Future according to Raben

Digitization and digitalization are now entering all logistics, transport and distribution processes. Each element of the widely commented and interpreted Industrial Revolution 4.0, namely BigData, Internet of Things, automation and robotics of warehouse operations, will soon play a significant role in the development of the TFL industry. To a large extent, the market will be influenced by the already open discussions on self-driving cars or the combining means of transport into larger sets (platooning).

“The phrase IoT (Internet of Things) deserves special attention. Introduction of sensors and exchanging a wide array of information received from transported goods or means of transport, combined with traffic information such as congestions or road accidents. And above all, the possibility of rapid analysis and reaction to business information gathered from such data will soon revolutionize supply chain performance analysis.” – says Zbigniew Kępiński, Genius Lab Manager, Raben Group.

He also emphasizes that “we are not sure how tomorrow will look, but we know that it will look completely different.” The future will belong to the ubiquitous artificial intelligence and solutions which will completely replace human labour. Thanks to machine learning, all machines and robots will be able to make decisions, carry out the tasks entrusted to them and, above all, learn and optimize their operation. In every aspect of logistics, artificial intelligence will have a decision-making role focused on optimization, cost reduction, ecology and efficiency. Thanks to such advanced decision-support systems, in the future, the man in the supply chain will in principle be only the initiator of the process, and not its executor as this will be done by sophisticated algorithms and systems. However, the role of the logistics operator will not disappear. It will continue to support the customer in achieving its goals and business plans, the difference being that it will have a wide range of digital solutions to facilitate and improve the delivery process to the end user.

To bring the vision of future logistics to its customers and business partners, Raben Group prepared the film “Raben - the future of logistics”. For many years now the company has been implementing innovative solutions in warehouse and transport processes as well as in IT tools and systems. It is supported by “Genius Lab”, the research and development department, which took part in the creation of the film vision of tomorrow's logistics.

“As an R&D team responsible for supplying and analysing innovations in Raben Group, we have been pleased to support the creation of this material.” - says Zbigniew Kępiński - “While working on the script, we realized how many elements of automation, artificial intelligence or robotics processes are successfully used or soon will be used in logistic processes and services. The greatest difficulty was to present all the elements of our vision in such a short film. It turned out that to bring out the whole complexity, and thus the beauty of modern solutions, a separate series would have to be created for each frame of the film to comprehensively describe each of the solutions concealed behind the particular image.”

The Genius Lab department in Raben Group deals with broadly understood innovations, including both optimization of already functioning processes and developing of completely new models of operations. Transport and logistics virtually without paper, application of early warning mechanisms to predict possible changes in delivery times, using advanced image processing algorithms to measure shipment height on entering the warehouse. Genius Lab is conducting research on IoT and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) solutions, which have great potential to transform many processes in logistics companies.

Currently, as part of the ePOD2.0 project, Raben Group is working on the Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) application. Thanks to this solution customers and consignees of the company will get information about the current location of their shipments and but also about the expected time of its delivery. Thanks to online communication (GPS/eGPS) between the driver of the vehicle and the company system with a special algorithm combined with the map, it will be possible to estimate the arrival at each of the delivery points on the driver's route, and more importantly, to anticipate any delays due to traffic. Such transparency will affect the costs and satisfaction level of Raben Group customers. 

You are invited to learn more about the vision of the future by Raben Group: