Drone Flying Medications to Villages

Its been done before, but now we are having a significant part of a supply chain serviced.

UPS to Fly Medications by Drone to Florida Retirement Area
Bloomberg
By Thomas Black

UPS will use drones to make prescription deliveries to residents of The Villages in Florida, one of the biggest retirement communities in the U.S. These time-sensitive deliveries, which will begin early this month, will be the first paid residential deliveries by UPS's Flight Forward drone unit. Last year, Flight Forward was granted approval to operate under relaxed rules for commercial lightweight unmanned aircraft. The drones will deliver the prescriptions from a CVS store about a half mile away to a central location, after which a Flight Forward employee will deliver them by golf cart to homes. UPS' Bala Ganesh says the ultimate goal is to make deliveries directly, with the drone lowering the packages to customers’ doorsteps by winch.  ... " 

Recommendation and Return Rates out of Control?

Experienced just this during the holiday buying season.  Due mainly to the fact that a product recommendation was greatly overstated on Amazon,  discovered later by a closer look at reviews, which led to what looked like a very expensive refund.  Made me think, if the recos are unreasonably meant to drive saves, but too often lead to returns or refunds,  lots of waste emerging.

Are return rates out of control?   by Tom Ryan in Retailwire.  With further comments.

UPS expects a whopping 26 percent year-over-year surge in the number of returns it processes on January 2, National Returns Day. Those levels would represent the seventh consecutive record number of returns.

The surging rate of returns is occurring largely due to strong online growth. Estimates for returns of online purchases range from 15 to over 30 percent, with items such as apparel and footwear at the high end of that range. The return rate for physical stores ranges from three to 10 percent.

UPS touted solutions it provides to manage the return process, including numerous drop-off points and pre-paid labels for consumers. For retailers, UPS offers visibility to anticipate impacts to inventory and the ability to route returns for repair, repackaging or restocking.  ... '

UPS Now has the First Drone Airline

Been following supply chains as supported by drones for some time, this seems to be an evolution.

UPS Now Runs the First Official Drone Airline in Wired

The FAA has granted a Part 135 certification for the logistics giant's drone business, propelling the little fliers closer to a commercial future.

America’s newest airline will never cram you into a too-tight seat. It won’t charge too much money for too-terrible food. It won’t strand you on the tarmac without explanation. Actually, it won’t carry you anywhere at all—but it might someday carry your stuff. Today, UPS announced that its drone service is the first of its kind to be recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration as a commercial airline.  .... "

UPS Invests in Self-Driving Trucks

Could create a considerable change in supply chain operations and improvement.

UPS invests in autonomous truck startup in Bloomberg

UPS has invested an undisclosed sum of money to take a minority stake in the autonomous truck startup TuSimple. UPS' freight business is providing cargo for haul between Phoenix and Tucson on trucks guided by TuSimple's autonomous system.  ... 

Robots Unloading Trucks

Classic problem, closer to solution.   Its surprising that this problem of solving the problem of dealing with relative disorder.  Another step forward.

Robots Edge Closer to Unloading Trucks in Amazon-Era Milestone in SupplyChainBrain

As FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. beef up automation to keep pace with surging e-commerce and a potential threat from Amazon.com Inc., they’ve been stumped at a crucial stage: loading and unloading trucks.

Robot makers are getting close to solving part of that puzzle.

Siemens AG and Honeywell International Inc. have built machines that pull packages from the back of a tractor-trailer and place them on conveyor belts, whizzing the parcels off for sorting. Making robots that can load trucks is more complicated, although clearing that hurdle isn’t far off.

“The biggest challenge in our world is: Every single package is different in size, shape, weight, color, material,” said Ted Dengel, managing director of operations technology at FedEx’s ground-delivery unit. “It makes it a very tricky problem.”

The devices, unveiled at a recent automation conference in Chicago, hold out the promise of increasing productivity while reducing the need for one of the most grueling jobs in logistics. Couriers are relying on automation to grapple with the rise of online shopping, which is fueling record demand but pressuring profit margins. Amazon’s plan to handle more of its own shipping and offer more one-day deliveries is only upping the ante. .... " 

Players in Supply Chain BlockChains

From an excellent presentation I participated in today by Dr. George Polak of Wright State on Blockchain in the Supply chain.

" ... Blockchain in Trucking Alliance (BiTA) comprises a 400+ firm consortium, including UPS, with the purpose of applying blockchain technology to logistics  ... 

Being developed by ShipChain (member of BiTA) to comprise a “fully integrated supply chain management system” based on blockchain. 

Would function as an open marketplace for logistics providers 

Shippers could track the capacity, cost and estimated delivery times for different routes for a given shipment before making a decision while carriers can dynamically adjust pricing based on supply and demand 

Would help to allocate resources effectively while avoiding markups by “rent-seeking brokers”
Source: “UPS bets on blockchain as the future of the trillion-dollar shipping industry,” by
Deep Patel, Bloomberg.com" . ... " 

UPS Testing Drones

How can they attached to the supply chain? Nests in the truck roof?   Discussion:  In Retailwire:

Can UPS fly past Amazon in drone delivery?  by Matthew Stern

Amazon has grabbed many of the recent headlines with its efforts to use technology to eventually dominate last-mile logistics. But other big names in delivery are not sitting idly by, as seen by UPS’s latest move.

UPS has begun testing a delivery truck that acts as a mobile drone base, Business Insider reported. The vehicle features a drone “nest” on the roof which houses a drone capable of flying for 30 minutes and carrying 10 pounds. The roof-mounted drone is meant to reduce the number of miles driven to deliver packages.

The idea of using a mobile base for drones has gotten popular as the industry tries to figure out a working paradigm for drone-based delivery. Last year, Amazon filed a patent for technology that enables drones to be deployed from a “floating warehouse” airship and another that uses lampposts and churches as perches for delivery drones.  .... "

BPM Empowering IoT and Defining Analytics

A favorite topic.  How Business Process Modeling (BPM) could be used with analytics and AI to really understand and improve business process.  Here in the Jan-Feb 2017 Analytics Mag, the emphasis is put on IoT.  Good thoughts.  Many have suggested this, but have not seem it well integrated.  Examples out there?   Disney and UPS mentioned below.

Looking to seeing this consistently done and sustainably delivered.  Is it just because BPM is rarely done well? (completely, consistently and well-maintained).  Or does this have to wait for formal rigorous semantic methods are applied to make it work?    And those methods take considerable effort and devotion to apply.  Once you have such a model it is natural to connect sensors to its IoT elements.

BPM empowering IoT business users  By Gal Horwitz
IoT (Internet of Things) devices have become increasingly popular in recent years. They are all around us – from fitness trackers on our wrists to smart thermostats in our homes – and adoption will only continue to grow in the coming years. In fact, Gartner, Inc. reported that 5.5 million new things were connected in 2016 alone, upping the total of connected things worldwide to 6.4 billion, a 30 percent increase from 2015. Gartner projects we will reach 20.8 billion by 2020.

IoT devices are continuously tracking and using data and information about the way we interact with the physical world. With this data, they make our everyday lives easier. The business world is taking notice of this growing market and the benefits that can be gained. Companies have begun to deploy IoT solutions into their business operations. For example, UPS uses IoT sensors on its delivery trucks to collect data on drivers’ routes, delivery efficiency and truck performance. Disney World employs IoT in its wearable “MagicBand” wristband, which not only allows guests to get on rides quickly, but also uses RFID tags to collect data and track their activities in the park.

While this data is useful, there is still a disconnect in integrating these powerful IoT devices with mission-critical business processes. Business process management (BPM) is the key to bringing together IoT data and business processes to unlock positive results. It has become the leading technology in fast, enterprise-changing systems that optimize and streamline workflows for organizations across an array of industries.  .... "