Behind a simple ecommerce order, there is a complex ecosystem made of companies that collaborate together to ensure products arrive from the factory to our homes. The players are numerous and often operate behind the scenes.
Logistics is a fundamental part of that process, and an interesting one at that. Let’s discover what happens behind the curtains! Welcome to this episode of Digital Insider, a podcast series about the digitalization of retail, featuring Amita Gudipati, EVP Operations and Technology for Land Transportations at DB Schenker.
Meet the guest
After graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical, Electronics and Communications Engineering, Amita started her career 16 years ago as a developer, working in the supply chain and logistics field. Since then, she has developed a passion for interacting with customers and always learning more. For the rest of her career until today, Amita has accompanied her customers in every step of their journey to success.
Finally, digital transformation brought her to the logistics company DB Schenker, where she leads operations and technology departments for land transportation. DB Schenker is a third-party logistics (3PL) provider. The company has multiple product lines and services, from transportation management to warehousing. With their business model and strong network of partners and customers, DB Schenker represents a leading player in the logistics industry.
The logistics process
A great part of DB Schenker’s job is to help customers move their goods from point A to point B. Transportation includes local, national and international operations, and it happens via air, land, sea and ocean. Amita gave multiple fascinating examples of transportation methods; you can find all you can think about, apart from last mile delivery.
While it might seem very simple, moving goods from one location to another involves many intermediate steps. In fact, logistics operations present great complexity. Amita touched upon a few elements that contribute to making logistics a very challenging field. Among others, she mentioned the importance of goods availability, cost-saving practices and clear communication.
We need to be able to save costs for customers in challenging environments, while meeting their needs. In the sales process, we have to forecast our prospects’ demands. Whoever is able to forecast better, is able to save costs and deliver value to the customer. That wins the deal.
Amita Gudipati, EVP Operations and Technology for Land Transportations at DB Schenker
Digital trends in logistics
Digital technology plays a big role in logistics. As such, the industry is highly sensitive to digital transformation and technological trends, like machine learning or autonomous vehicles using artificial intelligence (AI). The transportation field has been undergoing transformation in its operations, its technologies and in the mindset of people within this space. The digitalization of logistics is bringing more sustainable operations, control over costs, effortless transactions and real-time visibility.
The systems, from the ecommerce platform taking the order from the customer, to the ERP putting in the order to the transportation management system, up until the delivery — they need to play together. And we need to provide that visibility to our customers, so that they know where their goods are at any given point in time.
Amita Gudipati, EVP Operations and Technology for Land Transportations at DB Schenker
The episode revealed numerous insights on the logistics sector. Among others, Amita covered the following:
- The importance of collaboration with partners and the wider ecosystem;
- The logistics network of technologies.
To discover them all, listen to the episode at the link below — and don’t forget to follow the podcast for fresh retail insights.
