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We recently sat down with Justin Newell, Chief Executive Officer of INFORM North America, to discuss the company’s approach to reuseable container management.
In this interview, Newell discusses how technology is transforming container management, the biggest operational challenges that companies face in this area, and what to expect next in circular logistics.
Newell said he’s witnessing a multi-pronged approach to reusable container management.
“Companies are starting to utilize a lot more RFID, Internet of Things (IoT) … so they’re starting to track returnable assets and then really pair those together with smart intelligence systems that can help track and forecast,” Newell said. “You’re seeing containers are starting to shift a little bit. They produce them so that they can break down, so they can be stackable, so that they can enter an automated warehouse and be able to be handled by robotics.”
However, Newell notes, robotics and automation can’t compete with AI when it comes to decision-making, adding that the capabilities of AI systems are growing by leaps and bounds.
“Instead of making recommendations to a planner or a pooling manager, it’s actually saying, ‘You know what? I already know how to handle this. We need to get 100 of this particular specialized container because we’re starting to run an overstock in one location. I can see four weeks from now we’re going to run very, very low in another key location.’ …. It automatically is putting these orders into the system,” Newell explains.
