Huawei ups digitization, antenna shipments at Brazil logistics hub

China’s Huawei is increasing the use of 5G-enabled automation solutions at its main logistics and supply chain center in Brazil, located in Sorocaba (in photo), while also boosting shipments and deliveries of 4G and 5G sites (antenna equipment) to local telecom operators.

Opened in 2012, the center currently processes an average of 3,000 sites a month and dispatches 25 trucks a day, Huawei Brasil logistics director, Emerson Oliveira, told BNamericas.

Overall, the center is capable of shipping up to 5,000 sites a month. The Sorocaba unit, in São Paulo state, handles all deliveries of mobile equipment to Huawei's telecom customers in Brazil.

The flow of these deliveries varies greatly from month to month, said Oliveira, but usually revolves around 33,000 a year.

Huawei supplies equipment to Brazil’s leading mobile operators – Telefônica, Claro and TIM – as well as to internet service providers with mobile licenses, such as Brisanet.

With 22,000m2, the Sorocaba hub operates in connection with another 11 cross-docking and smaller distribution centers in Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Amazonas, Pará, Bahia and Ceará states.

At all the centers, including Sorocaba, Huawei's logistics operations are outsourced. 

The company running the Sorocaba center is Danish group DSV, which took over the operation after purchasing, in 2019, Switzerland’s Panalpina, which was previously responsible.

In Sorocaba, Huawei's logistics operations involve two shifts, with the possibility of expanding to up to three, said Oliveira.

Brazil-wide, two other logistics operators share, with DSV, the operation of Huawei's 11 cross-docking centers.

Huawei's remuneration for DSV is based on production, not number of workers, said Oliveira, who added that the Sorocaba center currently houses 200-250 employees.

BNamericas has learned that DSV won a tender and will now begin to offer, in addition to logistics, customs clearance services for Huawei Brasil.

DSV beat Swiss company Ceva, which had been responsible for Huawei's customs clearance operations in Brazil. 

SMART LOGISTICS

Huawei is preparing to activate two autonomous forklift trucks at Sorocaba, in addition to starting an AI-powered digital ‘fencing’ monitoring with the nearly 100 smart cameras it has on site, according to the executive.

“We are in the process of implementing other intelligence features from the cameras,” said Oliveira.

The center has a private 5G network, installed under an SLP license obtained from regulator Anatel for the 3.7GHz band. Currently, 12 indoor solution antennas distribute the 5G signal inside the center.

This network is used specifically to power 12 AGVs (automated guided vehicles) to move loads autonomously in the warehouse. 

Both the AGVs and the cameras are provided by Hikvision.

They will also be used to operate the two autonomous forklift trucks that have just arrived and are being tested.

Huawei's logistics and supply chain operation is complex, involving a range of partners.

According to Huawei Brasil’s customs compliance officer, Zeic Sullivan, the company counts the entire inventory in Sorocaba every three months. Digitization and automation helped to reduce that time.

“Today it takes two days to count it all. Before it was a week. Raw material counting alone now takes two hours, and it used to be two days,” Sullivan said.

Since the installation of the 5G network in Sorocaba, Huawei said it has increased its central warehouse operation efficiency by 25%, while production and shipment lead time fell 40%, the same rate as finished goods inventory.

Huawei's sites assembled at the center use components brought from China, from local suppliers and from the company's main partner for electronic manufacturing services (EMS), Foxconn, in roughly equal shares.

In Brazil, Foxconn's plant is in the city of Jundiaí, not far from Sorocaba.

LITHIUM BATTERIES

Other suppliers for Huawei's sites shipped from Sorocaba include Japanese cabling giant Furukawa and Moura, a traditional Brazilian battery manufacturer.

According to Oliveira, the company is now starting to use lithium batteries in the mobile sites assembled in the facility.

The expectation, he said, is for lithium battery usage to grow over time.