Currently, logistics is more about keeping existing processes running than optimizing them through costly investments and time-consuming restructuring. The topic of supply chain resilience (= how to go back to normal and keep the business running as usual) is at the center of modern supply chain management theory and is being discussed at universities, the workplace and in politics. Despite the gigantic relevance of this topic, today we will talk about something else. Together, let’s give a brief thought to the great things that await us at the end these difficult days, week and months. Let’s talk about new technologies and exiting developments in field of logistics and supply chain management to escape the dystopic situation that we face at the moment. Which topics will move from current theory into common practice and everyday use?
First, let’s start with a asking a very necessary questions: Why is it important to talk about trends in logistics at this moment (and every moment)? As nowadays thinking about investing in costly trends feels more like luxury or something rare, for which very few have the necessary time and resources, I would like to create a sense of urgency (for everyone).
In general, humans often label different development simply as “a trend”. Coming from that, today there are trends everywhere, for example in lifestyle or even food. Doing the research, you can obverse that there are also giant upcoming “trends in logistics, operations and supply chain management”. But there is one huge and very important difference in the interpretation in those two kinds of trends: A typical trend, as we know and use the term today, will commonly be replaced by another trend. That’s just the way it goes. We all can even observe this in our own personal closet as fashion is highly influence by such trends. Those kind of trends suddenly appear, are rocked until they die and disappears after a few years (for most of us). Those trends are widely temporary and sometimes you can even speak of a so-called counter-trends (= an arising opposite development of trends). Clothes are getting tighter again, you will see more shoes with lower soles and after a few years you feel ashamed of the shirt with the big collar you have worn at work or the colorful XXL hoodie you rocked during college. Trends in business are different and it is highly important to understand their behavior. Those kind of trends are not temporary at all. They are made to stay. The trend of autonomous driving, truck platooning, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, predictive analysis or other logistics 4.0-technologies will come, glow, get implemented and stay until they get revised, expanded or updated. Those named topics will be implemented relatively fast as they offer so many great long-term advantages, such as cost reductions and service improvements (the key in logistics). Those current trends will become the new normal. At first for the bigger companies (spending money and proofing the concept) and afterwards for medium size companies, getting on board. The point that I’m trying to do is, if you don’t “like the trend”, you can’t just wait for time to pass until the trend is over. If those topics are too “IT-heavy” for you, you can’t just ignore the development and wait for the counter-trend. If you got on the train too late, the train will be gone and so will be your business. That is also, why it is very important to know about the trends and developments in your field of interest. It shouldn’t be something special or even a privilege to think about investments and moving with the time. It’s not a possibility to learn about new approaches in logistics and develop process supported by specialized software, it is necessary.