DHL Global Forwarding makes major updates to Chicago facility at O’Hare Airport

In a move geared towards expanding its new services and technologies to support high-growth sectors like life sciences healthcare logistics, express delivery and logistics services provider DHL said this week that its DHL Global Forwarding group is taking several steps in that direction through some significant changes it has made at its 434,000 square-foot O’Hare airport facility in Chicago.

Some of the developments highlighted by DHL include an RFID passive and active tracking system installed in its Chicago facility, the DHL Global Forwarding network’s largest standalone airfreight facility, and a new alternative temperature management import and export solutions for life science and healthcare shippers that DHL said well cut down on demurrage costs, and new DHL SmartSensors that it said ensure temperature-sensitive shipments.  

Another offering introduced by DHL Global Forwarding, in an effort to augment warehouse automation, is the installation of new weight and dimensional technology that enables packages to be processed more quickly and efficiently.

DHL Global Forwarding US CEO David Goldberg touted the myriad benefits of the company’s Chicago O’Hare airport facility in an interview.

“It is centrally located with all major flights in and out of Chicago,” he said. “A lot of cargo lift both domestic and international. Our shipments can reach most points via ground in two days. There is also an abundance of temperature controlled trucking and back up facilities and a specialized LSH and temperature controlled employee training. The building is also a Foreign Trade Zone and bonded Container Freight Station located in the Chicago O’Hare International Airport’s cargo zone.”

Goldberg added that the $35 million facility is DHL Global Forwarding’s largest air export gateway facility with 434,000 square footage and also a Life Science Cold Chain Certified Competency Center in the U.S., with specialized storage capabilities dedicated to life science and healthcare goods including temperature controlled large short term storage for both 2-8 C and 15-25 C and smaller frozen capability.

“We are able to process any pharmaceutical, biotech and medical devices that need to be in a temperature-controlled environment and have Good Distribution Practices (GDP) compliant cold chambers that follow the guidelines for the proper distribution of medicinal products for human use,” he explained.

The new services in this facility have been developed with updated technology, which, Goldberg said, provides more efficient and faster information to its customers about their shipments.

“For example traditional weight/dim involved putting cargo on a scale, printing a scale ticket, manually attaching the scale ticket to a dimension sheet, and using a tape measure to measure the length width and height,” he said. “This was extremely labor intense and takes a fair amount of time.  With the new technology scales will be incorporated into forklifts, which are also fitted with scale ticket printers, which will pass under a fixed dimension measurement unit that will take the length, width and height of the shipment, and send the data to the scale ticket printer, where the dimensions and weight will then print on the label. The time savings would equate to approximately 15 – 20 seconds per piece which equals 111 hours per week of time savings for export shipments.”  

Looking to the future, Goldberg said that possible future developments for DHL out of facility include increasing its footprint for temperature controlled services and space as life sciences and healthcare will continue to remain a priority for its business with the company seeing increased future growth already.