All “Future trends” topics

In a first for New Zealand’s logistics and pharmaceutical sectors, Douglas Pharmaceuticals has utilised Kardex to install the country’s first AutoStore™ system at its headquarters in Henderson, West Auckland. The leap into robot-powered automation is already redefining warehouse operations.

We are witnessing a societal shift from a world governed by strict schedules and centralised control to one characterised by flexibility, decentralisation, and personalisation. This transformation is driven by technological advances that have reshaped the way we organise time and space, work, interact, and consume.

Firms are currently facing highly turbulent environments, with strong doses of dynamism, complexity, and uncertainty. Work has become knowlege intensive and geographically dispersed. In such a context, knowing the mechanisms that allow organisations to detect environmental changes and being able to adapt and offer the proper response to them becomes especially relevant.

Most supply chain experts extrapolate volume growth and trade routes based on economic modelling grounded in current paradigms – more people mean more freight movements; higher incomes will mean more demand for goods. With the world changing so rapidly, can we be sure this model will remain valid in future?

The pandemic has pushed kiwis to shop online more than ever before and parcels moving through NZ Post’s network are up an astonishing 25 per cent year-on-year. Peter Jones discusses latest e-commerce trends and offers thoughts on where this rapid growth is heading.