Building resilience with digital technology The UKWA has been vocal in encouraging members to embrace digitalisation. Peter Ward shares details from the G7 Digital and Technology Ministers Meeting last month.
Our National Conference last year warned members that those failing to move with the changing landscape risked being left behind, while more recently a UKWA logistics users panel also emphasised the increased importance of automation in warehouses, describing digitalisation as a ‘must-have’ rather than a ‘nice-to-have’, key to driving efficiency, productivity and the flexibility to be able to respond to what customers want.
It was, therefore, more than welcome to hear the message clearly set out at the G7 Digital and Technology Ministers Meeting last month, that “recovery from COVID-19 must be rooted in a desire to build back a better, more productive and resilient global economy, with digital technology at its heart.”
The world has changed and brought fresh challenges as well as opportunities for the warehousing sector. As we know, the global pandemic has exposed the risks of long, interconnected supply chains, possibly heralding the end of globalisation and driving the move to near and on-shoring. This is positive news for UK warehousing, and is part of the story – along with the massive acceleration of e-commerce – behind the record take-up figures for industrial and logistics property reported by the real estate sector for 2020. Both of these trends look set to continue into 2021.
The shortening of supply chains, with inventory held closer to markets, is also likely to increase adoption of automation in warehouses, as technology costs come down and labour shortages rise. In fact, UKWA will be partnering with the University of Bath’s Centre for Smart Warehousing and Logistics Systems later this year to measure levels of automation adoption and assimilation in a survey-based study with mem