Future logistics
This is the result of a student project and does not necessarily represent the views of the brand.
Currently there are about 800.000.000 containers in use all over the world, transporting goods on vessels, trains or trucks and numbers are steadily increasing. To maintain a high level of efficiency and enable a constant throughput, logistic companies are facing major difficulties to keep up with the increasing pace. Kalmar supports industries worldwide when it comes to material handling, providing heavy duty material-handling equipment for several industry branches with a focus on the port area. With current trends such as automation, digitalization and sustainability they were looking for solutions for their coming generations of material handling equipment.
Currently there are about 800.000.000 containers in use all over the world, transporting goods on vessels, trains or trucks and numbers are steadily increasing. To maintain a high level of efficiency and enable a constant throughput, logistic companies are facing major difficulties to keep up with the increasing pace. Kalmar supports industries worldwide when it comes to material handling, providing heavy duty material-handling equipment for several industry branches with a focus on the port area. With current trends such as automation, digitalization and sustainability they were looking for solutions for their coming generations of material handling equipment.
„How can a next generation autonomous vehicle increase efficiency in a limited space?“
Research
In order to get in touch with the vehicles as well as to gather hands on insights from professionals using the machines, we went on a research trip to Kalmars main production site in Poland, the harbor city of Hamburg where we got the chance to see the complete process of container handling and a small saw mill site in Vännäs just outside of Umeå. During the research three main difficulties stood out:
Storage Higher demands, growing cities and bigger vessels are asking for increasing capacity while companies are already working on their full capacity which is usually limited by either space itself or regulations limiting the usage of it.
Time.. is money and so is the throughput of goods. Every container that needs to be stored means it blocks the space of a new one to come. Reducing storage time is always the aim but also downtime is a present risk.
Organisation The biggest influence is the process organization itself. This means surveilling e.g. information of arriving and departing transport, maintenance, working hours and unexpected occurrences.
Storage Higher demands, growing cities and bigger vessels are asking for increasing capacity while companies are already working on their full capacity which is usually limited by either space itself or regulations limiting the usage of it.
Time.. is money and so is the throughput of goods. Every container that needs to be stored means it blocks the space of a new one to come. Reducing storage time is always the aim but also downtime is a present risk.
Organisation The biggest influence is the process organization itself. This means surveilling e.g. information of arriving and departing transport, maintenance, working hours and unexpected occurrences.