How orchestration unlocks the value of supply chain data

Leading supply chain organizations are applying orchestration strategies to create opportunities to increase resource utilization, reduce costs, and enable faster and more efficient response to the many events that can disrupt operations on a given day. Just as a band leader or conductor brings together the talents of various musicians into a cohesive unit, orchestration strategies enable disparate supply chain resources to work together to minimize the costs and maximize the speed of supply chain operations.

Within the walls of the warehouse or distribution center, this means continuously coordinating and balancing human, robotic, and automated resources to optimize operations. Across the supply chain, the same strategies can increase speed, efficiency, and productivity across warehousing, packaging, and transportation.

At DHL Supply Chain, we have established a leadership position in supply chain digitalization. Since 2018, we have deployed more than 7,200 technology projects across our network, including thousands of robots that work collaboratively with our people. Because of our scale, we can work closely with multiple robotics companies to ensure their solutions deliver value in the supply chain and have standardized deployment processes for the leading robotic and automation platforms.

The next phase of this journey is building on our strengths in visibility, advanced analytics, and robotics and automation to do for orchestration what we have done for digitalization. This phase of the journey begins with data.

ENABLING DATA ACCESSIBILITY AND VISIBILITY

In a recent post on scaling AI, McKinsey noted that, “Managing data remains one of the main barriers to value creation.” The same can be said for orchestration.

Data that enables orchestration must be accessible, trustworthy and digestible and that is not the natural state of supply chain data. Without access to the right data in the right form at the right time, humans and systems don’t have the visibility and insight they need to make the autonomous decisions effective orchestration requires.

DHL Supply Chain first addressed this challenge through the introduction of our MySupplyChain visibility platform. MySupplyChain integrates data from warehouse and transportation applications to enable end-to-end, centralized supply chain visibility. It also provides a platform for the reporting and analytics that enable optimization. However, easily replicating analytics solutions across sites necessitates a level of data standardization that goes beyond what is required for visibility.

That challenge has been addressed through the development of a family of standardized “data products” that simplify deployment of advanced analytics and orchestration.

A data product is essentially an encapsulated piece of data that has been transformed, processed, and curated to make it easily usable by teams and individuals at any site and at various levels of an organization. Just as you don’t need to be an automotive engineer to drive a car you’ve never driven before, you shouldn’t need to be a data scientist to access and use supply chain data. Data products unlock the power of data for the people and systems that are best positioned to use that data to effect operations.

ADVANCING ANALYTICS AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The foundational work done on visibility and data products enables accelerated deployment of advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to optimize and orchestrate supply chain operations.

While generative AI has dominated the technology landscape since the introduction of ChatGPT in 2022, other forms of AI—most notably machine learning—also have significant potential for use in the supply chain and are already delivering meaningful results today.

At DHL Supply Chain, for example, we have developed and commercialized a machine learning algorithm that reduces the labor required to ensure inventory accuracy while simultaneously minimizing shortages that frustrate customers and lead to lost sales. Similarly, we are optimizing transportation resources by using AI to find loads for trailers that would otherwise be returning from deliveries empty.

Generative AI will certainly play a role in the supply chain, and we are advancing multiple generative AI (genAI) products through our development pipeline. But other forms of AI are already delivering value, and the data products described previously allow accelerated deployment of these solutions across our network.

CONNECTING SYSTEMS

Because we have been aggressive in deploying robotics at our sites, we have several warehouses today that rely on multiple robotic systems, often from different vendors, making speed of integration and connectivity across systems priorities as we advance orchestration.

To support that objective, we are adopting an automation platform that enables fast and seamless integration of various automation and robotic technologies with minimal customization. The platform also aggregates and normalizes data across technologies and vendors, which simplifies monitoring and enables interoperability. When integrated with data from labor management and other systems, this allows potential bottlenecks in processes to be identified proactively and resources—whether human or robotic—deployed quickly to keep products moving.

DOING MORE WITH LESS

Orchestration represents the future of supply chain management, but it can only happen when the building blocks of visibility, analytics, and connectivity are in place. DHL Supply Chain has invested significant resources in these building blocks—and the data they rely on—and is now leveraging these investments to implement orchestration strategies for our customers that enhance service levels, increase efficiency, and reduce costs. To learn more, visit dhl.com/allin.