EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN THE INDIAN LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN INDUSTRY

LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN INDUSTRY IS QUITE DIFFERENT FROM WHAT IT WAS 10 YEARS AGO AS IT IS CONSTANTLY GOING TOWARDS AUTOMATION IN MULTI-DIMENSIONS.

- KARAN DHILLON

RECENTLY, A STUDY WAS CONDUCTED BY THE United States Postal Service (USPS) to determine why there is misrouted mail and its impact on the Postal Service. The study found that the USPS handled over 47 billion letters and packages between March and September 2020. And despite adopting the latest technology in sorting and automation, the USPS reported almost 73 million misrouted deliveries, costing them almost $110 million to reprocess and redirect these items.

Mistakes in the supply chain are unavoidable in today's world, where volumes are at all time highs and customers expect same day delivery. To put it into perspective, Amazon ships approximately 1.6 million packages daily, which amounts to about 66,000 orders per hour and 18.5 orders per second. In trying to outdo one another, logistics companies are trying to further distinguish themselves by offering deliveries within 10 minutes. In 2020, Amazon's share of orders arriving late ranged from 4.7% to 15.9%, despite its reliable logistics network. From the time a package leaves the warehouse till it reaches the customer's doorstep, there are several externalities that any logistics company would find hard to code into its algorithm when estimating delivery time.