Guide: How does the logistics park break the supply chain breakpoint?
Near the logistics park, we often see the surrounding roads full of container trucks. This is a typical pain point in logistics parks. Due to the invisibility of the business situation inside the park, drivers are often told that the business is busy when they arrive in the park, and they need to queue for a long time to load and unload goods in the park.
Like a dock, a logistics park is an important transit point in the supply chain and affects the efficiency of the entire supply chain. In the past, the management of logistics parks often relied on manpower, which was costly and inefficient, and easily formed a breakpoint in the supply chain.
When it comes to SF Express, many people think of express logistics. In fact, SF Express is also a leading player in the field of supply chain management. As a subsidiary of SF Express, SF Express Supply Chain specializes in providing end-to-end supply chain services for enterprises, from raw material procurement, production, warehousing, transportation, import customs clearance to "last mile" distribution.
For the logistics scenarios in the park, SF Express’s supply chain teamed up with Amazon Cloud Technology to launch an intelligent comprehensive management platform system “Digital Smart Gate”, which can increase the daily throughput of vehicles in the park by 40-60%, increase the operating efficiency of employees by 30%, and improve the efficiency of dispatchers. And the workload of security inspectors has been reduced by 50%. At present, "Digital Smart Gate" has been deployed in more than 20 logistics parks of leading customers in multiple industries.
How to solve the efficiency pain points of traditional logistics parks? The secret of SF Express’s supply chain is to export supply chain services as SaaS.
How can park supply chain services achieve "thousands of parks and thousands of faces"?
Under the domestic and international dual-cycle development pattern, the demand for supply chain management services in various industries has increased sharply in recent years, which brings both opportunities and challenges to leading players such as SF Express Supply Chain.
In the park logistics scenario, one of the challenges of SF Express’s supply chain is how to quickly respond to the needs of customers in different industries and achieve agile business expansion. This is because the enterprise-oriented supply chain management is very different from the supply chain for C-end e-commerce.
"SF Express's supply chain mainly serves the customer's B-side. Due to the decentralized nature of the industry, the generality of the enterprise supply chain or the standardization of the entire industry needs to be improved. In terms of the implementation of digital technology, there is still a gap between the B-side supply chain and the C-side ” said Wang Sheng, CIO of SF Express Supply Chain.
Wang Sheng, CIO of SF Express Supply Chain
Logistics parks in different industries vary greatly in terms of "people, vehicles, goods, fields, equipment, and environment". For example, chemical logistics parks have extremely high requirements for safety, and safety supervision needs to be integrated into every link, including park appointments, automated inspections of safety compliance, online safety video demonstrations, safety monitoring and early warning, etc.; cold chain logistics parks Management efficiency requirements are particularly high, and so on.
大型、超大型园区的供应链服务往往需要定制开发，但传统的软件开发方式成本高，周期长。另一方面，大量的中小型园区，一些通用的功能就能满足需求，用不到太复杂的功能。
面对“千园千面”的挑战，顺丰供应链是怎么做的呢？
三步走，顺丰供应链如何规模化输出供应链服务？
基于亚马逊云科技，顺丰供应链构建了“数智门”平台解决方案。具体来说，分三步走：
一、挖掘数据价值，打通端-边-云数据闭环
打破园区不可见，第一步要实现数据在线与可分析。“数智门”首先通过大量前端感知设备，包括摄像头、物联网IoT设备、地磁、多模雷达等，采集园区内数据。
这些数据一部分在园区5G网络边缘侧进行预处理；一部分汇聚到Amazon S3构建的云上数据湖中，再利用机器学习、大数据分析等技术进行即时分析。
图片来自摄图网
二、采用SaaS化微服务架构，模块化设计，“搭积木”式灵活组合
利用亚马逊云科技的托管式容器服务Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service（Amazon EKS），顺丰供应链将原来的单体架构改造为SaaS化微服务架构，实现了数据安全、统一运维和快速扩展等能力。
“通过模块化的方式，我们把每一个功能都做成一个个小小的微服务。每个客户不需要买我整套的服务，只需要基础服务和相关需要的微服务就可以了。” 王昇表示。
具体来说，“数智门”解决方案分为三层：
通用层，提供标准化服务，包括多租户的管理、鉴权、消息机制等，小园区可以拿来就用；
行业层，针对制造、汽车、化工等不同行业打造了细分行业模块；
客户层，可以根据单个客户需求定制化开发。
“三层里面基础、底层的东西开发好可以不停地复用，真正需要开发交付的可能就是客户5%的交付需求，大大提升了我们的响应时间和交付速度。” 王昇表示。
三、云上敏捷开发，快速扩展与迭代
通过DevOps方式，实现持续集成和部署，顺丰供应链将开发时间节省了30%。在持续迭代中，“数智门”还不断将AI技术融入业务场景中。
“基于Amazon EKS和灵活拓展的存储和计算能力，通过机器学习实现自动化运营，能够避免一些人为差错。” 亚马逊云科技中国行业业务拓展总监叶明表示。
亚马逊云科技中国行业业务拓展总监 叶明
此外，借助亚马逊云科技的云计算资源，顺丰供应链还大幅降低了成本支出。比如，基于Amazon Graviton2自研处理器的实例，Opensearch日志与搜索服务Amazon OpenSearch Service，托管式关系数据库服务Amazon Relational Database Service（Amazon RDS）等云服务，相比基于x86处理器的同类实例，性价比提高了40%。
基于以上创新，顺丰供应链“数智门”项目荣获了2022年度IDC中国“未来企业大奖”的“未来数字创新领军者”奖项。“数智门”成功的背后，是供应链管理服务云化、SaaS化趋势。借助数字化技术和高效柔性的供应链管理，传统物流园区的面貌正在发生巨变。
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本文为「智能进化论」原创作品。