S.F. Express CTO Tian Min: For Logistics Companies, Giving Up Computing Is Giving Up On Survival And The Future

2017-07-28 16:46 来源:钛媒体

原标题：S.F. Express CTO Tian Min: For Logistics Companies, Giving Up Computing Is Giving Up On Survival And The Future

(Chinese Version)

China’s logistics industry is developing at a rocket speed. The scale of the logistics industry in China and the industry’s fusing with other industries, as well as its relationship with the economy and society, have pushed this particular industry to a new height.

According to the 2016 China Express Industry Development Index Report from the State Post Bureau of People’s Republic of China, China’s express business volume maintained its top one position in the global market in 2016, accounting for 40% of the global market. China’s express market contributed 60% of the global express industry’s growth, the report also writes. In addition to that, China’s express industry had generated four trillion yuan for online retailing in 2016, which took up 12.5% of the total retail sales of consumer goods, supporting directly the outbound agricultural product sales of ￥100 billion while creating a value of ￥120 billion for the manufacturing industry. It’s apparent that the express industry has been an indispensable driving force that nurtures new economy and accelerate the economic development.

With a scale that’s even unprecedented worldwide, China’s express industry grows without a model to learn from. Besides, the very industry is also constantly challenged by new technologies such as cloud computing, big data, AI, and IoT etc., which disrupt the express industry’s operation model and management concept rapidly. It’s like having to change the plane’s engine when flying.

Tian Min, CTO at S.F. Express, believes it’s time to go back to the very nature of logistics and catch the true essence of this field. In his talk at AI & Smart Logistics Roundtable Forum, hosted by S.F. Express, TMTPost, and CARDOPT, he pointed out that logistics originally means the science of computing. He emphasized that if a logistics company gave up on computing, it would mean giving up the future and survival. “A good logistics company’s management and operation must be based on data and computing.”

What follows is Tian Min’s speech at the AI & Smart Logistics Roundtable Forum, hosted by S.F. Express, TMTPost, and CARDOPT:

To implement AI technology, it’s necessary to understand the working mechanism behind it. The very fundamental things you need to know about are the models and algorithms of statistics and operation research etc. No matter in which business scenarios you are using AI technology, you need to know about the basics of AI.

Logistics is the science of computing

Today I want to elaborate on the term, logistics, first. Is it logistics merely about moving shipments around?

The word logistics originated from the Greek word Logistikos, which means accountant or responsible for counting. The first theoretical analysis of logistics was by the Swiss writer, Antoine-Henri Jomini, who studied the Napoleonic wars. In 1838, he devised a theory of war on the trinity of strategy, ground tactics, and logistics. The earliest concepts and theories on logistics were formed in America in the 1930s. The word originally meant the distribution of goods. In 1963, the concept was brought to Japan, and Japanese people translated it into ‘the moving of goods’ (物的流通) and then started to use 物流 to represent logistics after the 70s.

The Chinese word logistics was imported from Japan. It’s vivid, but doesn’t tell the computing science nature. Today when we talk about logistics, we think about the moving of goods, but that shouldn’t be the case. Indeed, we should talk about the moving of goods, but also the science of computing.

We are hosting this forum with TMTPost and CARDOPT today because we need to explore and study the science of the computing in logistics. The improve of efficiency and reduction of cost in logistics can only be achieved through the science of computing. Additionally, we need to fully understand the origin of logistics so as to accurately analyze the current conditions of logistics and the issues it is facing. We need to do all these to build a future with smart logistics system.

Smart logistics, driven by data and computing

Smart logistics is achieved by technological means such as big data, cloud computing, smart hardware etc. that enhance logistics system mind, and the process of sensing learning, analysis, decision making and executing. The logistics system is therefore improved to be smarter and automated to drive industry development, lowering logistics cost and bringing up efficiency.