DHL invests US$300M in emerging technologies

DHL Supply Chain has announced plans to deploy emerging technologies in 350 of its 430 facilities in North American facilities and transportation control towers as part of a $300 million investment.
Selected technologies will vary by customer needs, based on the outcomes of research and pilot programs completed by DHL’s internal innovation teams and collaboration with dozens of external innovators.
The availability – and practical utilisation – of these technologies is expected to help the diverse customer base including those addressing e-commerce and omnichannel challenges to minimise complexity, remove capacity constraints, and maximise service to their customers.
According to DHL, accelerating the implementation of selected technologies such as robotics, augmented reality, robotics process automation, IoT and DHL’s proprietary end-to-end visibility solution – MySupplyChain – is the objective of DHL Supply Chain’s global digitalisation strategy.
“This investment is about a holistic view of emerging technologies that enables our customers to achieve their growth and profitability goals. Our customers’ needs are not homogenous as each business and segment has unique challenges and levels of maturity. Therefore, it is important that our customers can benefit from our experiences and expertise with a variety of emerging technologies,” Scott Sureddin, CEO, DHL Supply Chain North America said.