A succession of high powered speakers and panelists at our National Conference last month had the same message to deliver. Digital transformation is here – or as Richard Potter of Microsoft put it, ‘all projects are digital now’ – and those not preparing to leverage technology to empower and prepare their business accordingly will face, at best, an uncertain future.
Delegates confirmed through a Sli.do poll that their biggest concern right now is rising costs, and panel discussions on robotics in the warehouse and the best way to finance solar power both addressed these cost concerns, highlighting significant potential savings from investment in sustainable energy and robotic technology over the longer term.
We heard too about the digitalisation of the global trading system, which ICC Director Chris Southworth said was currently paper-based, slow and inefficient. The change to digitalised global trading is seen as a huge market opportunity, potentially delivering £25bn of growth to UK SMEs, reducing costs by 80% and 25 day timescales to a single day. Legislation is coming forward in June this year, changing English Law to allow digitalisation of warehouse receipts, bills of lading and more. The prediction is that by 2026 60-80% of trade systems worldwide will have become digital.
Other speakers addressed a major issue for businesses in the digital world – namely cyber security and the impact of new requirements on the industrial and commercial property market. Savills’ Will Laing said just 22% of take up was second-hand warehouses as occupiers looked for future resilience in the face of coming ESG legislation and increased automation.
In his fascinating keynote speech, Richard Potter urged warehouse businesses to be more confident with digitalisation, to take risks and to innovate. He spoke of a digital eco-system and successful companies constantly open to learning, who understand the value of telemetry to optimise their business and use the virtual environment to experiment with new ideas. Illustrating this in a real-world context, Wincanton CEO James Wroath described how digitalisation had driven success at Wincanton and more generally looked at where the opportunities lay for the UK Warehousing industry.
Calling automation ‘a new frontier’, James described robots as ‘driving up value and profit margins as labour costs rise’. Technology allows for more agility, he said, with robots easy to deploy as and when required. Far from threatening workers though, engagement and job satisfaction rises with the introduction of technology. Tasks are easier to accomplish and productivity increases, while workers feel a sense of increased importance and value.
According to James, Wincanton’s focus is on creating effective ‘middleware’ to interface the WMS with automation and create opportunity to tailor solutions for customers.
Smaller integrators, able to configure technology directly for customers to save costs through automation, pose a clear risk to our industry. To protect our own interests, warehouses simply cannot leave investment in technology to customers and solution development to technology companies. We know our customers’ warehousing needs better than anyone. So it’s up to us to show confidence, take risks, innovate and seize the exciting opportunities offered by digitalisation and automation. If we don’t, someone else surely will!
Clare Bottle
UKWA, CEO
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