Introduction

The Logistics Living Lab (L3) is one of the flagship projects of the Made Smarter Innovation | Digital Supply Chain Hub. Logistics describes the physical and informational flows between parties within supply chains, and is critical for enabling all parts of the UK economy. Effective logistics underpins all aspects of UK manufacturing, from raw materials taken to factories for initial build, to the transportation of finished parts for final assembly, and finally goods delivery to businesses or individual customers.

Why is this important?

Unfortunately, approximately 25% of trucks on the road are empty and 50% are only 25% full, putting significant cost pressures on participants across the end-to-end manufacturing supply chain. Providers are facing considerable challenges from increased fuel and labour costs, cost and time pressures from clients, as well as new legislation and customer demands to reduce congestion and the impact of road freight on our environment. Improving last mile logistics will decreasing urban particulate emissions by 10%, with a 10% reduction in urban congestion by year 10, with >£10bn boost to UK GDP, and lead to an increase in urban life expectancy. This is because emissions currently lead to 40,000 premature deaths per annum.

What will this project involve?

This project brings together a number of leading digital innovators, logistics companies, and manufacturers from heavy industry to FMCGs, to develop, demonstrate, and test a shared digital infrastructure based upon a combination of advanced digital technologies (IoT, DLT, AI) aligned to real manufacturing supply chain challenges, with the goal of improving UK logistics through more effective collaboration. 

At the end of two years, this project will demonstrate the value of innovative thinking and applied digital technology to create a shared public infrastructure for managing delivery vehicle slot filling, routing, and tracking. This will enable logistics companies to collaborate where necessary, and still compete in new and more efficient ways, while enhancing UK manufacturing capability.

The successful spin-out of this infrastructure at the end of the project for general use will reduce congestion, improve the customer experience, and bring the UK closer to its net zero ambitions.