As seen from the previous answers, introducing a flying warehouse is neither an inherently good nor a bad decision. It is possible to point out both the pros and cons of such a solution. First, drones or not, air freight is undoubtedly faster than ocean freight, which would help the company meet customers’ new expectations. Moreover, ocean freight is known for its varying reliability as ships are often off schedule. Speaking of advantages and disadvantages, shipping costs are somewhat of a grey area: in ocean freight, companies are charged per size of a container, not the size and weight of transferred objects. Thus, shipping by water can be beneficial for large and heavy equipment. However, if DP World relies on shipping smaller customer goods in a given period, air freight by drones might make more sense economically. As for the cons of drone introduction, as was mentioned before, the current legislation might be restraining and compromise the entire operation. On top of that, developing a concept drains resources (time, money, human resources, and others) that could be applied otherwise.
So far, it appears to be that DP World’s managing board could consider an alternative method of disruption but keep a flying warehouse in mind as an opportunity to be entertained in the future. Challenges with inventory management could be successfully solved by artificial intelligence. As Dave reasons in his article for Medium, large companies are carrying the burden of large quantities of data which multiplies and changes by the minute. The situation becomes even more complicated when a company collaborates with other enterprises and needs to process and protect shared data. In DP World’s case, artificial intelligence could help to maintain communication between port operators and ship liners. By analyzing data, it would be able to put together more accurate plans, which would tackle the infamous unreliability of the maritime industry. Lastly, DP World would benefit from artificial intelligence forecasting booking cancellations and situations where containers get rolled by the carrier and left on the dock. By implementing AI, DP World will comply with three out of four criteria for disruption: meeting customers’ needs with enhanced shipping time, using innovative technology, and collaboration with shipping liners.