3030: Inside Dexory and The AI-Powered Robots Transforming Global Supply Chains

[00:00:03] What does the future of supply chains look like in an increasingly automated world?

[00:00:10] Today we've got an opportunity to explore this question with my guests, he's the CEO and co-founder of Dexory.

[00:00:17] His name's Andre, he's going to tell us about this company that's at the cutting edge of warehouse robotics and logistics.

[00:00:24] And in a time where supply chain efficiency, resilience and automation of are more critical than ever.

[00:00:30] Dexory is leading the way with innovative solutions that address these demands head-on.

[00:00:35] So I want to learn more about how they develop some of the most sophisticated tools in the industry, including check this out,

[00:00:42] A 12-meters tall autonomous robot, yeah 12-meters tall.

[00:00:47] And with its ability to scan over 10,000 pallets an hour and cover vast warehouse spaces in record time, Dexory's technology is not just enhancing operations but also revolutionising how businesses think about supply chain management.

[00:01:01] So what does the future hold for supply chains? How will robotics continue to influence this critical sector?

[00:01:08] And are we truly prepared for future where supply chains are driven by intelligent machines and what will companies like Dexory play in shaping this reality?

[00:01:19] These are just a few other things we're going to talk about today.

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[00:02:07] Thank you for your patience today. This is the moment you've been waiting for. It's time to welcome my guest onto the show.

[00:02:15] So, a massive welcome to the show.

[00:02:18] Good to have one listening. I'll let you know who you are and what you do.

[00:02:22] Great to be here. Thanks a lot for having me. I'm Andre. I'm the founder and CEO of Dexory, a robotics and AI company based in London, UK.

[00:02:30] They supplied you to have you join me today. One of the things I try and do every day on these podcasts is, explore a different area that's been impacted by technology.

[00:02:40] And I would say what five years ago we didn't really think too much about supply chains. Just kind of happen everything just magically appeared on shelves, but then we saw so many different supply chain disruptions and they delivered so many significant challenges in recent years.

[00:02:55] So, how does your approach at Dexory to leveraging robotics and AI help mitigate these disruptions and ultimately build that great a resilience in supply chain operations?

[00:03:07] I think we all know that we need but we don't hear about a lot of these tech solutions like you're a lot to shine a light on that. Can you tell me a bit more about what you do that?

[00:03:15] Absolutely. I think you're spot on there. Five years ago this wasn't as fashionable as it is today. Let's call it.

[00:03:25] I think a lot of a lot of change was actually catalyzed and driven by the pandemic period. So it actually caused quite a lot of disruption exactly like you said, but a lot of businesses decided to move their operations online.

[00:03:40] So suddenly the industry had a big opportunity to obviously have more business coming and coming its way. A lot of people started relying a lot more on logistics and supply chains.

[00:03:52] But it also had a massive challenge because suddenly you couldn't do things the same way you did them for the past 10, 20 years. So it really catalyzed the technological adoption in the space.

[00:04:05] And it also gave us the opportunity to bring this technology to bring this technology to the wider industry to the market.

[00:04:13] And I would say a big driver for this is visibility is the ability to make the supply chain to make the industry a lot more resilient and to allow a much much better efficiency across every stage of warehouse in operations that we stock goods the way you store goods that we deliver them to the endcast.

[00:04:36] And I suspect for many people listening around the world the integration of robotics in warehouses and how it's transforming that space is something they don't hear about too much. We hear about AI and robotics and the bus words, but not about the actual value that it brings to these places. So can you tell me a bit more about your solutions and ultimately how they deliver tangible results things like enhancing warehouse efficiency and ultimately reducing that potential for human error.

[00:05:05] Well, absolutely. It's obviously a pleasure to speak about what we do and the technology we've built. So a dictionary we've created a platform called Dexer review.

[00:05:16] This is a digital twin platform for warehousing so for digitizing and creating digital equivalents of warehouses where people that work in warehouses, people that run warehouses operators managers, sheep leaders and date they stuff that actually has to move things around the warehouse.

[00:05:36] Can can log in and they can see everything that's going on in that operation in that space. Now what this does is brings it eliminates the visibility gap.

[00:05:46] So it brings this level off of control and it brings this level of information in the hands so they can run more efficiently. They can avoid wasting time trying to find pallets, they can avoid wasting time trying to find space for new goods that are coming in the warehouse.

[00:06:00] And most importantly eliminating like inventory errors or operational inefficiencies where goods are lost in the warehouse. We know they're somewhere in the warehouse but we don't quite know where.

[00:06:13] And the way we do this, the way we collect this information, this is where it gets really interesting. So we use autonomous robots to collect the data.

[00:06:21] We have the world's tallest autonomous robot, each over 12 meters tall and it's our own proprietary technology. So we designed, I wouldn't say we designed it with industry but we spent a lot of time speaking to various people in the industry.

[00:06:36] To understand what the problem was to understand what's the best way to actually collect this information and what's the best way to transform data into insights.

[00:06:45] Because at the end of the day people want to get insights. That's where it becomes really useful, that's where it becomes really valuable and that's where you drive value and increase robustness and increase efficiency by having this insights.

[00:06:59] I'd literally tell you what to do and how to address various operational issues in the warehouse.

[00:07:04] Well, it's 12 meter high robots and incredibly cool. So how does it actually record what's happening in the warehouse there?

[00:07:13] It's a record and then AI, I don't know if I'll either or how does that work for anybody listening thinking about this 12 meter robot in the middle of this giant warehouse. How it captures that information.

[00:07:23] So exactly like you said, it's a very tall robot. It was designed to be close or as close to the height of the full racks that you have in quite a wide variety of warehouses.

[00:07:35] The robot operates fully autonomous. So it will go around the warehouse. It will scan the information collected data.

[00:07:42] It uses a combination of cameras. It uses a combination of 3D depth perception sensors collects all this information and it processes everything directly on the device.

[00:07:54] So that's really important because in logistics, one of the key drivers is speed.

[00:08:01] So you need to be able to provide this information at a very, very high, at very fast rate that the very high throughput.

[00:08:07] So the robot will go around the warehouse. It can scan over 10,000 pallets an hour.

[00:08:12] 10,000 locations. So if you think about a large warehouse, you can scan over a million square feet over a hundred thousand pallets in less than a day.

[00:08:19] Which is a huge, it's a huge shift from being able to scan that or being able to collect the information once a year or even once a quarter to having that data day.

[00:08:29] So it processes this information directly on the computers and the device is built into the robot.

[00:08:36] And it sends the data, it sends the insights straight into the bigs review where everyone can have access to the information and where the rest of the algorithms and the AI systems we have extract further insights and extract actionable insights from the data.

[00:08:52] And when I was doing a little research on Daxery before you came on the podcast, what I think is really stood out to me is, you're not only are you driving success for a lot of people in the supply chain industry, but you're experiencing significant growth in your inception too.

[00:09:08] So what are some of the key milestones in your company journey and how are these still reshaping your current market leadership? Anything can share around that because it feels like a great time for you at the moment.

[00:09:20] It is a great time. It's really a good period. Like I was telling you earlier, we spent quite a bit of time in the early days speaking to customers speaking to the market really understanding the problem.

[00:09:31] So when we created the product and we created the technology it landed very very well.

[00:09:36] So it's a relatively new technology in the market. We've released it around March last year and that would say that was a major milestone because as we were just discussing is the world's tallest autonomous robot and it's pretty much the first of its kind to operate autonomously at this level of performance in such such big spaces.

[00:09:56] Since last year we've deployed this technology across the UK with deployed technology across Europe. We have customers here in Bucharest in Romania, so pretty much all across Europe.

[00:10:08] And we've also expanded to the US and some some activations in the Middle East.

[00:10:12] So I would say that within the space of a year, year and a half, we've managed to take this technology to pretty much a global footprint.

[00:10:22] Customers are seeing a huge value from it and that's one of the most rewarding things. Of course you bring a product in the market, but when you see how excited customers are and how much value they can derive from the data that we gather from the insights we generate.

[00:10:38] That was another big milestone for us being able to show people across five, six warehouses how this data, how this information and how their efficiencies are evolving on a baby basis was absolutely huge.

[00:10:53] And I think it's difficult to believe sobts of it. It was five years ago already since the pandemic since the supply chain issues were hitting the headlines.

[00:11:03] I think everyone's got a slightly better understanding now, but of course five years later supply chain issues continue to evolve. So again, how do you see the role of things like AI and robotics further revolutionising supply chain operations over the next decade.

[00:11:19] And I know when I asked that question the next decade in this period of technological change is a lifetime away. Well, probably that's probably too long till it could see the future. But how do you see evolving further?

[00:11:32] I think you're right. I think the next decade is going to be, you know, it's going to be a very fast moving industry. There's a lot of progress being made. I think there's a lot of light like with any new technology. There's a lot of hype about it.

[00:11:48] But realistically, there's more and more industrial, more and more practical day to day applications that are coming into the market. So that's I think that's where the real power will start to show itself because at the end of the day, AI is a technology is a pool like any other. And you can use it to drive results for customers. You can use it to go over huge amounts of data. You can use it to actually understand much better what the information is.

[00:12:17] And some of the information that you previously had gets you. So I think we will see a lot more practical applications for AI.

[00:12:25] I think there's obviously it's exciting to see that you can speak into an interface and it will actually parse text and give you very images and all that stuff that's really good.

[00:12:35] But when you look at applying this between industrial environments to logistics applications, for example, it gives you the opportunity to have an interface with your warehouse.

[00:12:44] Right, you can ask questions directly to those data sets. You can get a level of detail. You can get into depth of information that was quite frankly impossible to date.

[00:12:58] So when you project this into the future is going to allow us to create new ways of running businesses. It's going to allow us to create new ways of running entire industries.

[00:13:10] So a big part of like we were discussing a big part is getting the data, but then as you look, you brain, the data it will reveal new processes, new ways of optimizing, drug discovery, new ways of optimizing supply chain roots and planning. And I think that's where it really gets very interesting because

[00:13:30] that's where it's going to make a really big impact and it's going to drive a lot of value for us as a people, as humans, we're very creative. We will come up with new ideas but it helps you

[00:13:41] Shortcut a lot of the work, it helps you to research much faster, it helps you like we were saying uncover a lot more nuances, a lot more information from your existing data already.

[00:13:52] So it's definitely a very exciting time to be operating in this space.

[00:13:56] Yeah, 100% with you and it did take a global pandemic to highlight so many of the vulnerabilities in global logistics networks. But I'm curious how did that time influence your strategy at Dexui and what changes if you may be implemented in recent years to address some of the challenges that you're hearing about and seeing from your customers.

[00:14:17] So for us, the global pandemic was like I was mentioning a catalyst for the technological adoption. I think for for customers it was really an eye opener.

[00:14:27] They realized that there's a huge opportunity but need they really need to move faster with adopting technology.

[00:14:34] From from that point of view, it really it really prompted people to look at some of the cutting edge technology available. It really prompted people to look at how can they do more with the resources they have and I think that's one of the that's one of the big challenges because we had a you know during the pandemic because so many businesses moved online so many people really started taking you just seriously if I can say that.

[00:15:02] I don't think they weren't taking logistic seriously before but exactly like you were saying a lot of things we were just taking for granted.

[00:15:09] So I think of the back of that it really can it was an eye opener we need to do more we need to be more efficient and we can be more efficient we have the means and we have the resources that are necessary to drive this level of operational excellence.

[00:15:22] So for us as a company it really can push us a lot further into the space and it gave us the opportunity to speak to people at a completely different level to really understand some of the underlying pains and to really understand how

[00:15:38] the technology like autonomous robotics that can collect this data in a way that wasn't possible before can drive value.

[00:15:45] Because I think that's one of the most important points is how do you drive value for the industry? How do you drive value for your customers but how do you continuously drive value with your technology because it's not never one size it's all.

[00:16:01] There's various types of warehouses, various types of logistics operations so you need to be able to have a technology that's adaptable to almost any type of operation that they you can possibly envision from manufacturing style applications in warehouses all the way through third part the logistics through fulfillment centers and so on.

[00:16:24] Every one of these has specific quirks so one of the big drivers for autonomous robotics which again can operate without any kind of human input or supervision allows you to collect the data and then use a technology used digital technology to drive specific.

[00:16:41] Okay, it's an point of value for every type of this operation. So I think that was one of the big drivers for us that was one of the big I openers is you can actually do a lot with the data.

[00:16:53] You don't need really needs to be picking and packing necessarily it's a big part of any operations, picking and packing but if you optimize everything upstream of that you're going to have all this efficiencies compounding all the way to picking and packing so the whole warehouse the whole estate will operate a lot more efficiently with all buried better at the end of the day.

[00:17:14] And with the continuous advancements in robotics in AI there's probably a lot of things that excite you make you want to jump out about it them all in an equally little bit a few things that keep your wake at night so what are the biggest opportunities and challenges ahead for helping you guys maintain this competitive edge in the market anything you can share around this.

[00:17:35] So I would say some of the challenges are probably related to how much hype is around this technology.

[00:17:43] I think this has always been a problem with robotics technology, we've seen it with autonomous cars and we've seen it with other novel cutting edge investments in different areas of technologist robotics but algorithms AI and so on.

[00:18:00] I think the expectations are really, really high and a lot of the time people tend to lose focus of the immediate applicability of some of this tech.

[00:18:09] I think it's a very exciting period like we were just discussing because you can extract so much more information you can do so much more with existing data sets and everything you have to date.

[00:18:20] But I think being able to drive value is really what what's most exciting and most scary in the same time because it's great to have the best technology in the world but if it doesn't serve any customers needs or any users needs it's not it's not much more than a bit of innovation right.

[00:18:41] So I think for us it's one of the one of the big drivers is how can we continuously bring new value to our existing customers how can we continuously make our technology operate better in this environment.

[00:18:57] So if you can scan faster we already scan very fast but if you can scan even faster then you can collect more information and you can bring more value from those data sets that you get.

[00:19:08] If you can operate more efficiently it means you can go for longer periods of time which means you can cover even bigger grounds so one million square feet fine we can do that in a day, but if you can do one one and a half two million square feet then it means you can already.

[00:19:25] We scan and collect far more data, far more information you can then bring more efficient.

[00:19:30] So those are some of the some of the big topics in of course we're always excited to break our own records so obviously working on other versions of our technology like I said faster versions of our technology.

[00:19:41] And and with that I would say also more efficient versions of the tech right so.

[00:19:48] We'll order technology what other algorithms what other levels of intelligence can we bring into this into this robots to allow them to be better to operate faster and bring more value to extract new insights from the data they're gathering.

[00:20:05] And I would imagine another big challenge for you guys is the speed of technological change and not just how quickly the technologies changing but also how your customers demands and problems and everything they need help with it have that is continuously changing evolving adapting etc so.

[00:20:24] How do you ensure that your robotic solutions remain adaptable remains scalable to meet so many different diverse needs of different industries and warehouse environments that we work it so quite simple today but I would imagine it quite complex and quite a challenge on its own.

[00:20:41] And so so the XRE as a company we're a full stack we're a full stack technology company so that means we design and engineer every part of our product in house.

[00:20:51] We have a very exciting facility that allows us to design engineering build our own robots but very importantly we have complete control over the tech stack from the way our autonomous systems work all the way through the perception systems all the way through how do we package this data sets extracting sites and.

[00:21:10] You use the latest technologies in AI to drive more value for our customers that was one of the pillars on how we build the company from the beginning and the reason why we wanted to do that is exactly what what you're mentioning is to be able to adapt and evolve with our customers.

[00:21:27] To to make sure that we always have the customer needs at the forefront of the way we're shaping the technology and to make sure that we can be best position to response to these changes to response to new requirements new features new product new product variations.

[00:21:44] So a lot of what we do and a lot of the ways in which we bring value to customers is through our software platform through dexter review.

[00:21:53] Being able to build all that in house being able to have complete control over the direction of your product is incredibly essential it's incredibly important is one of the essential points in in driving a new product into the market.

[00:22:08] I'm a big believer in in full stack businesses they're they're hard because there's a lot more complexity there's a lot more that you have to make sure you keep on track and you but it gives you that.

[00:22:19] Opportunity to bring a very cohesive product a very.

[00:22:23] A very well suited product for the market.

[00:22:27] I think if you rely on bringing a small part of a technology into the market and then the market catching up with whatever that technology needs in order to make it successful.

[00:22:37] It can be it can be a difficult exercise because it's there's so many there's already so many moving parts of side of your control and of course the market has has a way of of selecting and and just accepting whatever is fit for the problem is it has at the moment.

[00:22:57] But as a full stack business that's really what allows us to to evolve and continuously delight our customers.

[00:23:04] I think you've got an amazing job today of shining a light on this industry and allowing everybody listening around the world to take a little peek behind the curtain and understand in great a detail of how technology is impacting the supply chains but if we.

[00:23:17] Look to the future someone right in the heart of this space are there any other.

[00:23:21] Innovations or trends in warehouse automation that particularly excite you and how are you it.

[00:23:27] Dexterie positioning itself to lead in these areas too.

[00:23:32] So I think I think logistics it's one of the it's one of the most exciting industry if you look at it is one of the if not the oldest industry we have in the world is moving things around since as far back as we as we know ourselves as the species.

[00:23:48] But I think it's also very complex industry so.

[00:23:52] For me one of the most exciting things is this this symbiosis of human and technology that allows us to give existing workforce superpowers it allows us to give.

[00:24:03] The existing teams that work in this environment which are quite harsh their their big environments they're not comfortable offices there's there's a lot of difficult work and there's a lot of effort and I have.

[00:24:16] huge amount of respect for everyone that pushing pushing crazy performance in the logistics industry at the moment so being able to create this symbiosis with technology and give this team superpowers is one of the most exciting is one of the most exciting developments that we're seeing for the industry.

[00:24:32] I'm using things like artificial intelligence to drive better optimization to drive better ways of laying out warehouses of storing good retrieving goods that's really what is going to make us take the entire industry to a completely new level.

[00:24:50] So we're seeing more autonomous technology coming to the states we're seeing a lot more data lot more algorithms.

[00:24:55] But we're also seeing the huge opportunity to create this this product that feeds existing user needs and really takes their performance take it takes this this teams to a completely different level.

[00:25:08] And like I said that that's one of the most exciting bits is how can we supercharger ourselves how can we elevate ourselves and our performance as teams to to a completely new level which in term will of course transform the wider industry.

[00:25:23] I think that's a perfect moment to add no but before I let you go a big thank you for sharing your insights today, but I'm going to ask you to leave one final gift to everyone listening we have a Spotify playlist where I suppose to lead it leave a song on there, give it pleasures our loud or a book that we can add to Amazon wishlist all I'm going to ask is what would you like to leave everyone listening with and why to the.

[00:25:46] I could probably have a have a go at both if that's an awesome yeah absolutely got right.

[00:25:53] So I think as a as a book recommendation one of the one of the recent books that I've read and really really inspired me is winning from team Grover.

[00:26:05] So this is a this is a book about.

[00:26:09] You know the sacrifices that you have to make in order to win the first time and then how much harder it is to continuously keep on winning and how much more demanding.

[00:26:20] And I recommend it to everyone whether or not you're starting setting up a business or looking to really can build a team and think that's the next level it's just as hard any thus require lot of sacrifice.

[00:26:32] And as a favorite song probably I would say on solvable from see how that would be the good one to go with with a winning book recommendation out there absolutely perfect partnership.

[00:26:45] I think you've just given me earworm though that song is going to be stuck in my head all day long now but.

[00:26:51] I'll get the song added to spite for I underbook to the Amazon wish list and for anyone listening just want in a find out more information about anything we talked about today.

[00:27:01] Well, do you like the point that.

[00:27:03] I would definitely say a LinkedIn it's one of the best and easiest ways to get into that for us as a company but also with myself if there's any more information or if there's any questions always happy to answer.

[00:27:15] Test it well love chatting with you today. We covered a lot there from the future of supply supply chains how you've all seen AI and robotics revolutionizing the operations in the future and also have robotics is changing the landscape of where our operations ultimately increasing efficiency reducing human error.

[00:27:33] All things that are measurable measurable improvements in the that space but others a great line of use in the interview as well about the symbiosis between humans between technology that's where the magic happens and even leaving is with a great book and a cracker of a song too so thank you so much to that.

[00:27:51] In a pleasure to thank you for having me so as we wrap up today's discussion and he's clear that the landscape of supply chain operations is undergoing.

[00:27:58] So what other profound transformation and we explored today how the pandemic accelerated the adoption of these technologies pushing businesses to rethink their approach to logistics and warehouse management.

[00:28:11] But as we look ahead now continuing to use this technology to optimize processes and reduce errors and enhance human capabilities.

[00:28:20] It points to a future where the efficiency is not just a goal but it is a given now.

[00:28:25] So the one question it remains is how will these advancements continue to evolve and what new challenges and opportunities will they bring?

[00:28:34] And perhaps most importantly of all how can businesses prepare to leverage these technologies and build a more resilient and agile supply chain.

[00:28:43] As always email me tech blog right to outlook.com, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram just at Neil Sey Hughes.

[00:28:51] But it's one of thank you for joining me today in this exploration of the future of logistics.

[00:28:56] But please, stake your is keeping a rating continue to push the boundaries of what's possible in this rapidly changing world where we all fall in ourselves.

[00:29:06] And that I invite you to join me same time, say place tomorrow.

[00:29:09] We do it all again with a different guest.

[00:29:12] Hopefully speak with you all then. Bye for now.