Introduction
Technology has changed every industry in the world and logistics is no exception. With the drastic revolution in digitization, the logistics industry is now getting a complete makeover. As logistics turns to be the foundation of every industry like e-commerce, retail, healthcare the corporate world today has aligned its various strategies in accordance with the developing logistics, such as robotics in the supply chain industry. Once-futuristic such as the drones are improving the speed and brings more convenience to consumers. With some of the recent advancements in technology, various industries are focusing on improving their delivery score and improving the consumer experience.
Block chain
Blockchain was first felt in the logistics industry in 2008. With the security provided by block chain, there is an impenetrable way of storing and sharing transactional data, while at the same time improving credibility with foolproof transactions. For instance, if there is a proof of consumer’s identity through the structure of the block chain, it is impossible to fudge it during delivery. Moreover, it is impossible to map the guess the unique Blockchain registration number of every delivery channel. In the next ten years, more than 30% of the global organizations will incorporate Blockchain automation in various transactional procedures (Crosby, 2016).Back in 2008, during the great recession, the anonymous developer of the Blockchain, proposed a peer-to-peer sharing of virtual cash that would facilitate online payments to be sent directly from one registered user to another without going to any financial institutions. Later in 2009, the first Bitcoin was mined.
Up to date, the total capital investment in cryptocurrency is approximately $ 150 B where a single bitcoin is trading at $ 5000. Various organizations such as Walmart successfully completed Blockchain pilot on food safety and Initial coin offerings. Such and other development have become very popular over time closing in approximately $2 billion in financing by 2017.
Politically, Blockchain has established a new exploratory framework of today’s centralized network igniting discussions about digital currency, digital regulation and the core structures and rails of the modern internet. However, many ask how we got there. Various researchers have explored how various forces have shaped the current landscape in cryptocurrency. Specifically, organizations are focusing on data-driven frameworks, through initial coin offering investment. Such has offered some deeper insight into the future of Blockchain. It is important to note that Blockchain is catch-phrase used in this ecosystem.
The current developments in cryptocurrency prices have created a lot of positive gain for investors, of which a majority have focused on diversifying the ICOs. Readily available capital has played a huge role in the development of Blockchain with organizations and entrepreneurs opting to raise funds through ICOs as opposed to the traditional equity funds. Such has fostered higher demand for the demand for the cryptocurrency. Since early 2016, Ethidium market has increased from $78 million to approximately $30 billion today. Initial capital offering are increasing much faster than other equity-backed frameworks.
Delivery Choice
Nowadays consumers are spoiled with choices in terms of buying portals, crazy discounts, and variety of products. Moreover, they also have to choose among the logistics providers to receive their products. There was just a small number of e-commerce organizations offering such features in 2017. However, the trend will change in 2018. There could be the transformative move within the logistics industry, as organizations cannot afford to be in the background. They have to face the stiff competition against each other with more advanced, consumer-oriented services.
Currently, factors that would be affected significantly include. Last-mile delivery of which is getting a great consideration in the media as well as from entrepreneurs. The cost of delivery, exempting line haul and organization amount to approximately $80 billion. China, Germany and the United States account for over 35% of the entire global marketplace. However, the market is not only large but also vibrant with a development rate of approximately 11 % in the developed marketplaces such as Germany, The United States and almost 250% in the growing market such as India. This means that, in the developed markets, the volume might double in the next few years reaching the heights of approximately 25 billion parcels in Germany and the United States.
The force behind this development is e-commerce which has significantly shifted the market share from B2B to the B2C division. B2B once exceeded approximately 40% on the global market, but B2C has not grown to 50% in several countries such as Germany and India. Moreover, the hefty share of the last mile share often exceeding 50% makes it a fundamental process for those who seek to gain a competitive edge. Moreover, it is at the last that a majority of the prospects are struggling, as they often should significant cost of labor. Therefore, having a more competitive disadvantage.
Elastic Logistics
Elastic logistics can be described as the flexibility to expand and minimize capabilities in a way that they align with supply chain demand during a certain period. Various solutions for flexibility automation often increase the agility of logistic industries to effectively meet any fluctuations in the market. It is not a “one size fit all” framework. However, it offers customized answers to various requirements such as cost control, geographic restrictions, distribution channels and priority delivery among others.
The interrelation between supply and demand often defines the daily operations in the logistics industry. In order to handle the changes in demand and order fluctuations, various logistics organizations are ensuring their operations are elastic to strategize the capacity in accordance with the requirements. More and more organizations often outsource their fleet through third-party logistics providers. With the optimum use of such frameworks, companies are able to deliver products on the timely basis while ensuring that the cost is intact irrespective of increased demand. Simply, elastic logistics can help by improving customer experience, incorporating real-time visibility, linking up various business processes, and finally offering scalability and agility (Ren, 2010).
There are different reasons why you might require to depend on external fleets for delivery services or crowdsourcing among others. Initially, many businesses often used external delivery providers. For instance, there are specific times when organizations often experience peaks-on-demand order that require delivery in a very short period. In such cases, external delivery help in scaling the orders in order to meet the demands ping (Cheng, 2010). The party delivery is used in such cases to help in meeting increased demand when running other operations through the entire year.
Whatever the reason might be, it is advisable for organizations to have the ability to maintain control of delivery operation irrespective of who is doing it. Moreover, it should be easy for companies to manage their deliveries with full control and visibility. Elastic logistics was developed back in 2000 to keep control of delivery operations of various organizations, even when they choose to use the services of external fleets (Wei, & ZHANG, 2007).By aggregating all orders ensures that there is a complete control over the process, keeping all the deliveries process efficient and unified.
After many years of leaning logistics, many organizations are possibly going to review their approaches to the determination of levels of inventory as well as the operational capacity. Rather than reducing inventories to further degree, businesses will respond to the unpredictable demand using elastic strategies that have been designed to accommodate both the established as well as the much more volatile ebbs through multiple channels of sales. Such moves are aimed at maintaining customer service levels and reduce the unforeseen cost of logistics and support scalable logistic operations. This would allow flexing assets and other resources in response to various market forces as well as trends in consumer behavior.
Technology plays a huge role in various organizations willing to develop elasticity in logistics. Frameworks such as advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, automation and machine learning enable supply chain to function within different parameters. Moreover, by using the analogy, performance will be improved beyond what is viewed as impossible. While artificially augmented heights of the supply chain are likely to be accomplished by any organization in the next few years, 2020 will probably by the period in which early breakthrough will be made and the most appropriate logistics would emerge (Lieb, 2001).
Besides regulations, public opinion on the acceptability of new technologies is probably the complex to predict. Given that many drivers often accept a substantial degree of new support systems in today’s companies. For instance, speed and distance control are some of the new enhancements. However, some of these new technologies have been incorporated in various organizations and making huge efforts to convince the public of the benefits of the new developments and in particular, the superior safety associated with them. So far, the new trend seems to be succeeding. More than 40% of consumers around the world would definitely use the new technological developments. This is a close percentage second to crowdsourcing, which more than 50% if many consumers would likely use technology in cases such as parcel delivery (Berglund,1999).Among the younger consumers, technology seems to be more popular, with more than 50% of them arguing that they would definitely use the new technological options in their future operations.
Technology offers a great opportunity for the existing and the developing service providers in the logistics industry. Given the fast growth of 5% in developed countries such as Germany and 20% in China over the coming years. Moreover, there will be significant changes to the operating models that have been outlined in this paper. However, before organizations can move on to bring to life new technologies in the field of logistics. However, organizations should bring in new strategies that the fit the market environment and the strength of the organization.
It is important to note that competitive landscape with approximately three groups of an organization fighting for dominance in the future development, e-commerce players and a highly dynamic, thus disrupting the marketplace. For instance, In Germany, players in this industry have already begun to push ahead. Technologies such as robots are being tested to facilitate delivery, drones are being operated every day by e-commerce players. Moreover, m start-ups are strongly pushing into the global market in an effort to gain access to new pools. Focusing on the three different archetypes –which of them are best positioned to win the rivalry.
The incumbent in this industry have an advantage of having a suitable network that would enable them to compete in the global market. However, will companies be quick enough to adopt new strategies to keep pace with e-commerce who have heavily invested in this space? Start-ups have mainly focused on point-to-point markets. Therefore it is not possible to predict whether they will be able to adapt to the new business models to fight off the e-commerce players in this industry.
References
Crosby, M., Pattanayak, P., Verma, S., & Kalyanaraman, V. (2016). Blockchain technology: Beyond bitcoin. Applied Innovation, 2, 6-10.
Berglund, M., Van Laarhoven, P., Sharman, G., & Wandel, S. (1999). Third-party logistics: is there a future?. The International Journal of Logistics Management, 10(1), 59-70.
Lieb, R., & Schwarz, B. (2001, January). The year 2001 survey: CEO perspectives on the current status and future prospects of the third party logistics industry in the United States. In Supply Chain Forum: An International Journal (Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 36-44). Taylor & Francis.
Ren, Q., Li, S., Qiao, D., & Chen, W. (2010). Application of key factor analysis method for elastic coefficient of highway freight transportation. In ICLEM 2010: Logistics For Sustained Economic Development: Infrastructure, Information, Integration (pp. 281-287).
ping Cheng, G., Liu, W., wei Xie, C., & ying Zhou, J. (2010, August). The contribution of logistics industry to economic growth based on logis model. In Information Science and Management Engineering (ISME), 2010 International Conference of (Vol. 2, pp. 489-492). IEEE.
Wei, F. U., & ZHANG, J. (2007). Dynamic Elastic Analysis on Supply and Demand of Logistics Markets [J]. Logistics Technology, 6, 004.
