Dynamo Dispatch. Weekly update from Dynamo covering the latest and greatest in supply chain, mobility, and building venture-scale businesses.
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Weekly Commentary 💭
If you haven’t already, check out Episode 20 of The Future of Supply Chain where Eric Rempel, CIO of Redwood Logistics talks TMS. The JoC had a complementary piece out on TMS last week as well. Our listenership continues to grow and we would be flattered if you share it with friends and colleagues.
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Supply Chain 📦
📊 Materials Handling Industry 2019 Annual Report. The 2019 report supported observations we have made about the willingness of stakeholders to make major investments in automation and robotics. The bulk of investment will be focused on additive, blockchain, AMRs, wearables and mobile tech, and AI. It appears the major worry executives have is around talent, pricing, response times, forecasting, and customization. Related, Using Data to Automate Warehouses.
Walmart to Add 4,000 New Robots to Stores. The additions include 1,500 more"Auto-C" robots, which are autonomous floor cleaners; 300 "Auto-S" robots, which scan shelves to ensure availability, accurate location and correct pricing; 1,200 "FAST Unloaders," which automatically scan and sort items from trucks; and 900 "Pickup Towers," where consumers can pick up purchases ordered online.
🌟 Amazon Preparing to Launch Amazon Shipping. Select shippers in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York have been invited to use a service called Amazon Shipping. The shippers can use ground operations to fulfill Prime orders. Customers can print Amazon Shipping labels and Amazon carriers pick up the packages from shippers' warehouses.
Digital Transformation in Life Sciences Supply Chains. “Given all the volatility in the life sciences supply chain and the relationships between all the nodes in a complex supply chain, there are times when the business needs to turn up the lights and allow the planners to course correct in time to have a positive impact on key metrics. At other times, you can lower the dimmer and automate routine parts of the planning processes.”
KeepTruckin to Launch Freight Exchange. KeepTruckin is leveraging its ELD systems to partially automate load matching. The company intends to bring truckers’ hours of service data to bear in what it calls its Smart Load Board while also enabling a new service, Facilities Insights, to highlight detention concerns at docks and shipper facilities.
MIT on Plug-in Hybrid Trucks. A new report presses the trucking industry to consider a hybrid model that can address the range and cost needs of heavy duty trucks while still reducing total emissions.
Mobility 🚗
📊 Rethinking How Cars Are Built with BCG. Consumers have different expectations these days as it relates to the features and cadence of upgrades their vehicles have. To keep pace, automakers must now take a different approach. It’s an approach focused on systems engineering, modularity, interoperability, and a new way of operating engineering teams.
Cambridge Mandates Bike Lanes. All upgraded roadways in Cambridge, MA will have to have protected bike lanes. There’s been little protest to date which could be a signal that citizens are now open to long-term improvements in mobility even if that might disrupt their routines in the short-term. Also, check out Micromobility, Third Lanes, and Tomorrow’s City Scapes.
🌟 VW Focusing on Affordable City EVs. A team of engineers are trying to further reduce the cost of VW’s city EV based on the Modular Electric Drive Toolkit (MEB). The team is unbiased in it’s options with varying drivetrain designs, changing materials/component BoM, and battery configurations.
Kansas City Bike Plan Could Create $500M in Value. Over a 20 year period, bike lanes in the urban center of the city could drive $500M more in spending and safe 700+ lives.
Ford Managing Expectations Around EVs. “We overestimated the arrival of autonomous vehicles, its applications will be narrow, what we call geo-fenced, because the problem is so complex.”
Tesla and Panasonic Pause Battery Factory Expansion. As Tesla sales come under question, the duo is not keen on making big investments to expand battery capacity with a new factory. Instead, Panasonic and Tesla will improve output at the current Gigafactory to meet expected future demand. Related, Tesla Continues to Confuse on Pricing and Offerings.
Strategic Developments, Fundraises, M&A 💸
📊 Uber S-1 Released. Revenues are up 43% ending 2018 at $11B with loses at $1.8B. Freight and Eats are emerging “crown jewels” in their own right. Micromobility could help increase margins as usage increases given it’s an optimization for the broader transportation model in urban environments. For those who can’t understand the creative KPIs, NYT tries to break it down.
Jeff Silver and Paul Loeb Launch Mastery Logistics. The legendary duo are back and this time focused on building software to reduce waste and friction across the shipment process. It appears that the company will offer a “next-gen” TMS that increases transparency, streamlines communication, and intelligently automates load tendering.
IncoDocs Raises A$1.2M Seed Led by Maersk Growth. IncoDocs offers a library of trade document templates with smart auto-fill, copy and compliance check features aimed at resolving pain points in SME freight.
Budbee Raises €4.8M. The last mile company is worth close to €100M.
Movo Secures $22.5M Series A. The scooter company is a spin-out of Cabify and the round was led by Seaya Ventures (early Cabify backer).
Shift Raises $40M and New COO. The Series D round is now $180M and Shift plans to ramp growth ahead of an IPO.
Amazon Buys Canvas Technology. Canvas improves Amazon Robotics’ safety capabilities with improved simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) software that doesn’t require autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to have a pre-existing map of the facility.
Freightos Webcargo Acquires Air Freight Bazaar. AFB provides Freightos with exposure to one of the world’s fastest growing air freight markets, India.
Ford Looking to Exit India via JV. A JV with Mahindra would allow Ford to contribute cease independent operations while still retaining upside to the developing market.
Company Building 🛠️
🎧 Founder Coaching and Having Hard Conversations. As founders need to scale their companies, it requires that they scale themselves. This isn’t easy and the stress of building a big business requires self-attention. Getting a coach and clear communication are two keys to that self care.
🎧 Mastering the Art of Recruiting. Dropbox’s former CTO Aditya Agarwal shares his thoughts on how to recruit without having an established brand, advice to effectively sell your company to candidates and guidance for closing hires.
🎧 SaaStr Podcast: Ben Braverman of Flexport on Sales Leadership and More. “Why does Ben believe it is “total horseshit to say the best sellers don’t make the best managers”? What must founders try and figure out before hiring their sales leader? What are the leading indicators that suggest a sales rep has the ability to be a sales manager? How does Ben determine between a stretch VP and a stretch too far?”
Who's Hiring? 👩💻
Senior Mechanical Design Engineer at SEEVA in Seattle, WA.
Product Marketing Manager at Skupos in San Francisco, CA.
Senior Designer at Stord in Atlanta, GA.
Check out other jobs at Dynamo portfolio companies.
❤️ We would love your support. Please forward to friends or share on social media.
🗞️ If you were forwarded this and found it interesting or helpful, please sign up.
🎙 Check out Dynamo's podcast series, The Future of Supply Chain.