DHL has opened its Americas Innovation Center in Chicago that will exhibit technologies the company is already implementing across the region, as well as investigate future solutions that can provide significant productivity and efficiency gains.
The state-of-the-art 28,000ft2 (2,600m2) 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 has been a driving force for DHL since its inception in 1969,” said Ken Allen, CEO of DHL eCommerce Solutions and board member for Customer Solutions & Innovation at Deutsche Post DHL Group, which looks after DHL’s largest customers. “Now, with three Innovation Centers around the world [also in Troisdorf near Bonn, Germany, and Singapore], DHL can leverage the power of innovation to serve customers and play an active role in shaping the future of logistics. DHL is an organization that prioritizes 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.”
Matthias Heutger, global head of innovation and commercial development at DHL, added, “Innovation enables DHL to be at the forefront of game-changing solutions for the supply chain industry. The Innovation Centers 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 utilize 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, globalized e-commerce environment.”
According to the company, the four DHL business units operating in the Americas – DHL Express, DHL Supply Chain, DHL Global Forwarding and DHL eCommerce Solutions – will invest 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.
Watch a video on the new Innovations Center here.
