DHL Supply Chain’s Digital Transformation

In 2018, DHL Supply Chain announced its plans to deploy emerging technologies in 350 of its North American facilities. Brian Gaunt, senior director of accelerated digitization at DHL, described DHL’s warehouse digitization journey. DHL is the world’s largest logistics service provider. The best digital transformations are focused on using technology to better serve customers. These investments are designed to improve service to DHL’s contract logistics customers.

DHL Innovation Funnel

DHL Supply Chain has instituted a well-defined process for vetting and adopting warehouse technologies. They conduct research, engage with partners (100+), and identify the opportunities that best align with their objectives. The most promising technologies enter the productization phase. Productization is the term DHL uses to describe technologies that have defined applications for use within DHL, that are supported by deployment guides along with established profile matches that identify “best fits” for the technology’s use within the organization. As an analogy, DHL has established parameters that enable these technologies to be used like “a tool in a toolbox.” DHL has defined twelve technologies with clear benefits to the company and its customers. These are categorical technologies such as “assisted picking robots” or “robotic arms” rather than the technologies of specific technology providers.

There are currently more than 1500 go-lives of technologies that passed through the productization phase into commercialization and industrialization. This article will focus on a few of the new robotic applications.

Autonomous Mobile Robots and AGVs

DHL’s partnership with Locus Robotics has been well publicized. Currently, DHL North America has over 2,000 bots deployed. DHL states that it has achieved 50 – 70 percent improvements in units picked per hour through its use of Locus Robotics’. Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are known to improve labor productivity through reduced walking time. Interestingly, DHL Supply Chain has also identified some use cases in which load size, product dimensions, and carrying capacity are of heightened importance in achieving productivity improvements. In these situations, carrying capacity can be a greater impediment to productivity than worker travel distances between picking activities.

The use of AMRs in high-volume collaborative warehouse settings has received most of the media attention over the last five years. However, large load AGVs also provide the potential for significant productivity improvements if they are properly applied. DHL appears to have identified and captured one of those opportunities. DHL and Campbell SoupCPB
Company have deployed a fleet of Crown Equipment Reach Trucks supported by JBT’s autonomous technology. The high reach AGVs are used to access heavy loads stored high in double deep racking. In contrast to the operations that use Locus bots, this operation has lower volumes of heavier loads that require greater precision and care. Much of the benefit obtained from these AGVs in from inventory accuracy achieved through accurate inventory location ID and precise alignment for pallet load movements.

Robotic Arms: Sort-to-Box and Sort-to-Bag

The use cases for robotic arms in the warehouse are expanding rapidly. DHL eCommerce Solutions’ has run a successful year-long pilot involving DoraBot DoraSorters. DoraBot DoraSorters were piloted in two distinct configurations, one for Sort-to-Gaylord (Gaylord is a big corrugated box) and the other is for Sort-to-Bag. Each of these configurations is capable of sorting more than 1,000 parcels and packages per hour. Although this throughput level is substantially lower than the high-end high-speed sorters available, it is also substantially higher than many sorting alternatives. Put simply, it has its place somewhere in the middle range of throughput requirements.

The DoraSorters are equipped with 3D scanners to identify the package and direct the robotic arm to the appropriate drop slot destination. In the Sort-to-Bag configuration, the sortation system receives packages from the conveyor line, inducts the package onto the end-effector, and the arm articulates to one of the many adjacent destination chutes and the end-effector discharges the package for shipment to one of 80 final mile zip code destinations.

In the Sort-to-Gaylord configuration, the robotic arm is surrounded by 20 tall Gaylord containers, each five feet in height. The end-effector on the robotic arm is a proprietary drawer-shaped conveyor belt that inducts packages from a conveyor line, stabilizes the package on the end-effector, articulates above the appropriate Gaylord, and discharges the package into the Gaylord from above.

Robotic Arms: Trailer Unloading

DHL Supply Chain is also utilizing robotic arms in a novel application. DHL entered into a $15 million, multi-year agreement with BD to commercialize the Stretch robot. BD has some entertaining videos highlighting Boston Dynamics robots in the form of a human or dog, climbing stairs, opening doors, etc. These are amusing, but you can’t help but wonder about the practical application of these robots.

DHL has been working with Boston Dynamics to refine this solution for trailer unloading. Stationary robotic picking arms are becoming common in today’s logistics operations – typically utilized in palletizing or depalletizing. What makes Stretch novel is its mobility. DHL is currently using Stretch for a new use case, unloading floor-loaded trailers.

Clint Reiser, a director of supply chain research at ARC Advisory Group, is the primary author of this article.