DHL, which has operated in Singapore since 1970, has invested heavily in its facilities here as it expands its Asia footprint:
- DHL Asia Pacific Innovation Center
DHL’s first innovation center outside of Germany is dedicated to innovative logistics services in Asia Pacific. The center showcases futuristic technologies that will transform logistics operations. This includes augmented reality “smart glasses” for warehouse assembly-lines and product picking and Maintenance on Demand (MoDe) vehicles that use machine-to-machine (M2M) sensors to boost vehicle uptime by 30%.
- DHL Global Forwarding
DHL Global Forwarding Singapore has embarked on a digitalisation effort to reduce paper work for freight operations across various transport modes. This is done by adopting automation tools and IT modules across the organization.
- DHL South Asia Hub
This S$140 million hub, together with three other Asian hubs, links over 170 DHL Express Gateways across the region.
The 24-hour express facility has the industry’s first fully automated express parcel sorting and processing system in South Asia. It can process up to 24,000 shipments and documents per hour and handle over 628 tonnes of cargo during the peak period. This has tripled DHL’s cargo handling capacity, while processing shipments six times faster than the previous hub’s manual operations.
- DHL Advanced Regional Center (ARC)
This S$160 million, 90,000 sqm facility features a multi-customer automation system that includes the use of advanced robotics. The first of its kind deployed by DHL globally, the pioneering system uses 130 robotic shuttles to pick and store products from 72,000 locations spread across 26 levels, improving picking efficiency and utilising less space than conventional warehousing operations. It creates a model for the future of warehousing in places where land availability is limited.
