Logistics companies face exciting challenges
an article published by CHEManager / www.chemanager-online.com
This is an article which provides a brief outlook into the topics that the industry can expect in 2024. Markus Mau – President of ELA – European Logistics Association, offered his professional opinion regarding the challenges faced by the industry.
The entire article can be accessed HERE.
English version of the article
The logistics industry is shaped by a series of trends that will continue in 2024. Innovation continues to be driven by digitization, automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
Logistics companies are, for example, working on the implementation of electronic freight documents (eFTI) – an important step in digitizing transportation – and on AI applications for better demand forecasting and optimizing transport routes based on a variety of previously unmanageable factors. This helps reduce warehouse and distribution costs and improves information readiness. Work is also being done on combined applications such as the use of AI-controlled drones for inventory control.
The ongoing task of reducing emissions in the industry continues to face challenges due to technological uncertainties and lacking infrastructure, which prevents investment security. However, various promising pilot projects are underway.
An increasing challenge that can be mitigated by innovative solutions in the future is the labor shortage, which affects operations and costs. Automation, particularly in warehousing, will increase, gradually introducing robotics solutions. With increasing automation, the demand profile for logistics workers rises, requiring higher qualifications.
However, it is becoming evident not only through challenges such as city logistics/urban logistics but also through political activism that the industry must become more politically active. Political knowledge about logistics is generally low, yet it significantly influences the efficiency of logistical chains and, consequently, the overall costs of all products transported to and from Germany.
All logistics companies are increasingly affected by congestion and unreliability in logistics, which increases costs without any environmental effect. Here, industry representatives must become more active to move from being affected parties to involved parties.