Episode Summary
“Things have changed completely and maybe forever. Customers don’t behave the same so logistics companies can’t behave the same either. If I want my product in two days or, in the case of Amazon Prime 2 hours, if I am running the company, I have to adapt.”
– Manjeet Singh, Research Director for DHL Supply Chain
Manjeet Singh is a Research Director at DHL supply chain on their Operations Science team. He specializes in developing tools, processes and software which can be used in any supply chain domain to drive innovation, seeking a balance between practical and forward-looking value.
Since transportation costs represent 80% of supply chain costs, he and his team are constantly looking for new ways to streamline and improve shipping costs and practices.
In this interview, Manjeet tells Supply Chain Now Radio co-hosts Greg White and Scott Luton about:
- How approaches such as cube adjusted weight (i.e. dimensionally-based costing) are solidifying the relationship between package size and weight, driving out the costs associated with moving boxes that are too large for the goods inside them.
- Designing new software to help optimize what size boxes need to be kept in stock in any given warehouse.
- The investment in training and talent that companies need to make to ensure that their teams are not only open-minded about interfacing with bots, but they are also skilled enough to optimize the capabilities of automation.
Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] It’s time for Supply Chain Now Radio. Broadcasting live Supply chain capital of the country. Atlanta, Georgia. Supply Chain Now Radio spotlights the best in all things supply chain the people, the technology, the best practices and the critical issues of the day. And now here are your hosts.
[00:00:29] Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Scott Luton was Supply Chain Now Radio. Welcome back to the show. On today’s show, we aren’t broadcasting from Atlanta, Georgia, but rather we’re on the road broadcasting live from Austin, Texas, home of e.t.’s Logistics CEO Forum, which is now a Reuters event. This is day two coverage. We’re we’ve we’re going to continue interviewing some of the most innovative thought leaders that are all doing big things across the in the end, supply chain industry. Proud to continue our partnership with Nick Asef, EAF team, Reuters event team. Let’s bring in my fearless co-hosts here today. Greg White Serial Supply chain tech entrepreneur, kronic disrupter, trusted advisor, growth guru. What else can we add there?
[00:01:13] Greg White barbecue fan. Yes, Chiefs fan.
[00:01:18] Yeah, but regardless, he’s been a great compadre here as we sit down, interview some of us. I think the most fascinating supply chain leaders at this event.
[00:01:28] All right. We’ve I mean, we’ve talked to a bunch of folks that are doing some amazing things are not just Supply chain Jerai, it’s a leadership talent. Yeah. Good point. I mean, they happen to be doing it in Supply chain. So there’s a lot to learn here.
[00:01:39] Sheer. And we’re going to continue that trend. We are with our guests here today who is a repeat guest, which we love. All right. You’ll get your hug after the podcast there. Manjeet Singh, research director, DHL Supply chain. Good morning. Good morning, Scott. Good morning, Greg. Good morning. So glad to have you back. You know, we last connected last January at a SABC three Jumpstart 2019 event and really enjoyed your take on a lot of the innovation that’s taking place across Supply chain. Of course, a lot of neat things that DHL Supply chain is doing to show and it’s it’s really great to be back.
[00:02:15] And also, I’m really happy to see the growth you guys have made. And and yeah, you are giving more evens and everybody knows. You guys know.
[00:02:23] Oh, man, you’ve made my day. Thank you. That’s a great start to the day.
[00:02:28] Well, it’s all about you know, all of that is fueled because we sit down and we’re getting insights from from leaders such as yourself. And then and we love to do it right. We had the best job in the world. Very rewarding. So with no further ado, let’s let’s get in before we kind of dove in and get your your industry insights and some of the things observations you have from industry. Let’s get to know you a little bit better. You gave us some some insights about where you’d like spending some of your time before we went live. But tell us, let’s say, you know, where are you from, where you grew up, kind of what you did maybe before DHL Supply chain Sheer.
[00:03:04] So I am from India, New Delhi. I grew up in New Delhi, as I said. And it was it’s a it’s an amazing city. You guys are probably reading news and all for all the wrong reasons. It’s been publicized because of all the pollution and stuff, but it’s an amazing thing to do. Was it amazing food, good schools?
[00:03:28] So you have a lot of family in New Delhi?
[00:03:30] Yeah, my family’s still there, except only what my wife was with me. So, yeah, the city is amazing. I had a great childhood there. Then my undergraduate graduate was in mechanical engineering, which was my father’s choice, not.
[00:03:47] As it happens in India.
[00:03:51] So yeah, that I I worked for a automotive company, Suzuki. I did some design work for them that I moved on to America. Did Masters and Beiste in Industrial’s and interested in anything focusing on opposition research from my university? Mm hmm. And then I did my first job was with NetJets, the largest private aviation company jet. Okay. It’s a book show. A company. And then I moved onto DHL for last fall. Enough for four and half years I’ve been working with DHL and it’s been exciting. The way you guys have seen the growth supply chain in itself is, I think, the most exciting, exciting field to be.
[00:04:34] There is a lot of movement. There’s a there’s a lot of innovation that is needed. And hence we have all these great conferences and great things to discuss.
[00:04:43] Yeah, I agree. There’s no shortage of topics to talk about in terms of what’s going on.
[00:04:48] Absolutely. And it seems to be really coming on at a quicker and quicker pace over the last four or five years.
[00:04:55] I think Logistics basically is the is the result of how people. Behaving and what they’ve been provided. So I think after Amazon started their prime delivery and similar things happened in Asia. From companies like Alibaba and Dee-Dee dot com. Things have changed completely and maybe forever. Customers don’t behave the same so Logistics companies can behave the same either. If I want my product in 2D or in the case of five now 2 hours running the companies, I do that. All right.
[00:05:30] So interesting because I think that was a latent desire of consumers and Amazon. They didn’t they didn’t invent it. They just enabled it first. Good point. Or early anyway. I mean, and I think now that that dam has broke, that people will people will never go back to wanting less, lesser rights or a Southwire service. Right.
[00:05:52] So before we get we we go too much further into the business discussion. I got to call you out because I learned something about you before we went live that you kind of have an affinity for stand up comedy, right? Yes.
[00:06:04] And so you are you and maybe you might be a talent evaluator for this fellow, right? Tell us more.
[00:06:10] Where did you go? When did you begin enjoying up comedy and where do you go that consume this show?
[00:06:18] So I watched a lot of standup comedy on Netflix initially, and that went on for many years. Then finally, I think a year and a half ago, my wife, we live in Columbus, Ohio. My wife found this a neat comedy club in Columbus near our house. And I forgot the name. So. So, yeah. So, yeah. And she said, like, we’ve been watching a lot on Netflix. How about you give them a short life? And I said, why not? So we went then we had a really great time. Then I thought since we’d liked it, I for for that year, last year, Christmas for those for those Columbia funny, bottomless funny bone.
[00:07:03] Malcolm in the research. Yes. So yeah.
[00:07:06] I took my wife to New York for six days for the Christmas holidays and all we did is have good food. I walked around Manhattan and watched up comedy. Each and every day we used to watch two or three shows which was man fifteen or twenty stand up comics.
[00:07:25] You’re a serious fan? Yes. Yeah. And then after that she got hooked, because before that my wife was like, OK, it’s not a good place. I didn’t like it, but I was like, I lied. I tried my best. And now she likes it because I think that six days off act off a lot of standup comedy. I think scenes like that. So food and stand up comedy will change a lot of minds.
[00:07:45] Amy, I know you mentioned that you love the kind of up and comers, right? The folks are still kind of figuring out their craft and and, you know, playing probably a lot of smaller audiences as a build that following. But any any stand up comics in particular that you really enjoy the most common name.
[00:08:04] Kevin Hart is especially. He has he has a talent, even if says the most mundane thing, it’s the sounds he just gets you. Yeah, I think I think it’s not about what you see. It’s about how you connect with the audience. Yeah, just same. I think you might see the same joke out loud and it might sound silly as opposed to funny, but it’s about I think. Yeah. As the present stage liveries delivery and the pauses and and and how you are as a person I guess some people just connect. Okay. He’s, he’s really good. Jack Black is pretty good. Jack Black is Lewis Black. Yes, he’s pretty good. Okay. Although he I mean he has one way of delivering his stuff, but it’s almost like a hate speech.
[00:08:47] But he writes about fighting. Slate works as fighting. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:08:53] All right. So I I’d love to talk. Keep talking. Stand comedy with you. Because. Because clearly it’s something you enjoy. And I bet you’ve got some other interesting insights around it. And it’s a bit. But one final question. No interest in becoming or practicing your own standup comedy or is that a possibility? Who knows?
[00:09:11] I guess a lot life these days. Do you think you’re funny? I don’t know. It depends on the situation. Sometimes I am. Sometimes I’m not. I thought that was funny. I see it. Maji, I can see it. So make sure you let us know. Give us invites on your first standup patch. Okay.
[00:09:30] So back to back to work now. I’m kidding. Back to stuff we love talking about, which is in Supply chain. So let’s talk more, if you would. Most folks have heard and probably have interacted with people from DHL and DHL Supply chain, but for the three people that maybe haven’t. What is DHL supply chain? What what does that organization do?
[00:09:52] So DHL Supply chain is the world’s largest third party logistics company and we’re also the largest. North America, what we basically do is we manage. I think the warehouses and transportation of all the who’s who. All the big companies, you know, off on the planet.
[00:10:13] So in a year or so, the cool thing about your role that that I enjoyed in our first conversation, the first podcast is you can’t like on the cutting edge. All right. As research director, you’re figuring out in a very practical manner to new ways that the h.l can continue to serve its customers even better using technology thing. Tell us more about what you do.
[00:10:34] Sure. So a lot of things have changed by the way, we met last time. Yeah. What I was doing last time was I was working in a team called Solutions Design and we tried to find the best solutions which we which help our customers, existing customers and re-engineering their warehouses and also putting the best bids which we could to support. What has changed with my role is now I have completely moved on into a role which is basically just about innovation. So my role now is within a team called Operation Science. And what we do is we develop tools, processes, software which could be utilized in any domain warehousing, packaging, transportation across supply chain and maybe beyond beyond, because DHL as a group is more than Daryl, supply chain, Miura or more companies. Right. So that’s what my Full-Time role is now. And it’s exciting because as the things are changing and every company, including DHL Supply chain is is finding the need to grow more and more research teams and also find the right kind of balance between being practical about implementation and also doing enough research that whatever we implement is futuristic enough to be utilized five years from now on as well.
[00:12:01] One of the areas we’ve talked about Greg White bringing you back in and we’re talking about some packaging changes and packaging evolution. Yeah. What would you call it?
[00:12:10] Cubing Kubert jested weight adjusted. Well, I think that’s similar. To what? To what we were talking about. Ryder dimensional weight. It’s easier to say. I like easier to remember. I like. I like the cube adjusted well.
[00:12:25] So that’s a term that’s been around in distribution for several years. Cube adjusted weight particularly and in the food industry because you know something in a box, you know, could all be in the same box. It could be meat or it could be broccoli. And in a way, distinctly differently. So for carriers to manage their costs, they had to do that. Sheer. And I think that’s coming to consumer goods. Sherkin sounds like packaging is one of these big.
[00:12:54] It seems like the world of packaging has in the last three or four years, all of a sudden they have a seat at the table, maybe unlike ever before. So tell us more about what, you know, kind of what Greg is alluding to and some of the things you’ve seen in packaging space.
[00:13:06] So as e-commerce sort of crept into the whole Logistics scene and how, you know, how warehouses and transportation was evolving, one major thing that happened in 2015 is the carriers, all the big carriers, you know, FedEx, U.P.S., they went from basic weight based costing to do, but just did what we call a dimension with miscasting. What that means is if your package weighs five pounds and the dimensioned weight, which is the cube divide by is the number today is 1 3 9. If that number is higher than 5 pounds, then the carrier is going to cost you based on that higher number. And what that means is now if you have a big box with a small item in an item is not heavy, then you are paying for the empty space within the box. All right. What I read last was this has affected almost 75, 80 percent of the shipments.
[00:14:08] And it has it has increased the port, all shipping costs across the industry by more than 30 percent. So it’s a huge concern. And as I as I was discussing before, transportation costs are 80 percent of supply chain costs. So it’s it’s the bigger chunk. If you can try and figured out how to reduce those you.
[00:14:29] But would be hoping you’ll be happy later. Yes. And you’re going to be a happy company, a happy 15:00. And everybody is gonna be happy, including the customer. Yes.
[00:14:38] And that’s a good point. The customer, because I got to tell you, I have value. I didn’t realize I was doing it until one particularly egregious shipment that I young where it was way too much packaging for our product that was inside of it. But I think I know that consumers are evaluating the waste of packaging. Right. And and the consumers. Drive everything. Yes. Yes. You have to be a responsible shipper, brand company because, you know, people are very they’re very aware of waste. Yes. These days. And and they are judging harshly the companies that don’t adhere to that practice.
[00:15:18] They have read I still think we’ve talked to this before. I still think there is going to be a for profit private sector company that’s going to specialize in residential service. Just focused on e-commerce, cardboard recycling. You know, we were talking about the Bay personal Baylor’s or something and having a hands on concierge service, because to your point, Greg. Consumers are are looking at these packaging in such a new way, in such an engaged way. And that’s going to only continue, as we’ve seen some of the generational transfers and some of the different characteristics of those. So pack it in. And one of the thing speaking of packaging, there was a beer company you reported on just my favorite Carlsberg.
[00:16:03] Yeah. So I love it, too. Although I don’t I don’t like. I don’t like the bottles. Just don’t like the paper by I. Maybe the is better than the big glass, but I a daft guy. But if you set out to drink it in a bottle. Yeah. Well we look for for our audience. May have missed that podcast. Well we’re talking about. Yeah.
[00:16:23] So Carlsberg is is going to start making paper bottles. They’ve got a prototype out now. I was talking to some friends in Denmark and they and they expect that it’ll probably be 20 twenty or twenty. Twenty one. Well I think it could be longer before they’re able to produce one. It’s going to be lined. It’ll have to be lined. And obviously because the beer would soak right into it. And Lu paper.
[00:16:47] Beer now.
[00:16:51] But but even the lining is is recycled, recyclable. So, you know, they’re making a good a good faith effort. Right. You know, I think it’s I think back to how many of us became accidental environmentalists, because when I was a kid, you recycled bottles. There weren’t bottles. You didn’t recycle. Right. Right. And and plants. You know, Coca-Cola and Pepsi plants, they had washing mechanisms to clean every bottle and reuse them. So, you know, I think we have to be more aware of that. At the same time, I’m really concerned about the amount of paper. Guess what? Everybody talks about plastic in waste. But the amount of paper in in the refugee yards is is multiplied multiples of the amount of plastic in them. So we have to figure out something. We have to figure out something to do with that.
[00:17:49] Any story that involves beer and recycling and story that involves beer. I’m interested in that. Especially if it’s heads off. Beer. Yeah. And well, you know, you guys welcome the bar. Yeah, that’s right. Those toys. I don’t go for Lu. Which one? Which is a shame. They should have seen it coming.
[00:18:07] And so the fee, you know, the drinking of draft beer is probably the most environmentally friendly thing you can do. Often you re-use the glass that you have. Right. You don’t. I try my best.
[00:18:20] That’s right. That’s good. I appreciate your contributions to the environment. Going back to the packaging dollar.
[00:18:28] I don’t think so. Apart from, as you rightly said, apart from reducing the costs by minimizing how much empty air you ship. You’re also being Greene. You know how we do it. Dito Supply chain as so my group. We built a software which we call optic often and that’s software actually helps companies. All our customers figure out what is the right size boxes and they should keeping that house. My new it’s a very interesting and very complicated question. Yeah. Why? Because imagine that house which has 10 million shipments in here. And if they have, let’s say, 10 different carton or box sizes right now, how would somebody come up with 10 walk sizes for 10 million shipments? But you do that. Don’t know how the combination of orders would be, because each and every order can have a different combination of items to. Sure. Right. That means if you become a profit based on just your experience, there’s a huge chance it won’t work out. Right. Which is true. We saw that this is happening across the industry and we actually walked on algorithms and created the software and the software spent on spending right now in the U.S. and it finds the best sites, Coggins, that those should keep. But also we evaluate what being in industry be called. Makeda are the packaging machines these? Machines can can back the orders real time and provide the best fit costing for it. But because sometimes they are they need a lot of space. Like a lot of times they need a lot of space itself. Machine itself also didn’t they need labor and they are not as fast or did the productivities not as fast as what he would need in a high based e-com environment? Right. So you have to find the right provider.
[00:20:24] And also, you have to find the right number of machines where says how many boxes you should get. You could always divide between. That’s a best Corkins five or six and maybe one or two machines, depending on where you are, whether you are New York or you’re in Atlanta or you are in Columbus. Right. And that’s also something that we do. And I and this was one of the big questions with which we saw LOND. Well, last year and it’s been being rich students, I think I think you have to be aware of the volume thresholds.
[00:20:53] Right. In so many things, you have to understand whether it’s worthwhile to make a one off box. Right. For speed and volume. And ultimately, look, let’s face it. Ultimately, it comes down to two cost effectiveness. Yeah. Right. And and we have to make sure that there are cost effective ways to to be friendly to the environment or else we don’t we don’t have the predilection to be friendly to the environment. So perhaps that that balance is really tough to strike. And we have to constantly be seeking that. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:21:29] So beyond packaging and we could probably have a whole podcast series on pack and maybe that Daily Show. I think so. And you know, there’s certain it’s certainly important enough. Right. Yeah. And one of the things one last thing about one things I like that Amazon is doing is offering to bundle the items. Right. It might delay your shipment a day. But like we’ve talked about 1000 shows, do I really need those socks and to eat? Right.
[00:21:57] You know, you can schedule to have a certain delivery day.
[00:21:59] Right. Right. Right. And I love that. OK. So what else? You don’t know your between the work you’re doing with the customers and your teams and all the cool cutting edge stuff. DHL is doing. And then, of course, I know you keynotes and get out these events like we’re here today beyond packaging. What else has really jumped on your radar here lately?
[00:22:21] So a couple of really important and sought after initiatives across Supply chain Logistics is basically robotics automation and in terms like artificial intelligence machine learning.
[00:22:40] And I think right now is the space where everybody’s time to figure out where all these different solutions fit and in what combination do I need the robotics to improve my packaging, picking our shipment in any form, or do I need a smart algorithm which runs behind the scenes and makes the the worker more efficient? Or do I need a combination of two? All right. There’s a there’s a dumb call. It Will a-beta due to what Dickerson, which means the robots, the robot that watch the the board works with the picker or the BACKA and they work as if two workers are working and they’re kind of collaborating in the work. The picker picks the item from the shelf and puts it on the board and the board takes it to wherever it needs to go to packaging or shipment.
[00:23:29] Who picks up lunch? I guess if you go to this place called your Dell, it’s it’s a hotel in Manhattan. Maybe your lunch might be picked by a board. And I think your eggs are stored by a board. Yeah, a board. Hotel name is a Y or two D2. Really as cool as you would know where it’s coming from.
[00:23:50] You can’t say it really, but what you describe, which you can’t get enough coverage.
[00:23:57] Is this synergistic symbiotic relationship that can’t happen when you automate facilities. You know it. It provides opportunities, learning opportunities, skill, addition, opportunity for lack of a better phrase for the human workforce. Right. It shouldn’t be all view to me. M Let’s face the facts. You know, certain roles. When? When. When I think of many certain traditional manufacturing roles where one person is doing the same task for eight hours a day for 40 years. That’s a huge opportunity for automation right now. But for those folks, the art, the great, the great news is this for those folks that that again, look for ways to improve and learn and apply new and exciting things, the world animations can present a huge opportunity. Right.
[00:24:43] Absolutely. I and I said this yesterday in my talk and I’ve been presenting a lot in conferences and this is this question comes along very often.
[00:24:55] I don’t think number of jobs are going down and it won’t. The nature of jobs is changing, so we should adopt. We are the kind of jobs that we would call repetitive that were that did not need much intelligence. Those would be passed on to the box. But because boxed do doors, we have free time to do more optimized work.
[00:25:19] Thus, human human optimal or less, we need to still figured out how to interface with the bot. That also creates opportunities because the board still needs certain level of configuration and direction from the human. And that would mean that now skills like coding, skills like problem solving, problem solving skills which are more applied I.D. I think day they will catch up and they’ll and they’ll be some element of these skills even in operational jobs within a warehouse which did not exist before. And I think at what I’m seeing, especially in our company, DHL Supply Supply chain, is we are finding the right balance of how to train our folks in understanding automation. First of all, we have a center of excellence around automation and around these new solutions which which which are backed by machine learning or advanced optimization. But as my team and many more teams like that within DHL and we ensure that once we have enough people who understand this totally, whether it is a robotic solution or some machine learning solution, and then we pass along the knowledge such that it’s transferred to possibly each and every warehouse in each and every transportation solution to it. And even if the does the associate or not, the White House does not need it today. Maybe it’s preparing them for tomorrow. And so gradually you imbibe this as a culture and as a part of you. It’s not it’s not a hindrance. It’s not replacing you. We’re just helping you. Right. That’s what you’re supposed to be, anyhow.
[00:26:51] Truth is, I mean, 10000 workers in the workforce are leaving every single day and they will not be replaced. That’s the largest. The baby boomers are the largest generation in the history of Earth. No generation is even remotely the same size. And and with fertility rates decreasing, then population reduction is inevitable. And yet people have more and more demands of the supply chain. Those will have to be met by somebody. By somebody. Right. And and people are more educated than they’ve ever been. And in most countries. Right. They are more educated than ever been. And they don’t want the jobs that the bots are taking and they don’t want the jobs that A.I. is taking. And that’s why it’s why this progression is it’s not just it’s not just beneficial. It’s absolutely necessary. All right.
[00:27:46] If you go to a warehouse or a location where transportation management is is occurring, you would see there is a lot of moving parts. And even if you take out the repetitive jobs, there’s a lot that could be achieved. Some that people have already figured out that there are certain jobs which we should focus on more.
[00:28:07] But there are many more which we may have overlooked, which needs more time, more time from associates with needs, more post-process, more more thinking. And that’s what what what robotics is giving us. Nine blipping can actually create new jobs or new elections that d which don’t exist today.
[00:28:25] Interesting. And we were talking one of our podcast guests yesterday about how robotics they are taking over that a lot of the mundane tasks that humans can’t spend their time or more, the value added components of the business, any business supply chain or somewhere else. So in the end, customers win Rob Cook customers are winning because they’re getting heart that they can get higher service levels, they can get more attention in certain businesses. So. Well, any sense we kind of wrap up this this interview here this morning.
[00:29:01] I feel like we’ve reached into the booth.
[00:29:02] The next question, a bit of what’s coming in the future.
[00:29:06] Well, if you had to break out the crystal ball. Right. And whether you’re making a prediction for 2020 or something a couple years down the road, what’s what’s one neat development to look for? Do you think in as it you know, whether it’s technology related, whether it’s supply, you know, just operationally, whether it’s packaging, what’s a neat prediction you make?
[00:29:29] Let me make a prediction for 15 years down the line. OK. I like that. I see warehouses, transportation operations, supply chains, basically even places like retail stores. These would be not as a solution or a one solution oriented or a multiple solutions oriented location. They will they will be almost like a set. There will be a symphony of how these. Different solutions would interact, and you as a consumer or you as a viewer, would never be able to figure out which solution or which system is doing what. Because all of these systems, including robotics, machine learning, optimization, common sense, which I invented the most, all of this is going to interact in in a very seem this manner. So products coming in, being sorted by my conveyers, then robot robots picking them and putting them in the shelves than humans picking them along with robots, which may be the same robots. Maybe the different maybe different robots. And then going to going to the packaging lines. And all of this happens without any disturbance. It’s almost as seamless as you can imagine. It’s it’s all this work happening. Imagine in zero noise. Yeah, zero noise physically and zero noise technologically. Yeah. That’s the that’s that’s that’s what we’re working on today to make all this interaction between humans, robots, different systems, different algorithms, different software as seamless as possible. I think in 15 years we’ll achieve it and we’ll be in a much, much, much better space. Yeah, I love that. I’m I’m very optimistic at where we are going.
[00:31:09] Less waste, better service at more speed. Absolutely. SME as frictionless. Yes. Can be a symphony. A symphony of synchronization. Absolutely. Here. And then we’ll just have you guys have the wherewithal to make it happen.
[00:31:23] Right. This is not something that this symphony is not something you can undertake with a single small enterprise. It probably will require a number of disruptive enterprises to contribute to it. Absolutely. But someone with an overarching view of what the future can should arguably look like needs to bring all of that together. I think to be a fascinating.
[00:31:44] Absolutely. I think everybody plays a role. I see a huge role of academics because they bring in the theoretical knowledge, which at the end transforms into all the intelligence we see in robotics or algorithms. And then we see a huge role for PO’d about the largest companies to take the research and make it more practical and usable. And then we see a huge potential for for folks like you guys to actually make sure that if something is happening in a corner of the world, it should be spread to all parts and everybody can learn from it and actually imbibe in their day-To-Day life. Yeah, I love that you guys are really important and really important cog in this whole system.
[00:32:22] I really appreciate that and very well put. You know where we’re growing our spotlight totally Sheer like these stories that don’t get enough airplay. So absolutely. And but it takes thought leaders like yourself, you know, to really keep pushing and leading the industry into addressing some of these issues, which, you know, we talked yesterday. Greg Kinnear, who it was, but we talked about how he is. Some things have been going on for years and years. It’s good enough, right? And when he challenged people on, well, it is good enough, but we really could do this now. You know, there’s such. Scott Arslan. Yes, Scott aresome was talking about that because that’s that that’s the tough part when it comes to change. One of the toughest parts that come to change management. You know, we asked well, we’ve always known that way, right? Yeah. And it’s it’s good enough. It’s serviceable. We use that term Alanya. But gosh, technology, a lot of things that Manjeet is talking about is presenting such these huge opportunities that take a good enough process. Right. Six Sigma to gosh, what’s the future hold? You know, Six Sigma, maybe something that was good enough for the 80s or 90s. Yeah. By the time all this stuff plays out.
[00:33:31] Absolutely. I guess the future is zero defects. Yeah. As you said, I think we we’ve been talking about this as a disruptor in my mind.
[00:33:42] Yeah, it looks like a disruption, but it’s more of a facilitation of what we want. Yeah. So if you think about this as an aide, as a help off of somebody who is walking fast enough but could be walking faster than that’s what that were, how you should read the technology and what’s happening around the world of Logistics today, as opposed to thinking this is just disrupting and tending.
[00:34:05] Oh, I I have been working. That hurts and this helps. Yeah, it’s same as having, as I said, a bottle of Glasby versus Dafter. If you’ve moved towards AFT, it’s it’s difficult if everybody on the planet can can get that access to draft beer. I think job. So as we wrap up here.
[00:34:26] Manjoo How can folks learn more about DHL Supply chain or compare notes with you?
[00:34:32] I would. I would say I think so. There are various folks even more knowledgeable than I am who go out and presented with conferences and they talk a lot about what’s happening in each and every sphere within Dematic Supply chain, whether it is a certain operation or certain aspect or warehousing, whether it’s making or packaging or robotics. And I would say that’s that’s a good way of learning more about what we do. We also. I’m pretty active on LinkedIn. Yeah, very much. And you would see news that was coming out where the talk a lot about what we call technology Ryder, which is the different technologies which Dematic is focusing on. And we would discuss a lot of what’s happening now and what we are thinking about five years down the line. And also the website. And of course, people could talk to me or people, whoever they find in conferences. And we’ll be happy to, you know, you know, give information on what was going on.
[00:35:30] Outstanding. And for our listeners, you can always check out Logistics Dot DHL to learn a lot more about DHL, the company and Supply chain.
[00:35:39] A lot of neat things are doing, Manjeet. Always a pleasure. Yeah, I really enjoyed today’s conversations. Great to have you back on the show. After about eleven months, I bet there’s a lot. Plenty has changed. Plant changed a little in eleven hours these days, right? Mad man. Each thing. Research director DHL Supply chain hailing from Columbus in the future in the Columbus area. Clearly the Columbus funny bone is a good place to go, right?
[00:36:03] Absolutely. Here’s a good place to get draft beer. I mean, let’s just complete the circuit. Get your supply chain knowledge for Manjeet. Stop at the Columbus Funny Bone. Where do you get drafted by your uncle?
[00:36:13] Many places. I would I would I would I would go to either not.i Brewing or I’ll go to an Irish pub called Feydeau, which is. Oh, yeah, eastern area.
[00:36:24] Amazing places, both of them. Yeah. Thanks a lot for having me here. It’s always a pleasure to talk to you folks. Thank you, Scott. Thank you again. And I see the growth and I hope Michou better the luck for the future as well, because we need people like you. It wouldn’t be possible without folks like you to spread this fast enough.
[00:36:41] Thank you very much. I really appreciate that. Trying hard to our listener. Stay tuned as we continue our coverage of the E.A. Logistics CIO Forum, a Reuters event right here in Austin, Texas. You can also check out our upcoming events, replays of our interviews, other resources at Supply Chain Now Radio dot com and Greg. Where else can they find us? You know, they can get us. I’m going to start with YouTube. You can get us on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. That’s the broadcast part of Spotify. Spotify? Yes. Strong. Huge. Huge gains eg article about them this week. So where whereabouts? You find your podcast. Check us out. Be sure to subscribe siedel Mesi thing on behalf of the entire team. Hope you enjoyed this interview as much as we did. Have a wonderful week ahead and we will see you next time. Owen Supply Chain Now Radio. Thanks for by.
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Watch Scott and Greg as they interview Dr. Manjeet Singh for SCNR Episode 223.
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Dr. Manjeet Singh leads Operations Science team which specializes in complex data analytics and mathematical modeling projects across DHL’s Global Center of Design Excellence. He has lead development of innovative advanced analytics tools and processes for multiple warehousing and transportation functions. Under his leadership the Operations Science team has won three innovation awards, two hackathons and three start up lab competitions at DHL. The packaging optimization tool developed by his team won second place in the innovation competition at 2019 Retail Industry Leaders Association conference. He is the co-inventor of DHL’s warehousing optimization and packaging optimization tool which are patent pending in the USA. Prior to joining DHL in February 2015, he worked at Netjets in their Business Insights & Analytics department, developing analytical tools for scheduling of pilots, capacity planning and network modeling for spare parts inventory. He has extensive research experience in Advanced Operations Research, Math Modeling, Scheduling, Logistics, Warehousing, Inventory Management, Capacity Planning, Data Mining, Process Improvement Projects, Object Oriented Modeling and New Product Development. He has a PhD in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Ohio University concentrating in Math Modeling of Job Shop systems. He has published more than 14 papers in premier scientific journals and peer reviewed conferences, and has given more than 25 talks nationally and internationally. Learn more about DHL here: https://www.logistics.dhl/us-en/home/our-divisions/supply-chain.html
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