There is no shortage of desirable parameters surrounding effective logistics.
These might encompass anything from route monitoring, thermal efficiencies, data security, emissions output and dispatch reaction times, to cite a few examples.
Technology is widely recognised as a chief catalyst for growth and competitiveness in the transport and logistics industry. But the tools of innovation have, with increasing surety, moved from the purely physical domain to a realm increasingly reliant on the non-physical, with rapid utility.
As the digital sphere unlocks advanced analytics for planning, scheduling and systems availability, the process of moving goods from production to consumption, including warehousing and transportation, is no less complex.
Some projects with incompatibility to existing industry frameworks get marked as outliers merely because they are not, at least on the surface, candidates recognisable for duplication.
These are often where the best stories hide. This year the global refrigerated transport market is projected to pass $32 billion.
Visibility is vital across the many links of the cold chain. Except when it isn’t.
To cope with subzero winters and sweltering summers in the American Midwest, warehouses have gone underground.
Online videos taken by truck drivers entering into these subterranean facilities, demonstrate the size and scale of the awesome labyrinth of tunnels, docks and parking bays that would be hard to imagine otherwise.
Well over 2.7 million square metres of industrial real estate has been so far carved from the huge limestone deposits in Kansas City making it something of a hub for “known underground space” including SubTropolis, the world’s largest business complex of this kind.
It also remains one of the most energy efficient.
Here the natural insulation provided by the limestone abutment provides a stable environment that significantly reduces heating and cooling costs.
More than 55 companies and 2,000 employees are based at SubTropolis which houses businesses involved in food manufacturing and distribution, automotive, and pharmaceutical.
The Kansas City facility, what’s more, accommodates the easy movement of trucks and heavy machinery having its own sprawling network of roads.
Natural temperature control prevents fast water evaporation, an advantage for any business reliant on water in the manufacturing process including food and beverage companies.
Unlike above ground facilities, security is tight with only five points of entry and exit.
A visit to Coober Pedy, with its underground dwellings, gets one to wondering if something of equal measure could be achieved at Mt Isa or Kalgoorlie, sites with similar capabilities where the weather is also dependably extreme.
Storage for data servers that require temperature-controlled spaces is one potential candidate in a growth industry that immediately springs to mind.
The desert is not a place we typically build infrastructure especially of this distinct type. Americans, on the other hand, tend to have the resources and appetite for these kind of exacting projects.
Especially if they are clandestine. Ever wondered why there was an immaculate baseball diamond kept like an oasis in drought-stricken Alice Springs?
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