This commentary appeared in the print edition of the Jan. 6, 2020, Journal of Commerce Annual Review and Outlook.
Greater adoption of consumer technology holds the most promise for the logistics industry in the next two years.
A few things that make the logistics business unique are how many handoffs occur across continents, nonlinear paths, and processes, as well as how much training occurs on the job. On the other side of the fence, customers are seeking greater predictability and connectivity in order to deal with the headwinds they are facing with rising origin costs and greater consumer demands.
When I see “traditional” applications that have long learning curves, few collaborative features, and limited shortcuts, I automatically think “dead on arrival.” The same consumer technology that made it more social, user-friendly, always on, and multifunctional offers great promise for solving some of these challenges.
Some examples include the ability to add cellphone videos in apps for product or container integrity, native language translations to improve collaboration, tags to make the data come to you, and icon-driven applications to make comprehension and training quicker and easier.
I often refer to international logistics as a “Swiss Army knife,” as it includes every possible mode, has many handoffs, covers vast distance and time, and explores various cultures. We need our technology to be more of a Swiss Army knife to enable international logistics, versus constraining our teams and teamwork.