Some of the nation's largest logistics and supply chain companies are gathering in Memphis this week.
The Greater Memphis Chamber and Memphis World Trade Club hosted Sept. 30 the Memphis Logistics Summit at Peabody Hotel. The event is part of the Trade Club's World Trade Week.
"World Trade Week is a great opportunity to showcase the strength of Memphis' international trade and logistics community and, more importantly, bring together the people behind it," Memphis World Trade Club President Jennifer Amos said.
Amos, who also serves as the director of business development for Dunavant Global Logistics, said this year's event also commemorated the organization's 79th anniversary and will host the 75th annual "Port Night" to conclude the week's event schedule.
The event's keynote speaker, Tony Kreager of FedEx Dataworks, highlighted how the Memphis-based logistics and freight company has used technology to revamp and rescale its business model.
"Data is the foundation," Kreager said. "(The) evolution of technology is at the fastest pace I have ever seen it."
He added that the company sifts through two terabytes of data daily as it reconfigures its business model, shifting towards a cloud-based model.
That change, Kreager said, began in 2020, following the COVID-19 pandemic and shifts in the global economy. At the time, FedEx saw a $30 to $38 billion investment in the company's infrastructure as due to rapid growth and demand in deliveries. However, that growth was cut short and forced a pivot as supply chain vitality was disrupted through 2020 into 2022.
That change led Kreager and the company's data department to build a new data-based model off anchor points in the company's existing business model. Those anchors include planning, sourcing, shipping, delivery and return patterns.
How AI and data-gathering factor into daily operations
The datasets help FedEx develop a new business model and gradually introduce artificial intelligence and data recognition systems into the company's day-to-day operations. That influx helped to identify overlap, connect commercial patterns and integrate human creativity and strategy with artificial intelligence systems, he said.
"Do believe the system of supply chains is connected systems," Kreager said. "Artificial intelligence is here, and it isn't going anywhere."
Those connected systems are also a necessity, especially for combating fraud and cyberattacks, he said. The existence of technology and the growth of the artificial intelligence sector have also led the company to understand that the need to protect against nefarious operators and potential data breaches requires consistent system checks.
For FedEx, the multi-year approach to shift a near 50-year supply chain system into a cloud structure, and modernize an operation that serves and operates in over 200 countries, required a systematic and tiered approach to human ability, coding, and new technology to modernize how fast the company could assess incoming data such as freight delivery times, missing packages and geolocation.
In the case of the cloud systems, Kreager also acknowledged that the shift helps maintain a safer level of protection from an environmental catastrophe or a terrorist attack at the company's main data centers or colocation networks, given that FedEx has over 60 technology departments globally.
Memphis-based Epicenter hosts startup conference
The event will also continue on Oct. 1 with the Logistics Innovation Showcase at Epicenter in Downtown Memphis.
The event showcases startup businesses tackling issues facing the logistics and supply chain industries, such as cargo theft.
"The Logistics Opportunity Challenge starts with problems our local shippers, carriers and brokers identified themselves, and it puts startups in the room with the companies that can actually buy their solutions. In the past two years, those conversations have turned into paid pilots and full contracts, which means real business for Memphis companies and real traction for founders," Epiceter Director of Programs Nate Smith said.
Smith added that the showcase helps grow the customer and client base for logistics innovation in Memphis and said he is "excited to see what partnerships come out of this year's showcase."
This year's event will feature five startups from around the United States. The companies are providing solutions for heavy-haul and overweight load pricing, algorithms for containment force and pallet delivery systems.
The featured businesses are:
- FreightDeck | Birmingham, Alabama | Providing heavy-haul and overweight load pricing solutions
- PalletVision | Ann Arbor, Michigan | Patent-based algorithms for containment force and pallet delivery systems
- Arvist | Chicago, Illinois | AI-powered cameras and software for warehouse quality control and safety monitoring
- OnSight | Kansas City, Kansas | Logistics platform providing biometric check-in systems for drivers, dock communication, and anti-fraud protection for cargo theft
- Arcticar | Alameda, California | All-electric refrigeration systems for trailers and zero-emission cold chain cargo systems
Neil Strebig is a journalist with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at neil.strebig@commercialappeal.com, 901-426-0679
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis chamber, World Trade Club talk AI, data logistics at summit
