In 2018, as part of a company-wide effort to focus more fully on its core competencies, lighting pioneer Signify had started evaluating potential logistics partners to outsource its warehousing operations in the US. As the world leader in professional connected lighting systems, Signify was looking to partner with a company that was also a recognized leader in its industry.

DHL Supply Chain ultimately won the bid, in part because the two companies share many of the same corporate values. These include a commitment to innovation and R&D, ambitious sustainability goals, an emphasis on good corporate citizenship, a collaborative approach to worker safety and well-being, and a strong determination to grow and remain profitable. From the outset, both companies understood that a DHL-Signify partnership could deliver value far beyond the original plan to outsource Signify’s warehouse operations, as important as that was.

The two companies began working together in 2018 to co-create a warehouse with smart lighting that would leverage each company’s strengths while also serving as a vision and blueprint for how other companies could effectively digitalize the lighting in their logistics operations. In return for taking over their supply chain operations, Signify would offer DHL Supply Chain the latest and most transformative industrial lighting technology and related services, putting it all to work at a selected DHL site. If the initial pilot program succeeded, the companies would look to leverage this lighting technology in other DHL facilities, adding advanced, data-driven IoT capabilities as the lighting system design matured.