ACU APRIL-2018 Final LR

LOGISTICS FEATURE
Innovate or Perish:
The Logistics industry of the future
SHANKAR SUBRAMONIAM
Director National Association of
Freight and Logistics (NAFL-UAE)
VENKAT SUBRAMANIAN
Product Manager Large Telcom Group
Over t h e l a s t 3 0 years,
logistics and supply chain
management in the GCC
had seen significant transformations
that have completely changed the
way the industry functions.This
article focuses on certain individual
business functions and show the way
business needs and skill sets have
evolved due to constant innovation
and technological advancements.
Documentation
Looking back 30 years, one can safely
say that documentation was one of
the most important functions in the
logistics and supply chain industry.
The whole process of shipping goods
from one point to another was
supported by a web of complex
documentation that required the
right expertise and know-how. In
short, this business function was
extremely people-centric.
Experienced staff with the working
knowledge of documentation were
often some of the most highly-paid
professionals in the industry and
were considered an asset to the
c o m p a n y . H o w e v e r , t h e s e
professionals were regarded as
experts based on the many hours
they spent on documentation rather
than on productivity.
Cut to 2018 and documentation only
requires trained, semi-skilled
professionals on industry-standard
systems which call for a few basic
entries into an interface and one click
of a button. Over the last few years,
documentation has gone from being
an industry unto itself to an asinine
sub-function with little or no human
intervention.
Transportation
Transportation is one business
function that has seen disruption on
a global scale. In emerging markets
like the GCC, this business function
has seen three waves of transformation.
In the early days, transportation as a
b u s i n e s s r e l i e d o n p e r s o n a l
relationships between companies
and transporters. The impact of cost
control and consolidation were
never really considered in the larger
scheme of things.Productivity and
asset utilization were secondary
factors as long as business was
regular. Monitoring systems were
rudimentary. Focus was only on
availability, and a few large players
completely dominated the industry.
In the post 2008 era, transportation
suddenly became a focus area to
reduce overheads and improve
efficiency. What this wave brought,
was a host of cheaper mobile
operators with little expertise, lack of
reliability, technical skills and poor
service delivery. What began as an
endeavor to reduce costs ended up
having a negative effect, thereby,
creating an unprofessional parallel
industry structure with very little
regulation and oversight.
In the last few years, however, we
have seen this imbalance being
correct through technology. The
uberization of the transportation
industry has ensured a fair degree of
standardization of services and
smaller players are able to thrive and
grow. The emergence of new
transportation systems such as
drones has further incentivized new
players to enter the industr y.