Drone technology is taking off and cargo drones are being used successfully in supply chains around the world, to deliver things ranging from critical medicines, mail and money to spare parts and tissue samples.

At the recent SAPICS Conference in Cape Town, Africa’s leading event for the supply chain profession, a panel of experts discussed the potential for drones to optimise supply chains for a wide range of commodities and expand healthcare access. Panellists at SAPICS 2024 explained how drone technology is constantly developing and transforming last mile deliveries of life-saving medicines and humanitarian aid in Africa. Drones are being used for ship-to-shore deliveries in maritime supply chains. In state-of-the-art warehouses, including facilities in South Africa, drones are managing inventory.

Olivier Defawe, director on the Private Sector Engagement team and innovation development expert at VillageReach, a non-profit organisation based in Seattle in the United States, was one of the panellists who shared his insights with SAPICS delegates. VillageReach works with governments, the private sector and communities to improve how medicines, vaccines, health information and services are delivered to the hardest-to-reach people.

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 programmes in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Malawi and Mozambique, and now works in more than 20 countries. “The technology is exploding, 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 the option to become cost effective, scale and improved asset utilisation were needed. This requires a multi sectorial 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 focus needs to be expanded to include applications in other spheres like agriculture, logistics, postal, energy, mining and maritime. In this way, economies of scale would deliver cost benefits and boost asset utilisation.”

SAPICS Conference panellist 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.

Panellist Rob van den Bergh, sub-Saharan regional sales director for the OXIMIO Group, 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, he said.

Shamit Shah, who is the group managing director of East African logistics service provider Freight in Time, said 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.

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.

More than 750 supply chain managers from 30 countries across Africa and around the world attended the 2024 SAPICS Conference, to explore this increasingly important profession’s current challenges and opportunities, to learn and share knowledge. This year’s 46th SAPICS Conference was hosted by The Professional Body for Supply Chain Management (SAPICS) in association with Southern African Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF).