Watch: Digitalisation is Driving Speed and Efficiency Today

The first session of TLME’s Future-Proof Technologies Conference began with conference moderator and industry thought leader Lars Jensen asking the panellists where transport and logistics operations stand today in terms of automation and digitalisation? And what would be a realistic outlook for automation in the industry over the next two or three years?

Dr Jonathan Beard, Partner, Infrastructure Advisory, Strategy & Transactions, EY, said that digitalisation was the most important and most pervasive technology transformation in the industry today. Technologies like AI, IoT and data analytics are driving efficiency and cost effectiveness.

Real equipment automation was still in its early stages with fully automated terminals implemented in a few places across the world where there was a business case for it and “return on capital made sense”.

Based out of Hong Kong, Dr Beard says he has seen a lot of automation in air cargo operations there, but there are still certain critical elements that remain difficult to automate.

Dr Beard concluded by saying that although automated terminals are more resilient compared to others – as the covid crises has shown -  today, digitalisation is what was driving the logistics industry and Covid has also helped to “turbo charge” that.  

To learn more about Dr Jonathan Beard click here