Bigger, better, faster and more efficient. This is the driving force behind the fastchanging logistics environment where cutting edge technology is impacting how this industry operates daily. Addressing a business breakfast hosted by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport South Africa (Ciltsa) in Cape Town recently, Martin Bailey and Gary Benatar of Industrial Logistic Systems (ILS) said technology was impacting the operating environment continuously – and while South Africa tended to lag behind international trends the country was fast catching up. “There are massive changes happening as our supply chains are far more demanding and as technology increases efficiency and productivity,” said Bailey. Sharing some of the trends in the warehousing environment in particular he said increasing labour costs and unreliability seemed to be the driving force behind all the change – not only locally but around the world. “But customer demand has also changed and competition between companies has become more fierce to keep up with the ‘on demand’ trend,” he said. “Keeping up with this has increased the pressure to operate differently. The focus is on efficiency and productivity and that requires systems and operations that are faster and more accurate. This in turn has called for warehouses that are bigger and better.” He said automation was undoubtedly the most significant trend the world over. According to Benatar the increased reliance on technology and automation will ultimately be the driving force in productivity which in turn will improve cost efficiencies. “Fully automated warehouses were already being built in the 80s,” said Benatar, indicating that automation was only going to increase in the future. “One has to build warehouses and set up operations now, however, that are flexible to keep up with the fast-changing pace of technology and the increased demands on the supply chain.” He said planning strategically for change was imperative and now more than ever was the time to think proactively about logistics. “Take the mobile phone industry in South Africa at present. A cellphone company moves in a busy month like December anything from 130 000 to 150 000 phones a day. Each one of these phones is also unique, so one is not talking logistics for 150 000 of the same stock keeping unit. No warehouse, no distribution centre would be able to accomplish this without automation,” said Bailey. At the same time considering that one pallet of iPhones is valued at around R21 million, operations have to be far more secure and attentive to risk than previously.
Martin Bailey (right) and Gary Benatar ... Planning strategically for change is imperative. Photo: Liesl Venter
