DHL Supply Chain has launched a “plug & play” robotics platform in collaboration with Microsoft and Blue Yonder.
The robotics platform significantly reduces integration time and programming efforts to onboard automation devices into warehouse facilities, while giving DHL customers more flexibility in selecting suitable robotics systems according to their individual business needs. The solution leverages Microsoft Azure IoT and cloud platform services.
Automation and collaborative robotics help to make operational processes more flexible, ergonomic, and more attractive to employees by replacing monotonous, repetitive, and particularly strenuous activities. The aim is not to replace employees over time, but to assign the more attractive and interesting tasks to the human workforce.
The first implementation at a DHL Supply Chain facility in Madrid has demonstrated that the platform can reduce complexity and accelerate the integration of robotic systems into an existing warehouse management system. At the same time, the platform gives customers greater flexibility in selecting and integrating different robotics vendors in one system. The robotics platform is powered by Blue Yonder’s Luminate Platform with machine-learning (ML)-driven task management capabilities that enable the highest level of warehouse operational efficiency.
With this collaboration, DHL Supply Chain, Microsoft, and Blue Yonder combine their strengths in customer-centric contract logistics, secure cloud computing at global scale, and seamless end-to-end supply chain integration to improve warehouse management and operational excellence for a wide range of industry customers.
