Smart Logistics Structure and Development Trend

In recent years, smart logistics has attracted the attention of people from all walks of life. So what kind of logistics can be called smart logistics? Recently, the Executive Director of the Smart Logistics Group of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Department, Associate Professor of Beijing Jiaotong University and Associate Dean of the Logistics Engineering Design Institute of China Association of Materials Science and Technology (Beijing) Qin Hui conducted an in-depth interpretation of Smart Logistics at the National Symposium on Smart Logistics. The understanding of the structure and development trend of smart logistics was discussed. The following is the lecture record.

A total of more than 300 smart city pilot projects have been identified in three batches of housing and construction projects. To cope with the construction of smart cities, the Urban Research Institute of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has established 18 school teams to promote the construction of smart cities. The smart logistics group started preparations in April last year and was formally established in October. Since its establishment last October, we have been committed to promoting smart logistics in the city.

Today I will discuss with you our understanding of the structure and development trend of smart logistics. Today, we will start with three aspects. The first one is “What is wisdom?”. The second is to try to describe the composition of smart logistics under the meaning of “intelligence”. The third content is to discuss smart logistics. development trend.

First, what is "wisdom"

"Wisdom" is now a fashionable vocabulary. Is it just as long as it catches the Internet and it is plugged into the wings of "wisdom"? What kind of state is the state of wisdom, what kind of logistics is the wisdom of logistics? The construction of smart logistics must first answer these questions.

"Wisdom" is the idea of ​​guiding all things through understanding everything. Among them, there are two major points: understanding and guidance. Focusing on these two major issues, the basic structure of "wisdom" has been formed. It is like the formation of a person's wisdom. The basis for understanding things is perception. Only the things that are perceived can be noticed by us and they can enter our thinking process. The tools that people use to perceive the world are senses, such as sight, touch, taste, hearing, and smell. Through them, people obtain basic information about things such as size, material, temperature and smell. In the smart physics world that is being constructed, perception is achieved through sensors, mobile phones, and RFID (radio frequency technology) devices. They are like people's senses. They are tools for acquiring data and establish the basis for data collection in the physical world. It is like the formation of a person's wisdom. The basis for understanding things is perception. Only the things that are perceived can be noticed by us and they can enter our thinking process. The tools that people use to perceive the world are senses, such as sight, touch, taste, hearing, and smell. Through them, people obtain basic information about things such as size, material, temperature and smell. In the smart physics world that is being constructed, perception is achieved through sensors, mobile phones, and RFID (radio frequency technology) devices. They are like people's senses. They are tools for acquiring data and establish the basis for data collection in the physical world.


The process of transmitting the sensory information to the brain is accomplished through the nervous system. People have the central nervous system and peripheral nerves. They form a large network that is ubiquitous and interoperable. If a nerve fails, it will result in a functional defect or complete loss. In the physical world, the Internet and the Internet of Things are like human nervous systems, establishing the mechanisms and infrastructure for information exchange. The biggest difference between the Internet of Things and the Internet is that the Internet of Things will automatically transmit information and data. It is more like the sensory and nervous systems of human beings. It takes place and is transmitted. The information on the Internet is uploaded passively. Therefore, the Internet of Things is the conduction foundation of the smart physics world. The Internet of Things technology and applications push forward further, and the IQ of the physical world increases by 5 points.

After the transmitted information arrives at the brain, the human brain must perform complex calculations and analysis on the information and integrate it into the processes of thinking, imagination, and emotion, and ultimately make decisions. In the physical world, how do you implement this process?

We know that artificial intelligence is currently available. Artificial intelligence was born in 1956. It has since experienced several developments and several stagnation. The reason is that the logic of artificial intelligence is based on mimicking the human brain thinking mechanism. However, the human brain is too complicated. Artificial intelligence once entered a dead end. Later, people finally realized that artificial intelligence cannot completely imitate the human brain, but some parts can surpass the human brain. Especially in terms of computing, human capabilities are limited, and computers can greatly exceed this limit and thus calculate The ability to break through, people finally found a way out of artificial intelligence. The computational function of the brain has since been simulated and infinitely enlarged. Finally, in terms of storage and calculation, the machine surpasses people. Thus, in the physical world, the decision-making process that resembles the human brain is reduced to computation, analysis, and decision-making.

The first is the calculation. With the rapid development of the Internet and the Internet of Things, the level of data computing has increased exponentially, and a single computer has failed to complete. Cloud computing technology was born and distributed computing was used to complete the processing and calculation of big data. Improves the ability of the physical world to process massive amounts of data.

However, technology has not yet reached “wisdom”. The wisdom lies in discovering the unknown from the known and refining the order from the disorder. It is not the process of verifying known laws, but the use of known data to discover unknown laws and eventually become decisions and put into action. Therefore, it is “wisdom” to automatically discover the laws, use the laws to guide the behavior, make decisions and act consciously. Nowadays, big data analysis technology can provide a regular discovery and deep correlation mechanism in the physical world.

The last step is active decision-making and conscious action. The results of big data analysis need to be directly used for decision-making and translated into actions. There is also a decision-making mechanism. This step has already been implemented in microscopically closed parts, such as automated warehouses, but it is still being explored in the context of greater data interaction.

Therefore, the “wisdom” of the physical world recognizes that all things are obtained through information devices and equipment that can automatically read and write information, and that information is transmitted through the Internet of Things. Guidance is achieved through cloud computing, big data analysis, and decision systems. So we define the “wisdom” of the physical world: the wisdom of the physical world is the synthesis of perception, interaction, analysis, discovery, and decision-making. Wisdom is based on enhancing perceptions within and outside the system. By establishing deep correlations among all things, it automatically discovers new laws, combines perception, cognition, and decision-making, and establishes a home-made system that truly completes operations independently and automatically makes decisions. Wisdom must be an automated process that can be obtained, conducted, analyzed, made decision-making, and actionable. At first, we used machines instead of humans to collect data, mechanize, and automate data. On this basis, we carried out contact with objects and then discovered laws, aided decision-making, and then made decisions. So in this process, we completed the level from data collection, cloud computing, big data analysis to data products (decision making and service).

The difference between "smart" and "smart" is: "smart" is "cando" and "smart" is "Whatdo, Whydo, Howdo", so "smart" contains "smart".


Second, the composition of "smart logistics"
In the concept of wisdom, "smartness +" can be formed, such as "smart pipe network", "smart community", "smart logistics" in "smart city" and "smart city". Like all smart systems, smart logistics also The process of perception, interaction, analysis, discovery and decision-making must be realized.

There are five major physical factors in logistics, namely people, goods, vehicles, nodes, and lines. Why these physical factors are now receiving so much attention is because people find that logistics is the most important binding point when combining real economy with virtual economy. From virtual to entity and entity to virtual, it must be logistics. At the same time, these physical elements have value, their own values ​​combined with a large number of economic relations, social relations, capital flows, and information flows that are interwoven behind them, forming variously intertwined chains and networks. The change of logistics structure can objectively reflect the changes of the real economy. The logistics carrying information is the most real information. Thus logistics is like a deep pool, hiding too much value that can be tapped, incremental; as a fulcrum, any change in logic may be able to deduce a variety of business models, inciting greater and greater Market, or more and more subdivided markets.


What is the status of people, goods, vehicles, nodes and lines and how will it develop?

People, such as drivers in transit, pickers in warehouses, and participants in the park, used GPS for location data collection in the past and now use mobile phone APP to obtain multidimensional depictions of human behavior data. In the past, goods were recorded using bar code technology. RFID technology is now used to not only track cargo safety, but also discover business opportunities by reading and writing data repeatedly. For example, PRADA, a luxury brand used to judge the popularity of fashion styles through clothing sales, and garments with a low sales volume were eliminated. Nowadays, PRADA puts RFID on each sample in the store, and correlates the number of clothing trials with its sales data. It analyzes and improves clothing that has a large number of trials and a small amount of sales, allowing the garments to regain new life.

In the past, GPS was used for data acquisition. Now the trucks have sensors installed at the factory. Agheera, a provider of real-time tracking solutions, has developed an open platform that can be used to connect various telematics and sensor hardware devices to integrate data from different applications and modes. This platform can merge multiple resources, such as connecting a freight car or truck to an easy-to-use, worldwide access portal, allowing logistics providers and customers to track all assets on their various devices in real time. In the past, cameras were used to collect data. Now Solar Roadways in the United States has invented a road surface that uses solar energy technology to generate electricity. If the country lays this type of road, the annual power supply is three times that of the US, if it is charged with electric vehicles. In combination, the bottleneck of the electric vehicle is solved, and various sensors can be installed under the road surface to collect real-time information on vehicles and other lines. In fleet and asset management, for example, sensors can monitor the use and idle frequency of a truck, container, ULD (aircraft vehicle), and then they will collect this data for optimal utilization analysis. By measuring load capacity, you can learn about specific routes. On the idle capacity of transport, suggestions are put forward to consolidate and optimize the route. This will create fleet benefits, save fuel, and reduce the mileage of empty cars.

Although the logistics park and logistics center are still mainly based on internal management systems, such as WMS, TMS, ERP, etc., more small and medium-sized companies have already leased Web-based software to providers through Internet software service application models such as Saas. The use of advanced technologies to manage business operations at a lower cost and more quickly can also be used to create data connectivity and interoperability.

We divide the Internet into Internet 1.0 and Internet 2.0. Internet 1.0 users through the mobile Internet, goods, vehicles, lines through the information platform interconnection, nodes and enterprises through the internal management system links, Internet 1.0 is the main characteristics of the interconnection has a clear border, is a limited connection. The scope of Internet 2.0 is much larger. Initially, there are three types of companies and their alliances that may play an important role in the future.

The first category is Internet companies (such as Google, Tencent, Ali, etc.), who have always claimed that they are not Internet companies but data companies. This is indeed their strategic core. So they are also investing more in equipment and applications. Google is far ahead of automakers in autonomous vehicle technology, and Ali is also showing ambitions in the automotive sector. Internet companies provide docking platform service interfaces through terminal devices. They use service data and data services to control the resources of the entire network. One by one huge network empire is rapidly expanding beyond the political boundary.

The second category is operating companies with cloud services and logistics as their core competitiveness. Similar to Amazon and Jingdong, Amazon’s AWS holds 27% of the global cloud computing market share, operating margin is 23.5%, and the number of active users has exceeded 1 million. This includes more than 900 government agencies, 3,400 educational institutions and more than 11,200 non-profit institutions. The "AWSIoT" service enables the interconnection of IoT devices such as factory production plants, vehicles, and home appliances through cloud computing technology. Amazon opened up its "Amazon Logistics +" platform to seamlessly connect logistics with the cloud. Jingdong imitates Amazon, although it is not yet powerful, but the direction is quite consistent.

The third category is the logistics professional Internet platform. Logistics is a typical low-profit, fragmented industry. Especially in the field of road freight, the trend of decentralized logistics resources integration has become very clear. Some platforms have begun to integrate resources among logistics alliances and help enterprises complete Full chain, multiple links, cross-industry logistics resources integration and collaboration. Such as the oTMS one-stop transportation service platform, the integrated platform of road ports, such as Chuanhua, Tiandihui, and Cardwalk, and the logistics data service provider G7, etc. have emerged, showing strong growth momentum.

At the level of "discovering the unknown law," this stage will also be separated. What we can see now is the use of data analysis to predict future events and guide resource reconfiguration. For example, Amazon uses mega-data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, etc. to conduct warehousing and logistics management and launches predictive allocation and cross-regional distribution. Prior to the arrival of “Double 11”, Ali guided the express companies in advance to lay out warehouses and transportation resources through early warning. Although we think that this warning has been quite severe at present, we still follow the Internet 1.0 model in terms of commercial and logistics operations. When the commercialization of Internet 2.0 matures, the logistics form may break the existing basic model of spoke-and-spoke network from decentralized to decentralized, stepping into a dispersal at the operational level, and being highly organized at the synergistic level. A new form of logistics organization will emerge. Based on this, will there be disruptive business models in logistics solutions? We will wait and see.

At the automatic decision-making level of smart logistics, some subsystems have been able to automatically form decision-making solutions, such as automatic storage and automatic sorting in automated warehouses. On a larger scale, we still have to go from disorder to order, from the closed system to the interconnected system. The smart logistics structure is an organic structure that is based on the five major physical factors: the perception of logistics data, the interconnection of logistics data, the discovery of logistics rules, the decision of logistics behavior, and the automatic execution.


III. Development Trend of "Smart Logistics"
There are many possibilities for the development of “Smart Logistics”. Here are three main trends mentioned:

1. In the context of the commercialization of the Internet of Things technology, the smart logistics industry chain broke out in an all-round way, forming a multi-dimensional and multi-dimensional development of equipment, applications, platforms, and data products, and the industry is huge. The underlying technologies that run through them need to be developed simultaneously, including the development of standardized technologies (such as palletization, containerization, vehicle standardization, etc.) and the development of Internet of Things technologies. The smart logistics industry chain is a huge market.


2. The most scattered links in logistics will be first intelligentized, and then gradually break the links with low degree of interconnection and high degree of organization. Therefore, areas such as road freight and urban distribution will be the first to realize intelligence. We have compiled statistics on domestic "Internet + transportation platforms" (including supply chain services, vehicle scheduling, integration services, and logistics transactions). From the perspective of the number of registered drivers, investment and financing, and the number of registered cargo owners, vehicle scheduling has performed outstandingly. . In 2015 and 2016, this area is also a hot spot for logistics investment. For large-scale traditional enterprises, the rigid organizational structure has become a resistance to change. In the process of reconstructing business models on the Internet, these large traditional enterprises were eventually forced to turn to the Internet. 3. The sharing economy will gradually occupy a dominant position in the development of logistics, and it will promote the disruptive logistics organization model and business model. A recent study by us showed that the "sharing economy" has been applied to the container transportation industry. The cost of transporting global air containers has reached 150 to 200 billion U.S. dollars each year. BCG Consulting officially launched the global container empty container sharing platform in November last year and called it "xChange." So far, more than 100 transportation companies and 20 leasing companies scattered around the world have participated in the market. On average, each container can save 200 to 400 US dollars in cost, and it has achieved more than 35,000 empty containers per week. The figure below shows that there are great exchange potentials for empty containers in various regions of the world.

Proportion of empty containers that can be exchanged by region


In the field of position sharing, the United States Flexe warehouse resource sharing platform, specializes in position sharing, and other companies can book a number of positions in more than 80 locations in the United States. The sharing of positions has not yet begun in China. In the area of ​​courier delivery, Uber launched a product called Uber Rush in 2014. It uses ordinary people as the messenger to pick up and deliver goods. Uber claims that he is actually a logistics company, which also shows that in the aspect of logistics sharing economy It also has big plans. In 2015, Jingdong also launched a similar "Jingdong crowdsourcing package", and later officially changed its name to "Jingdong home." At present, the "Jingdong home" temporary courier registration has reached 250,000. In 2014, a domestic express freight company in the same city distribution business also launched a business model similar to crowdsourcing. Truck drivers grab orders, pick up nearby shipments, and deliver goods nearby. The data shows that drivers using the platform can earn monthly income. 1 million rose to 30,000 yuan. In 2015, two venture capital projects in the US logistics field were voted for the sharing economy.


From containerized equipment and positions to people and vehicles, as long as resources are available, it is possible to share resources, allocate resources in a shared manner, and provide services in the nearest way. Logistics will use more highly focused smart hubs to direct more decentralized operations. An exciting field of wisdom logistics has opened the door for us to explore.

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