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Future of Logistics Management

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This session was insightful introduction into the future of logistics. I learnt that the the world of work is shifting. The corporate environment is slowly moving with the times and is increasingly digitizing. The employee is therefore expected to evolve into an employee that is able to:
  • Work anytime,
  • Work anywhere,
  • Work on on any device,
  • Focus on outputs,
  • Create their own ladder,
  • Customize their work,
  • Share information,
  • Develop into a leader,
  • Rely on collaboration technologies,
  • Focus on adaptive learning, and
  • Learn on their own. 
However, the lack of digital culture and training is hampering the logistics and transportation industry. More over, companies are concerned about various challenges that are impeding their ability to digitize their operations. Companies are concerned with data security and data privacy, especially with the increasing use of external data.

What I also found insightful was the the high financial investments and the lack of digital strategy are other issues that impact digital transformation. I also learnt that organizations are less concerned with loss of control over their intellectual property in comparison with their concern of insufficient talent in the organization.

We observed the business innovation using the Gartner Hype Cycle and recognized the increasing need for organizations to reevaluate their value chain, to reconnect with their customers, rebuild their organization and to reimagine their business. There is an increasing interesting in developing their digital leadership capabilities, and the Framework for Digital Leadership below highlights these key aspects.
Framework for Digital Leadership (Gupta, 2018)


Shift in business scope
What was also interesting to learn is that businesses are shifting their scope. Digitization has caused disruption in manners not yet imagined, and thus we have to reflect on these changes. This session particularly showed me that we have to reimagine the core essence of our organization using three components:  scope, business model, and ecosystem.

I learnt that when considering the organizations scope, we’ll have to ask sit back and reflect on what business our organization is in. Our lecturer particularly used the example of Amazon which started out as an online retailer but has now expanded into other areas of interest.

The business model would have to be reconsidered given the advent of these emerging technologies. Dr. van den Berg outlined a very interesting example of John Deere and how they have changed their business model. John Deere began as a farm and construction equipment manufacturer but since the start of the millennium they started to include software and sensors in their product catalogue. From the data it collected over 300 000 they slowly shifted to assisting farmers optimize their fertilizer use. John Deere is now farm management company is focused on the use of Data Analytics for predictive maintenance, weather information, seed optimization, and irrigation through remote sensors it sells. This change in the business model by John Deere is an interesting sight into how emerging technologies such as sensors were slowly used to transform their fundamental business model into a digital platform provider for farmers.

Reflection and Personal Responses: Emerging technologies and impact on my organisation
I had time to pause and reflect on the impact of emerging technologies on my organisation. Within my organization the use of Cloud Computing technologies and Predictive Analytics is slowly accelarating the changes. We anticipate the increasing usage of Cloud Computing services will then result in the emergence and entrenchment of e-Science, the use of Information and Communication Technologies in scientific processes.

There are key uncertainties that we will experience as digitization accelerates. For instance, South Africa has a digital divide issue that could impact the adoption of these new technologies in Science especially when considering Historically Disadvantaged Institutions (HDIs) based in rural areas such as Walter Sisulu University or University of Zululand. We will also have to consider if the current infrastructure is prepared to handle a large number of digital users. There is so much uncertainty in key areas such as broadband spectrum including access to broadband in rural areas and this could further impact the digitization of firms.

This session was truly insightful. It positioned the future of logistics management as both a management problem and also a communication problem. There is indeed a need to manage this new transition, but also a need to communicate these changes with internal and external stakeholders
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