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
