Digitization
DHL Supply Chain relies on autonomous forklift trucks
DHL Supply Chain, the division of Deutsche Post DHL Group specializing in contract logistics, is further expanding the commercial use of autonomous forklift trucks and pallet trucks in its more than 1,500 warehouses. The company is focusing primarily on locations in Europe, the UK and Ireland as well as North America.
Autonomous transport robots can carry out both horizontal and vertical transport of palletized goods. They are therefore primarily used in industries where goods are predominantly bundled on pallets, for example in the consumer goods industry, retail or the automotive industry. The deployment is part of DHL Supply Chain's "Accelerated Digitalization" agenda, a strategy for the commercialization of innovative solutions and new technologies.
"Meaningful robotic support for our warehouse employees is not just limited to picking processes in our booming e-commerce and fulfillment locations. Autonomous vehicles, for example, can improve service quality and operational processes in a variety of ways. One of the main advantages of these automated transport vehicles is that they bring direct benefits for us and our customers and can theoretically be used in almost all locations. After all, millions of pallets are moved in our warehouses worldwide every day. A process that currently not only requires the forklift truck or pallet truck itself, but also ties up considerable personnel capacity that we could otherwise use much more wisely, especially in markets where skilled labor is in short supply," says Markus Voss, Global CIO & COO DHL Supply Chain. "We assume that around 30% of our global fleets of industrial trucks will be automated by 2030."
Autonomous forklift trucks are already taking over the storage and distribution of pallets in DHL Supply Chain warehouses, reducing manual pallet transportation. Another advantage of these solutions is that no significant changes to the warehouse infrastructure are required. The vehicles can also easily reach racks with heights of more than ten meters and transport all types of pallets, pallet cages or other unit loads.
In current operations at DHL Supply Chain, the autonomous forklifts already achieve a good 65% of human productivity and move an average of 10-15 pallets per hour. In addition, the autonomous vehicles maneuver much more safely and are therefore used directly alongside warehouse employees and conventional transport equipment. Such forms of cooperation between human employees and robots can be particularly helpful in markets with booming or highly fluctuating logistics activities and in regions with a temporary shortage of qualified workers.
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