Latest in Logistics Tech
The latest and greatest news in logistics technology and VC. This week: Tesla expanding, robots everywhere, printed airplane parts, + more!
This week I bring you a quick breakdown of the news followed by Santosh’s take on major events. Let’s do this.
While some think clinging to old industries and old methods is an effective way to lead us into the future, some out there live in the real world where change is inevitable and robots are real. Patterson High School in California has created a training program with a mock warehouse where students will learn to operate warehouse machinery with up to date technologies, such as virtual reality and robotics.
Tesla may soon build an assembly plant in Shanghai. The company made $1 billion last year in the Chinese market (3 times more than the year prior) and thinks that the demand will only continue to increase.
Norsk Titanium AS has apparently created a faster 3D printing method that uses titanium wire rather than powder as a base. Which now it seems so obvious to us all, right? No…?
The company is also planning on partnering with Spirit Aerosystems, which is one of Boeing’s major subcontractors. This means that jetliner parts may soon come out of a printer. The main holdup at this point is the FAA wants to make sure that these parts are as safe when printed as they are fast.
The TSA is pretty much the exact opposite. Homeland Security is trying to fix this through an online competition with rewards that amount to over $1 million. The competition challenges people to build tools that use machine learning in order to assist agents in finding threats more accurately and efficiently.
The WannaCry virus hit a production plant in Sayama, Japan this past week — causing the plant to temporarily halt production. As industries become more entangled with technology, particularly industrial robots, the need for highly effective cybersecurity measures becomes more significant. You don’t want a bunch of hacked robots building your stuff.
Now for Santosh Sankar’s latest take on the industry!
The Dynamo Take
Summer’s upon us and we’re back this week with a written-only version of the Dynamo Take. We have a lot to cover so let’s get chugging along.
1. Uber shuffle.
Travis Kalanick is out as CEO and the Board is also seeing some fresh faces as Bonderman and Gurley also bow out and are replaced by their colleagues. This will kick-off what many expect to be a months-long transition at the company as a new CEO hunt is on the way. The shuffle hopefully will instill a culture that’s not only productive but uphold a “just be a good” mentality.
I would suspect it will also gear the company towards an IPO where blatant issues especially around personnel management and ethics will be harder to hide. Broadly, this is reinforcement that startups (if we still want to call Uber that) and investors, will take action and swiftly at that when accusations are made and evidence is presented.
2. Amazon’s offerings are now “whole.”
For a cash sum of $13.7B, Jeff Bezos and friends plan to acquire Whole Foods giving it 1) a high end grocery business with relationships to brands (including a private label in 365) & 2) more importantly, strategically located physical outlets in key geographies that are close to their core customers and an estimated 1M or so of more traditional distribution assets.
In relation to 1): The expectation is that Amazon will focus on cutting pricing and improving the experience — something that can really drive its grocery aspirations.
Focusing on 2), Whole Foods locations will likely see distribution functions evolve where more suburban markets can capture the benefit of Amazon Now. Grocery fulfillment isn’t easy, but now Amazon has the cold chain assets in areas where the unit economics make sense (affluent people willing to pay for ease of service). The amount is unclear but to service the masses, distribution capacity would likely need to be added to complement the combined distribution foot print. Nothing like lighting up 410 new nodes in the supply chain in addition to getting a great business.
3. It is the East and bikes aren’t the Sun (at least in the West).
The bike sharing boom is hot in the East and they’re trying to press West. The catch? The nature of our cities, towns, and perspectives on mobility are much different. In Eastern countries, cities are more densely packed, pollution is rampant, family dynamics and consumerism just don’t require a car. Despite the two behemoths — Ofo which is worth $2B and Mobike who’s raised $600M — pushing wast, the business opportunity will not be as great. There are select geographies and cities that could benefit: New York and London to name a few, but it will require a pivot or slightly different mobility options to become ubiquitous or competitive with western mobility options.
That’s it from me (Katlyn Whittenburg) and Santosh Sankar! Reach out on twitter with questions or comments!
at katlynwrites
at santoshsankar
Thanks and have a great week!
