BLUE BELL, Pa., Oct. 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The global air
cargo industry will transform by 2020 through "even smarter"
warehouses in an effort to capitalize on the e-commerce boom and
new alliances that help them better manage increasing capacity,
according to a new set of predictions from experts at Unisys
Corporation (NYSE: UIS).
The air cargo industry is experiencing growth and transformation
driven by rapidly increasing capacity supply on passenger flights,
and a shift to small parcel shipments as a result of e-commerce.
Growing passenger demand will further increase the number of
passenger flights and add to cargo capacity supply. The
International Air Transport Association (IATA) expects the number
of air passengers globally will almost double between 2016 and
2035, with the United States as
the second fastest growing market globally.
"At Unisys we predict these market pressures will bring
innovation in three areas in the cargo supply chain: smart
warehouses will become even smarter, drones will finally take off
in the cargo supply chain – but inside the warehouse – and new
alliances between airlines and global distributors will enable
longer term capacity management. Much of the underlying
technologies are already in use in other sectors. But now, more
than ever, cargo operators will be forced to embrace such
innovation to be more efficient, agile and proactive in an
increasingly competitive and price conscious environment," said
Venkatesh Pazhyanur, senior industry director, Freight Solutions,
Unisys.
"The cargo industry needs to embrace disruptive technologies
from the consumer world, including Internet of Things (IoT),
digital assistants and drones, to increase efficiency and meet
customer expectation for greater transparency throughout the supply
chain," said Pazhyanur.
Based on its more than 55 years of experience in providing
innovative IT solutions to the aviation industry, Unisys believes
the following predictions will become reality within the next five
years or less:
Smart warehouses will become a reality
To meet the
growing demand for small parcel deliveries, warehouses will
transform from a storage location, to a dynamic facility using IoT
and voice artificial Intelligence (voice AI) enabling faster
processing of more shipments to generate a higher return on the
real-estate investment. Just as connected wearable devices such as
smartwatches are becoming mainstream in the consumer world,
IoT-based technology will create the "smart warehouse" of the
future. Recent innovations such as smart glasses used to display
information triggered by a barcode or QR code on a container will
be taken to a new level by incorporating scanners to automatically
capture and input information into the warehouse system, and
integrating voice AI to initiate actions. Similar technology is
already in use in digital assistants such as Siri, Cortana or
Amazon Echo. Unisys expects cargo operators to invest in converting
machine commands to voice within the next three years.
Drones will be used inside the warehouse
While drones
have become a familiar way to provide TV sports aerial footage, the
much-anticipated mainstream rollout of drones to deliver parcels to
the customer's doorstep is hampered by flight space restrictions,
government approvals and privacy considerations. Unisys predicts
the immediate application of drones in the cargo supply chain will
be within the confined space of warehouses to conduct inventory
checks more often and more accurately, replacing the largely manual
process. Beyond locating lost or misplaced items, the drones will
use sensors to monitor environmental information such as light or
temperature for perishable food, pharmaceuticals or livestock, and
raise alerts to unusual noise or movement that may indicate animals
are in distress. Unisys predicts this within the next 12
months.
New alliances between airlines and global distributors will
pave the way for long-term revenue optimization
With cargo
capacity potentially increasing faster than cargo demand due to
extra passenger flights and larger aircraft, cargo capacity
management has become the number one challenge for airlines. In
this environment of unconstrained capacity, the traditional
approach to yield management will not work as airlines may dump
cargo space onto the market, creating a price war. Unisys predicts
a fundamental move to longer-term revenue optimization based on
strategic alliances between airlines and organizations with large
ongoing delivery requirements such as postal authorities, major
online retailers, global distributors and supply chain management
companies. This will require airlines to provide their alliance
partners with transparent real-time access to available capacity
and predictive analytics to determine best routes based on speed,
reliability and cost. This expectation for visibility will also
extend to the "last mile" of the business-to-consumer cargo supply
chain, leading to the development of mobile apps to allow the final
recipient to be able to track the approach of their delivery –
similar to how consumers currently track an approaching taxi or
Uber.
Twenty-one of the top 25 airlines depend on Unisys solutions.
Recently, Unisys launched Digistics™, a holistic and integrated
cargo logistics solution that allows carriers to streamline freight
management and improve their operational efficiencies. Unisys cargo
solutions are used by many of the world's leading carriers, which
collaborate via the Unisys Cargo User Group (UCUG). Unisys and UCUG
members have worked with the International Air Transport
Association (IATA) for more than 20 years on initiatives such as
e-Freight, Cargo iQ and XML messaging.
About Unisys
Unisys is a global information
technology company that specialises in providing industry-focused
solutions integrated with leading-edge security to clients in the
government, financial services and commercial markets. Unisys
offerings include security solutions, advanced data analytics,
cloud and infrastructure services, application services and
application and server software. For more information, visit
www.unisys.com.
Follow Unisys on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Unisys and other Unisys products and services mentioned herein,
as well as their respective logos, are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Unisys Corporation. Any other brand or product
referenced herein is acknowledged to be a trademark or registered
trademark of its respective holder.
RELEASE NO.: 1011/9541
UIS-C
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SOURCE Unisys Corporation