With the emergence of e-commerce and rising digital literacy among consumers, the global logistics industry has been changing significantly in recent years. Factors such as rising disposable incomes, dual-income households, and constant urbanization have encouraged consumers across both developed and emerging economies to follow upcoming logistics trends. This has further resulted in the rapid development of retail channels requiring efficient inventory management and warehousing solutions for helping customers to make informed purchase decisions.
Logistics companies are facing an era of unprecedented change as digitization takes hold and customer expectations evolve. New technologies are enabling greater efficiency and more collaborative operating models; they are also reshaping the marketplace in ways that are only just beginning to become apparent. New entrants, whether they be start-ups or the industry’s own customers and suppliers, are also shaking up the sector. New entrants in the form of start-ups make a bigger impact. The most challenging and costly last mile of delivery, in particular, becomes more fragmented, exploiting new technologies like the platform and crowd-sharing solutions. These start-ups collaborate with incumbents and complement their service offers. These start-ups are mostly producing innovations in shipping, SCM, or last-mile delivery. These are some of the critical points that still need a better solution, speed and optimization because demand is focused on improvement in these areas.
Supply chain
Today’s businesses have increasingly become fast-paced. Highly demanding customers seek instant gratification on one side, and businesses, in a quest to do more with the finite resources on hand, try to optimize and accelerate their supply chain, on the other side. All this means not just larger volumes to process, but also a significant increase in the number of issues warehouse and logistics management needs to deal with within a day. Side-by-side, competitive pressures mean squeezed margins, leaving warehouses without the luxury of spending more to cater to the increased workload.
Supply chains have grown incredibly complex over the years. Any supply chain progresses by initially delivering the raw materials from a supplier to a manufacturer and eventually ends by delivering the final product to the consumer. Proper implementation of supply chain management can result in benefits like increased sales and revenues, decreased fraud and overhead costs, and quality improvisation. Moreover, this will also lead to accelerating production and distribution. Maintaining a supply chain is a tedious task even for small businesses. The interconnectivity of different elements in the supply chain gradually becomes more inefficient when a business grows. In order to resolve these inefficiencies and save a company’s money, different technologies like blockchain are being applied to SCM.
Blue economy
Pakistan is blessed with unlimited natural and marine resources. It is an important maritime state in the Indian Ocean blessed with an approximately 1,050 km long coastline and the Exclusive Economic Zone covering about 240,000 sq. km. It is a mid-sea section that joins the strategic oil line of the Persian Gulf with the Indian Ocean. Pakistani sea ports join the trade routes between East and West which could be helpful to boost the economy of the country. The maritime sector acts as the bedrock of the national economy. These maritime spaces offer myriad prospects for Pakistan to exploit ocean-based living and non-living resources, provide much-needed economic opportunities, and generate employment for the well-being of the people. The development of an effective national compliance mechanism and stimulating the renewal of the potential of maritime sectors through regional and international collaboration can usher the country into an era of significant growth. The efficiency of Pakistani ports should be enhanced by improving the network of infrastructure.
However, there are many issues that plague the maritime and fishery sectors for a long. Since Pakistan lags behind in technology; sustainability is impossible, which leads to massive wastage. In addition to marine life, there is a dire need to take measures to develop the coastal population in Balochistan. Ambiguity and overlapping of laws and responsibilities have become major challenges that must be addressed.