DHL Supply Chain invests $300mn in emerging technologies

DHL Supply Chain, one of the leading contract logistics companies in North America, announced today its investment of US$300mn into the deployment of emerging technologies. The investment will support the implementation of these technologies across 350 of the company’s 430 facilities, according to a company press release.

Partnering with several external innovators, DHL’s internal innovation teams are conducting research into the precise customer needs to be serviced by emerging tech at each facility.

According to the company: “The availability – and practical utilization – of these technologies is expected to help the diverse customer base including those addressing e-commerce and omnichannel challenges to minimize complexity, remove capacity constraints, and maximize service to their customers.” DHL Supply Chain intends to do this by using its investment to accelerate its development in the fields of robotics, augmented reality, robotics process automation, IoT and DHL's proprietary end-to-end visibility solution – MySupplyChain.

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The initiative will also focus on modernising and retraining DHL Supply Chain’s workforce. Tim Sprosty, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at DHL Supply Chain, said in a press release that "these technologies enhance the value of our people; they don't replace them. Our team will be equipped with the most advanced technologies, trained on emerging ones and retained through a culture of innovation, collaboration and recognition. We believe this approach is a winning strategy not just for our business but for our customers' businesses as well."

DHL Supply Chain North America CEO Scott Sureddin said, "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."