At the recent SAPICS Conference in Cape Town, Africa’s premier event for the supply chain profession, a panel of experts discussed the potential of drones to optimize supply chains across various commodities and enhance healthcare accessibility. Panelists at SAPICS 2024 elaborated on how drone technology continues to evolve, revolutionizing the delivery of life-saving medicines and humanitarian aid in Africa’s remote areas. Drones are also facilitating ship-to-shore deliveries within maritime supply chains. In cutting-edge warehouses, including those in South Africa, drones play a pivotal role in inventory management.
A director on the Private Sector Engagement team and an innovation development expert at VillageReach, Olivier Defawe, a non-profit organization based in Seattle, United States, was among the panelists who shared their insights with SAPICS delegates. VillageReach collaborates with governments, the private sector, and communities to enhance the delivery of medicines, vaccines, health information, and services to the most isolated populations.
Public health
Defawe said that drone transport has mainly been used in public health applications to date, including VillageReach’s “Drones for Health” initiative, which aims to improve access to health products by integrating drones into supply chains. Through this initiative, VillageReach is connecting African ministries of health with private companies to establish drone delivery systems. It is one of the leading organisations exploring the use of drones for public health, according to Defawe. “We help governments and the private sector identify where drones make the most sense. They can help to save time where it is more geographically challenging for cars, motorcycles or boats to reach destinations and also have the potential to create cost-efficiencies. The drone is a powerful tool for governments to address the equity gap, improving access to primary health care to the underreached.”
VillageReach has helped to start drone programs in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi, and Mozambique, and now operates in more than 20 countries. “The technology is advancing rapidly, along with the capacity of drones. Today, a drone can carry a 300kg load for 2,000km. Drones are a green option to achieve responsive supply chains,” Defawe told SAPICS attendees. He noted, however, that for this option to become cost-effective, scale and improved asset utilization are needed. This requires a multisectoral market development strategy, which VillageReach is working on. “Currently, drone logistics are not considered financially sustainable for public health markets. To achieve cost-competitive and sustainable pricing for the public health market, the sector’s focus needs to expand to include applications in other areas such as agriculture, logistics, postal services, energy, mining, and maritime. In this way, economies of scale would deliver cost benefits and enhance asset utilization.”
Five drones, one pilot
SAPICS Conference panelist Michael Merritt concurred, noting that good asset utilisation and automation were crucial to make drone transport feasible, and that the product and place determined whether drones should be used. Merritt, who is commercial head at UK-based Skyport Drone Services, stressed the importance of “doing multiple turns on an aircraft”. He noted that five drones could be operated by one pilot, to enable cost efficiencies. Skyport Drone Services’ work includes delivering cash to ships anchored off Singapore and spare parts to oil rigs. Skyport is also working with Royal Mail to deliver parcels and letters by drone between the Orkney Islands.
Sub-Saharan regional sales director for the OXIMIO Group, Panelist, Rob van den Bergh revealed that drones are playing a vital role in clinical trials for therapies that could revolutionise the prevention and treatment of diseases. He noted that “cargo drones have the potential to ensure that clinical trials can cover every corner of the world, no matter how remote or inaccessible. While the actual trial medicines are not yet being transported by drone, his organisation is currently exploring using drones to get bio-specimens back from sites.
Africa a right place for drone transport
Group managing director of East African logistics service provider Freight in Time, Shamit Shah says that Africa is the right place for drone transport. Shah informed the SAPICS audience that Freight in Time is one of the organisations involved in a pilot project to launch Ethiopia’s first long-range medical drone network. Over the first 30 days of this project, 6 936 vaccine doses were delivered in 44 total flights to six remote communities. “Ethiopia is a drone transport success story. The Government now wants to establish a factory in Addis Ababa to manufacture drones.” he reported
Drones for counting stock
Also sharing his insights in this SAPICS panel discussion was DSV South Africa sales director Anthony Wilson. “The company is currently using drones to count stock in warehouses, especially for high-value, easily pilferable items, he stated. Inventory management traditionally involves manual barcode scans to count the warehouse inventory and keep track of stock. Besides being an unsafe and arduous task, manual counts often result in inventory data not being up to date due to discrepancies.”
DSV’s drone system can scan barcodes without human interaction and detect if pallet positions are empty or occupied. Operating mainly at night, the drones don’t interrupt warehouse operations.
Wilson said that DSV was not currently using drone transport but would look at specific use cases where road transport was not feasible.
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