visibility and smarter operations are reshaping logistics

Supply chains are under pressure to become faster and more productive, but also more flexible, resilient and sustainable.

This First Friday Press Club Industry Voices panel media briefing will take journalists through the modern logistics journey, exploring how organisations are responding at different stages, from the highly automated fulfilment centre, through warehouse and transport operations, to delivery.

Rather than looking at individual technologies in isolation, the discussion will explore how automation, frontline technology, data, people, energy and packaging increasingly need to work together.

Clare Bottle, CEO, UKWA: the industry-wide view

Stepping back from individual operations to ask what change means for the warehouse sector.

• Future warehouse energy demand as automation and AI increase.
• Electrification of logistics, including EV infrastructure and electric HGVs.
• Balancing greater operational capability with energy efficiency.
• Sustainability and environmental performance.
• Packaging efficiency and waste.
• Extended producer responsibility.
• The broader implications of innovation for UK warehousing and logistics.

Ocado: the intelligent fulfilment operation

How automation is changing what the warehouse can do.

• The one-size-fits-all warehouse is over. The next generation of automation is about systems that can flex within an operation as requirements change.
• De-risking the automation decision. The question is increasingly not simply “what is the ROI?”, but how an operation can respond if demand, labour availability or requirements change.
• Automation and the workforce. Labour scarcity, workforce demographics and changing expectations of warehouse roles are altering the business case for automation.
• Software as the differentiator. Getting more from assets through intelligent orchestration rather than continually adding new hardware.
• Operator credibility. Bringing the perspective of a company that has developed automation through running demanding fulfilment operations itself.

Zebra Technologies: connecting the physical operation

The technology connecting people, assets and information as products move through the operation.

• The automation of work.
• Mobile computing and the connected frontline.
• Fixed industrial scanning and automated data capture.
• Machine vision.
• Frontline AI.
• RFID and greater visibility of goods and assets.
• Avoiding unplanned downtime.
• Managing throughput variance.
• Extending visibility beyond the warehouse into areas such as parcel drop-off and last-mile operations.

DHL Supply Chain: making innovation work at scale

• Turning innovation into operational reality at scale. What changes when automation has to work across complex logistics operations rather than in a controlled demonstration.
• Managing changing demand. How logistics operations maintain service and productivity as volumes and operating requirements move.
• Technology and the workforce. How robotics and automation change roles and create requirements for reskilling and workforce development.
• Using operational data better. How data can support the deployment of people and resources.
• Electrification of logistics. The practical implications of fleet electrification and electric HGVs.
• Balancing competing pressures. Efficiency, resilience, workforce needs and customer expectations.