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DHL trendicator report long on generalities but short on specifics

SENTIENT machines and bionics, say DHL's trendicators, will take more than five years before they begin to a "medium" impact on the logistics industry.

But little of a specific nature was said of exciting "sentient", or feeling, machines or of "bionics" as its press release stuck to generalities.

The DHL predictive report identified 26 technological innovations, ranging from low-impact "digital identifiers" and "smart labels" to increase transparency in five years such as big data analysis and cloud logistics to be real game changers.

The report, by Markus Kuc-Kelhaus, vice president of innovation and trend research at DHL, looks at ongoing transformations in "macro trends", such as the changing energy and trade landscape, as well as "micro trends", including the "unbundling" of the industry via new, online logistics startups.

Some of the most impactful trends, DHL said, will be in the realm of artificial intelligence and personalisation, featuring autonomous "intelligent supply chains - that employ data-driven, machine-learning technology and can open up new dimension of optimisation.

This technology, the DHL Trend Research report said, could begin transforming manufacturing, logistics, warehousing and last-mile delivery as soon as the end of this decade.

"Key trends could transform the global logistics industry," said DHL vice president Matthias Heutger.

One is on-demand delivery, which will enable consumers to have their purchases delivered where and when they need them.

"Batch Size One" explores what could happen once consumer demand for personalisation goes head to head with mass production over the next 20 years.

Once manufacturing is reduced to the batch size of "one" per customer, factories would have to be massively decentralised and will require logistics providers to be much faster and more flexible to react to nearly instantaneous changes.