Top 6 Technology Trends in Logistics and Transportation Industry for 2016

Logistics technology trends. In 2015, the Logistics and Transportation Industry has witnessed some interesting transformation and trends. The ever increasing demands, new consumption patterns, digital age of commerce and global trade treaties has impacted warehousing and transportation formats. The “first mile” facilities are expanding with e-Commerce boom and the “last mile” facilities are becoming highly localized to support quick deliveries to consumers. For 2016, our Logistics Product Experts and Trend Analyst are looking forward to second generation of IoT, Big Data and Cloud based products. With market focusing on providing various delivery and pickup options, it has become essential for the Logistics Service Providers to ensure maximum utilization of their assets with tight control on wastage. Here are some new technologies and solutions that can help you systematize the entire “first mile” to “last mile” new emerging logistics practices. IOT – Internet of Things. Internet of Things (IoT) will be able to provide highly integrated “Transportation and Warehouse Management Solutions” connecting in-vehicle sensors and other integrated devices over the network. Embedded sensors in transport vehicles, containers etc will continuously capture, share, act on real-time data. Aggressive Logistics Provides will move from traditional technological approach of Managing orders and logistics to a more mature goals of improving quality of customer service, enforcing laws and regulations and reducing liability cost. � IoT will find many implementation in Logistics, from a retailer who needs to monitor the quality of food being shipped to a clinic which needs to control temperature of the box transporting a specimen.There would be more innovative use cases where provider will consciously use sensors, RFID chips to transmit critical information and feed it to cloud for further consumption. There will be increased use of Beacons in Warehouses, Retail, Airports etc to help users locating things, navigation, push offers among many other instances. Environment and Technology. Any typical logistics moves a product through a supply chain extending from one point to point with objective of keeping the cost at the minimum. Now the only cost involved is not in monetary terms but social and environmental. With strengthening laws against pollution, the logistics and supply chains will start exploring technological solutions to achieve “Sustainable Supply Chain” balancing social, economic, business and environment objectives. Reporting greenhouse emissions and carbon footprints to optimizing supply chain to waste management will contribute to “Green Logistics”. Technology will play a major role in capturing data and putting tools in hands of people to do better planning, monitoring, and manage environmental objectives of avoiding wastage and recycling. Analytics and Advanced Machine Learning. With so much data being captured, one of the biggest competitive edge a company can gain is by analyzing the data and taking business decision based on patterns identified. So far, the computers are programmed specifically to pull out pre-determined reports and dashboards from the database. What about the market insights and consumer trends that no one knows to look for? Machine Learning applications are able to uncover these hidden patterns. Computers are now able to analyse Big Data over and adapt using algorithms iteratively without much human intervention. Machine Learning will be combined with Supply Chain Management for turning volumes of passive data into actionable business intelligence. Machine Learning will be incorporated to dynamically create a supply chain for incoming orders, improve demand forecasting accuracy, predicting trends and performance etc.\ Cloud and SASSification. Carrier technologies will see major advancement as “uberization of trucks” will make sure private fleet capacity is available to everyone. The Trucking Companies will require to implement a solution that is reactive enough to reposition the empty containers immediately with almost no investment on IT infrastructure. This challenge will be turned into an opportunity if the Fleet Management Solutions are deployed on cloud and are provided as pay-per-use service. The cloud based solution combined with mobile applications will come up to cater to small and large business alike. Connected Applications, EDI and Web Services. A technology to efficiently and reliably transmit data is very critical to Logistics business. In this emerging market, more and more applications will talk to each other in all kind of B2C, B2B, Inter- and Intra- Business scenarios. EDI has been the backbone of communication in Logistics for a long time but its strict formats and standards compromises real-time data transmission. RESTful Web services and JSON will emerge as preferable data transmission technologies and in some cases replace EDI based communication. As more and more mobile apps are being built to automate data capturing, specially on the floor and on-roads, these apps will be able to talk to your many existing systems and be integral part of digital transformation of your business. � With IOT and Mobile expanding the touchpoints of technology, Logistics and Warehouse Management Solutions are going to transmit data over cloud and internet. The Software and Systems will be more robust and proactive to thwart cyber attacks. Security in the digital-transformation age will be end to end with continuous monitoring of vulnerable components.The Solution provider will have to make sure not only to implement security mechanism but to identify, rectify and monitor any possible cyber threat. Regular security audits and testing needs to be part of the product lifecycle. About Dreamorbit. DreamOrbit is a Logistics and Supply Chain Technology Development company. We have been creating meaningful and reliable software products for the industry which is “ Always on the go” for the past half decade. We are highly motivated team aimed at innovation. Our philosophy is to “keep challenging the potential within”. With support of our happy customers and dedicated team, we strive to provide best possible solutions to industry problems. Visit our website to know more about DreamOrbit.