Is the drone sending a courier a gimmick or a direction? It takes time to truly realize smart logistics

The Chinese logistics industry is experiencing rapid change and innovation. UAVs, cloud warehousing, robots, etc. appear in the logistics industry, making the entire industry full of "intelligent transformation" expectations.

However, the reporter found in the interview that the information infrastructure of the logistics industry is still in its infancy, the informationization of transportation and warehousing is low, and the data division of various logistics companies still needs to be broken. The industry believes that smart logistics is a complex system. It is not simply equal to drones and robots. It should also include data access and uniform service standards. It takes time to realize smart logistics.

Logistics transformation is imminent

In just 10 years, China has become the world's number one online shopping country and express delivery country. In March of this year, Alibaba Group announced that the amount of e-commerce transactions in fiscal year 2016 reached 3 trillion yuan. Backed by high online retail sales, some people say that the logistics industry has become the "greatest miracle" born in China.

According to the data released by the State Post Bureau, the annual national express delivery business in 2015 totaled 20.67 billion pieces. From 10 billion to 20 billion, it took only 432 days.

Correspondingly, the average daily processing capacity of logistics companies has reached nearly 60 million. The National Social E-Commerce Logistics Practitioner Research Report jointly published by Beijing Jiaotong University, Ali Research Institute and Rookie Network shows that the number of e-commerce logistics employees who have undertaken the main delivery business reached 2.033 million.

Some agencies predict that in the future, China's daily express parcels will reach 300 million. At such magnitudes, it is no longer possible to rely solely on human power, but on the wisdom of technology, data, and so on.

Gao Hongfeng, president of the China Express Association, said that the express delivery industry has developed to a considerable scale today. The next step is to maintain speed, improve the speed of development, and improve the quality of service. In the era of Internet economy, the key to the win-win industry is to use information technology to promote the development of the express logistics industry.

China's express delivery industry has experienced rapid development in recent years, but the overall quality is difficult to speak internationally, and high operating costs also constrain the development of the industry. According to the data provided by the rookie network, taking the proportion of total social logistics cost to GDP as an example, this index directly affecting the overall strength of the economy, developed countries only accounted for 8%, while China is currently 16%, with huge room for decline. .

In recent years, the “competition” between Jingdong Logistics and the rookie network has attracted much attention, and the two have implemented different logistics development paths. Jingdong 砸 heavy gold self-built warehousing, high investment has brought more users to Jingdong; and the rookie focuses on building a platform, its logistics construction idea is to use the synergy of social resources, combined with the third party that its e-commerce platform can assemble Logistics partners, such as SF, Santong Yida, China Post, etc.

Regardless of the above-mentioned path, it should not be overlooked that China Express has entered the era of “20 billion pieces of annual business volume”, and must think about and solve a common problem – how to make massive packages faster and better. In the hands of a consumer. The transformation of the logistics industry is imminent.

Is the drone a gimmick or a direction?

Before the “618 Promotion” this year, Jingdong delivered the goods through the drones in rural areas, and delivered the goods from the Suqian Shuanghe Station Distribution Center to the rural promoters in the local Caoji Township – no one initiated by Jingdong. The machine parcel test successfully completed the first domestic order.

The drone began to replace the manual delivery parcel delivery. Is it a "gimmick" or a new chapter in the promotion of smart logistics? The "innovation" of this express delivery industry has triggered the industry's attention and hot discussion about drones.

Novice Internet CEO Xiao Wenhong believes that drones are more of a "gimmick" and will not be the mainstream distribution method for future cities. "If 10 years later, China's annual express delivery volume is 100 billion pieces, all rely on drone distribution, what will happen on that day?" Tong Wenhong said that the future end delivery must be a courier service plus a community-friendly service network. Both of these require manpower; compared with drones, the distribution of unmanned vehicles in the future may be more realistic, and drones can only be supplemented by "the icing on the cake."

Chen Ping, CEO of ZJS, said that drones are not the main problem that express logistics companies need to consider. The pain point to be solved now is that customers must be fast, cheap, and safe. In fact, express delivery logistics companies have not solved the above problems at all. "You can't just say that developing a robot or drone express, the logistics industry has been upgraded. The real upgrade is to change the current logistics mode and network mode."

However, in the view of Yutong, the chairman of Yuantong, express logistics companies can't do without considering robots and drones. "Robots can reduce labor productivity. Express logistics industry is a labor-intensive industry. As a leader in this industry, it must be considered. Drones, etc."

Wei Jigang, a researcher at the Development Research Center of the State Council, believes that the future intelligent logistics system is composed of a strong physical physical infrastructure plus a digital infrastructure, coupled with a future commercialization model.

Smart logistics is not equal to automation

Indeed, the replacement of manual operations by high-tech robots is not the essence of smart logistics. The simple crown of "unmanned aerial vehicles" and "warehouse robots" is smart logistics, and can not change the existing situation of logistics development. Alibaba Cloud Data Incubation Director Wan Wanli believes that automation is not equal to intelligence, intelligence and wisdom are not the same.

Some insiders pointed out that the automation process of intelligent logistics is gradually transferred from warehousing and sorting to transportation and distribution. The reporter learned that in the field of warehousing, Amazon's KIVA robot has been put into practical operation, and the rookie partner's "Cao Cao" robot is also being piloted. However, from the domestic perspective, the establishment of warehousing is in "you chase after me."

For example, after returning to the home delivery in seven years, Chen Ping vigorously promoted the warehouse allocation business of the home delivery, and laid out the “cloud micro warehouse” in the country. In his view, the future express delivery will be "logistics first, orders followed", when there is no order, the goods have been delivered to the customer's door.

According to the information released by NetEase Koala, Netease Koala Haibin Ningbo warehouse project plans a total investment of 500 million yuan, the proposed total construction area of ​​256,000 square meters, after the completion of Ningbo warehouse will be automated, modular, intelligent management Mode, the daily processing volume will reach 200,000 orders.

In terms of automation, the reporter learned that domestic logistics companies have begun to take action, including SF, Yuantong, Shentong and other enterprises are also on the line to use the "automatic sorting equipment", the end of the distribution in addition to the suitcase, from the cabinet, and other Basically in the research and development and experimental stages.

However, whether it is automation or warehousing, smart logistics is still inseparable from the most basic data. Chen Meimei, vice president of UPS Asia Pacific, defines the word "wisdom" as efficient, secure and sustainable. She said that improving the efficiency of logistics means analyzing data in a large amount of data to make smart decisions to improve efficiency, safety and sustainability.

Chen Mei explained that the products produced by Chinese manufacturers are becoming more and more complex and of higher value. Smart logistics means that we can use technology to make logistics more secure, including trade compliance and cargo integrity. At the same time, the future smart logistics must also be "green logistics", the logistics industry is also investing in new energy vehicles, UPS also invested in new energy vehicles this year.

Urgent need for standards, concepts, and cost

The logistics industry has long been considered a "low-tech industry." So far, few companies have outstanding performance in the application of information system construction, logistics technology development, and logistics tools. Moreover, from the perspective of industry, the construction of smart logistics still faces the problem that the industry standards are not unified, the concept is difficult to form, and the cost is high.

"I think we have just entered the primitive society of intelligent logistics." Huitong world CEO Yu Xue soul said, just like human beings came down from the tree, the first thing is to first engage in tools, armed themselves, I can play lions. In the logistics industry, the transportation and warehouse we used to do in the past, I think, are tools without data, so it is equivalent to the stage where humans have not yet entered the tool.

The traditional express "four-single order" has gradually been replaced by "electronic side-to-face". The electronic face sheet is considered to be the key to the “information infrastructure” of the logistics industry. It can automatically serialize the data information of the merchants, delivery courier companies, receiving consumers and the dry branches. Express delivery uses an electronic face sheet, and a package can be identified, processed, and distributed in hundreds of millions of packages. Through the flow of data, the electronic surface system can optimize a series of express routes.

Yun Zhou Express CIO Yang Zhoulong said that there are thousands of benefits in the electronic face, but in the process of implementation, basically one third of the outlets barely accept, one third of the outlets are wait and see, one third of the outlets until now Ignore you, even if it is more intelligent, the change of concept is still a long process.

Yang Zhoulong also said that the cost of automation equipment is one of the problems. A few years ago, they always wanted to be an intelligent assembly line, but how to calculate it is not as direct as manual use. Therefore, the logistics industry is not enough to implement the intelligent assembly line.

"Data segmentation between logistics companies still needs to be opened." Tong Wenhong believes that smart logistics must first be the most basic construction work, the establishment of data standards, the establishment of electronic standards, and the establishment of intelligent hardware standards.

However, industry insiders also suggest that big data and new technologies have a lot of potential for digging, and a large amount of idle capacity and storage space will be improved. The form of future logistics will also be very imaginative. For example, vacant rooms in enterprises and individuals can become a scatter warehouse, and individual vehicles or taxis become express or courier delivery vehicles.

With the continuous expansion of the e-commerce industry, smart logistics is imperative. The industry has changed from a focus on automation to the overall wisdom system construction, but whether it is from the technical point of view of "hardware" or the synergy and sharing of "software", there is still a certain distance from the real wisdom logistics. Overall, smart logistics is just getting started, and there is still a long way to go in the future.