Due to increasing shipment volumes, DHL Express has introduced DHLBot, an AI-powered robotic arm that automates parcel sortation, in Singapore and South Korea.

The robot will replace manual sortation of small parcels and enable hubs and gateways to handle greater volumes, particularly during peak season, while increasing overall operational efficiency by at least 40 per cent.

“Sorting parcels might seem like a straightforward process but it actually takes a lot of time, effort and precision to ensure that they get to their addressees without a hitch,” said Ken Lee, CEO of DHL Express in Asia Pacific. “These innovations, however minor they seem, will really boost our employees’ and operations’ productivity and efficiency. The DHLBots are a demonstration of our innovative spirit as we continuously seek to automate repetitive tasks and correspondingly, position us at the forefront of next-generation express logistics.”

DHL Express partnered with Dorabot, an AI-powered robotics provider, to implement the DHLBot. This follows a pilot that saw a significant boost in parcel sortation productivity and service quality. This is especially critical given the consistent growth in shipment volume witnessed across Asia Pacific.

In 2020, DHL Express recorded a 17.3 per cent year-on-year increase in shipment volume during the peak months of November and December. Capable of sorting over 1000 small parcels per hour with 99 per cent accuracy, the robot reduces the probability of mis-sorting and thereby removes the need for secondary sorting.

“Maintaining high customer satisfaction levels is an important measure of success to us,” said Sean Wall, executive vice president of DHL Express in Asia Pacific. “This smart sortation robot enables us to manage the increasing growth of shipment and parcel volume driven by the rise of cross-border ecommerce. It also translates to a safer work environment for our employees, as it lifts their efficiency during peak season when labour demand is high.”

Barcode cameras and 3D technology scan the airway bill on each package for its targeted destination as it travels through the conveyor belt. The AI-powered DHLBot, positioned at the end of the conveyor belt, then receives the package’s information and its destination and intelligently sorts it into respective delivery bins that sit on racks surrounding the robot, each representing an individual courier route.

This entire process reduces the dependency on employees to read waybills and sort parcels manually, allowing them to have more time for route planning.

The implementation of the robotics arms is one of many digital transformation projects that the group is investing in to improve customer and employee experience, as well as enhance operational efficiency. Till 2025, the group plans to spend around €2bn on initiatives to derive greater efficiency through automation and robotics as well as data analytics.

In addition to DHLBot, DHL Express has also deployed several other digitalisation initiatives across Asia Pacific. This includes the Advanced Quality Control Center that uses big data and predictive analytics to monitor shipment movements and flag issues in real time.