Maersk has officially opened the company’s new global Innovation Center. The team will focus on the entire logistics chain, using emerging technologies, taking ideas from inception to impact and developing new tools for the workforce that improve operational processes. Potential ideas will be tested as pilots and will be introduced as scalable solutions for customers if successful.
“Every company is navigating the macroeconomic environment, looking for new ways to ensure their supply chains are resilient. Our goal is to ensure we bring an intelligent pipeline of business solutions to make their supply chains more agile, more responsive to market fluctuations and more competitive,” Narin Phol, President of Maersk North America and Executive Vice President, A.P. Moller-Maersk, said.
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The Maersk Innovation Center uses a structured approach designed to improve the business and customer experience. Focus areas include: End-to-end supply chain transparency and traceability; solutions and models that support supply chain resilience; predictive data and analytics to optimise distribution and supply chains; climate neutral solutions/sustainability; accelerating middle mile transportation; expanded fulfilment offerings; and education and training.
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The center has already achieved numerous successes, including the partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Center for Transportation and Logistics to perform research and analysis at a doctoral and post-doctoral level on supply chain challenges; new software and scanning technology from Fetch for warehouse fulfilment; new equipment and technology from Boston Dynamics to unload cartons from trailers at warehouse doors; improved accuracy of warehouse inventory management using Verity drones; testing warehouse automation processes that sort, pick and put-away merchandise in floor-to-ceiling operations, using BionicHIVE technology; testing new technology and ideas at the Port of Ashdod, Israel’s tech incubator; and purchasing 460 electric-powered Class 8 trucks for sustainable solutions in North America as an early adopter of battery technology and route optimisation software.
“We want to build an innovative supply chain ecosystem for customers using the best analytics, technology, research, engineering and partnerships,” Erez Agmoni, Global Head of Innovation (Logistics & Services) at Maersk, said.
