DHL invests in innovation in America
DHL has officially opened its Americas Innovation Centre – expanding its global innovation footprint to the Americas region.
Joining the DHL Innovation Centre in Troisdorf near Bonn, Germany, and the Asia Pacific Innovation Centre in Singapore, the Americas Innovation Centre will exhibit technologies that DHL is already implementing across the region as well as investigate future solutions that can provide significant productivity and efficiency gains.
“Innovation has been a driving force for DHL since its inception in 1969,” said Ken Allen, CEO of DHL e-commerce Solutions and Board Member for Customer Solutions & Innovation at Deutsche Post DHL Group which looks after DHL’s largest customers. “Now with three Innovation Centres around the world, DHL can leverage the power of innovation to serve customers and play an active role in shaping the future of logistics. DHL is an organisation that prioritises thinking differently to deliver excellence, and I’m proud we now have this platform in the Americas to extend these capabilities to partners in their own backyard.”
The state-of-the-art 28,000 square foot facility provides a collaborative space for DHL to work with its customers, its technology partners, and academics as well as tap the innovative power of its employees.
“Innovation enables DHL to be at the forefront of game-changing solutions for the supply chain industry,” says Matthias Heutger, Global Head of Innovation and Commercial Development at DHL. “The Innovation Centres are the nucleus of our customer-centric innovation approach. They provide the platform for understanding emerging trends and discovering insights with the potential to drive real-world business impacts. DHL was the first player to utilise picking robots, for example, in North American warehouses. Self-driving robots to support order picking can increase picking rates up to 200% which is significant in a fast-moving, globalised e-commerce environment.”
The four DHL business units operating in the Americas are committed to investing in coming years in the development and adoption of new technologies that can improve operations, better the customer experience, lower costs and facilitate better workplace processes for its employees.
