Körber’s Elevate APAC 2023 Ends on High Note

Having been hosted in the Americas for over 10 years, Körber’s unmissable Elevate event came Down Under! With attendees joining the team at the region’s first in-person Elevate at Melbourne’s Sofitel. The agenda was packed with Körber customer stories, product information, opportunities to network with peers, and meet with Körber partners and employees.

Elevate APAC 2023 kicked off with a Welcome to Country and introductory remarks by Körber Supply Chain Software’s Anthony Beavis, Managing Director ANZ and Bill Ryan, EVP APAC. Bill opened with a speech on ‘Optimising the Rhythm of your supply chain’ – the key theme for the conference this year – by noting some of the challenges the industry has encountered over the past few years. “When the global pandemic started, the music stopped,” Bill said, also noting “supply and labour challenges that are causing [businesses] to lose your rhythm.” To this end, Bill said the answer was digitisation and technology, as survey results indicated that one in three warehouse operations were still relying on manual labour.

With robotics use in the logistics market projected to grow by 77 per cent in the 2021-24 period, Körber is leaning into tech and digital to solve customer pain points with a 71 per cent R&D spend increase in the 2021-23 period. To meet the challenges of the era, Bill said, Körber Supply Chain Software brought on globally renowned investment firm KKR as a partner, allowing Körber Supply Chain Software to operate as a joint venture with the investment power to flex, adapt, and expand to meet market demands. This partnership, in combination with a portfolio of exciting new solutions and developments at Körber Supply Chain Software, mean the company is – in Bill’s words – “Building the Global Supply Champion”.

Joe Couto, Executive Vice President Global Robotics & 3PL at Körber Supply Chain Software also unveiled the new Robot as a Service (RaaS) program. This solution is a flexible automation technology designed to empower users by increasing efficiencies and stabilising an organisation’s operations. It provides simple access to a global network of robotics service partners for every business size and industry, emphasising the value Körber puts on collaboration and dedication to meeting its customers’ needs. Buyers of this product can reduce their business’s operational costs and time to deployment and invest any remaining capital in other parts of their enterprise by allowing them to purchase robots ‘as-a-service’ rather than in one large upfront payment.

Joe highlighted that “most systems integrators don’t offer a RaaS program and that’s why our solution provides customers with a competitive advantage. We offer contracts with a fixed fleet, but customers can also choose a flex fleet of BoTs for peak periods. We can combine conveyors, pick to light and other accompanying solutions with the RaaS program, and combine SaaS and RaaS into one monthly payment.”

Managing Director at Accenture, Sari Mackay started the second and final day of the conference with an in-depth analysis of the global supply chain, including the need for businesses to reinvent their networks, and invest in regionalised supply chains all while preparing for both just in case and just in time deliveries. “The future of supply chain is data analytics and AI,” Sari says. “Resilient networks are needed to deal with disruptions and drive cost optimisation. Transparency is the most important resource. Businesses need to innovate, challenge themselves, develop new ways of thinking, adopt digital capabilities and data – these things will make or break them.”

Patrick Fountain, General Manager of Super Retail Group also explained how automation combined with data science has transformed the company’s supply chain network and enabled it to optimise its operations and increase productivity. Other presentations included Sarah Owens, Enterprise Sales Manager ANZ at Honeywell on consolidating devices in a supply chain business. As well as Brett Newstead Sales Director, Zebra Technologies Australia, on Supply Chain 4.0, where digitalisation and technology are necessary elements to transform traditional supply chains to the next stage of operating excellence.

Yiau Hwei Chan, Director of Engineering at Körber facilitated the first panel discussion called Driving Positive Change: How Sustainability & Diversity are transforming supply chains. Dr Elise Hoo, SCLAA committee member, Laurel O’Donnell, Lineage Logistics General Manager, Dr George Panas, University of Melbourne Supply Chain Lecturer, Maree Varrasso, CIO at uTenant, and Nicole Katsoulis, Head of People & Culture at Körber spoke about the importance of partnerships, adopting a global perspective, focusing on women in leadership, cooperating with leading industry associations, and incorporating ESG in brownfield and greenfield sites.

“According to a 2021 report from McKinsey & Company, only 41 per cent of the supply chain labour force consisted of female workers,” Laurel explains. “Employers need to check their unconscious bias when they’re hiring women, and women need to stop second guessing their abilities, and apply for promotions and aspire to become industry leaders.”

The final panel discussion was Building agility and resilience to deliver exceptional end-customer experience. Frank de Sa, CIO at The Just Group along with Lian Yu, CIO at Toys ‘R’ Us, Karl Neubauer, CIO at GLOBAL Retail Brands, and CEVA Logistics’ Allan Maki spoke about in- novation in retail, the need for data collection, autonomous mobile robots, Körber cloud, 3PL and automation, as well as investing in scalable solutions with Körber’s Director of Solution Delivery, Darren O’Connor.

In the main room, attendees networked, visited stalls, and tried Körber’s virtual reality headset, giving them an opportunity to see how the supply chain software company can automate and modify a new or existing warehouse. The event finished with Nicholas Bochner discovering the synergies between conducting an orchestra to orchestrating a supply chain; plus helping the audience to find their rhythm with a spectacular performance from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Learn more about what was discussed at Elevate APAC here:

• Ticker News Article

• Retail World Magazine

• Asia Food Journal