DHL opens new €90m Advanced Regional Centre in Singapore


DHL Supply Chain has announced the launch of the company’s Advanced Regional Centre (ARC) in Singapore. Built at an investment of more than €90m, the new 90,000 sq m warehouse includes a €10.6m multi-customer automation system featuring robotics.

The system is expected to allow customers to benefit from the automation solution without the need for significant capital investment. According to the announcement, the technology implemented uses 130 robotic shuttles to pick and store products from 72,000 locations spread across 26 levels, improving picking efficiency 20% and utilizing 40% less space than conventional warehousing operations.

DHL announced that the Singapore operation was first of its kind deployed by the company and is due to be used as a model for the future of warehousing in land-scarce countries and dense cities where land availability is limited and expensive.

Frank Appel, Chief Executive Officer, Deutsche Post DHL Group, said, “As an organization our spirit thrives on a hunger for new knowledge and innovations that we can bring to customers to meet the challenges of Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution. We see the Asian region as a swift adopter of technologies for enhanced productivity and efficiency. By 2020, Asia will constitute 30% of our total revenue. Facilities like the Advanced Regional Centre offer a ready model of innovations that reduce complexity, improve accuracy and maximize opportunities for productivity gains.”

As a multi-customer facility, the Advanced Regional Centre is expected to offer bespoke solutions to cater to specific industry needs. For example, the facility has clean rooms for Life Sciences & Healthcare businesses, specialized infrastructure for aerospace operations and customized storage solutions for managing service parts for technology customers.

Co-located within the ARC is the DHL Asia Pacific Innovation Centre (APIC), DHL’s first innovation centre outside of Germany and a joint development with the Singapore Economic Development Board and was launched in 2015.

Source: Deutsche Post DHL