Manufacturing logistics and procurement – August 2023

Developments in logistics
According to a survey by Deloitte, executives overestimate customer trust in supply chains. The trust gap is on average 20% between leading suppliers and their customers.
DHL has published a report (5.13 MB) about the ‘Era of Sustainable Logistics Global Summit 2023’. The report reviews some of the event’s main themes, starting with strategy and governance. Another DHL report entitled ‘Delivering Next-Level Healthcare’, sheds light on six major trends that are reshaping the life sciences and healthcare landscape: patient-centric healthcare, advanced therapies, digital technologies, new industry ecosystems, sustainable solutions, and resilience. You can download the report after filling in your details.
L.E.K consulting has published an article about the industrial distribution industry. As the industry is expanding and evolving, it creates challenges, like an ageing workforce, supply chain disruptions, digital solutions and industry consolidation, that companies must address in order to remain competitive.

Recycling industry challenges
Circular has released a report detailing that the recycling industry’s methods are not sustainable due to a lack of sufficient investments. The report covers specific challenges different stakeholders in the industry face and how different technologies can create solutions across the supply chain. You can download the report after filling in your details.
McKinsey’s technology trends report highlights the development, possible uses, and industry effects of advanced technologies. The report examines quantitative measures of interest, innovation, and investment to gauge the momentum of each trend. You can download the report after filling in your details.

Robotics and automation
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a robotic gripping device that is gentle enough to pick up a drop of water, strong enough to pick up a 6.4 kg weight, dexterous enough to fold a cloth, and precise enough to pick up microfilms that are 20 times thinner than a human hair. Researchers of Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have developed an embracing soft gripper inspired by the blooming and closing of rose flowers. Bearing a surprisingly simple, inexpensive, and scalable design, the robot can pick up many kinds of objects without damaging them, even in challenging environments and conditions.
Guangxi University has developed a highly adaptable design for a flexible robotic grasper based on the principle of thick panel origami. This innovative design effectively combines the stable grasping capability of rigid component graspers with the anti-interference ability of flexible component graspers.
A Shandong Vocational College of Light Industry paper (451 kB) entitled; ‘Design and Development of Intelligent Logistics Tracking System Based on Computer Algorithm’ has been published in the International Journal for Applied Information Management. One of the introduced algorithms detects the integrity of goods packaging using a 3D acceleration sensor.
From just one screen, SINTEF engineers are now able to run trials using a digital twin of a real production facility. Their so-called ‘digital twin’ technology will make it possible to test the performance of planned production facilities before they are even built.
Fraunhofer has published a paper (4.78 MB) entitled; ‘Towards packaging unit detection for automated palletizing tasks’. Robots are fully trained on synthetically generated data and can be applied to arbitrary real world packaging units without further training or setup effort.
 

NVC members receive this information with all the relevant links in the monthly NVC Members-only Update. If you have any questions, please contact us: info@nvc.nl, +31-(0)182-512411