10 questions about real-time transportation visibility
Transportation visibility is gaining momentum, fast becoming a ‘must-have’ solution for many companies, regardless of size, geography or industry.
According to IBM, 84 percent of chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) cited lack of visibility as their biggest challenge. Visibility is among the top three funded investment initiatives prioritized for many (46%) supply chain organizations, says Gartner.
Furthermore, in a survey by Supply Chain Media among 106 European supply chain directors and managers from the worlds of manufacturing, wholesale and retail, 27% of companies with an above-average level of supply chain maturity intend to invest in real-time transport visibility. And five out of the 10 logistics service providers surveyed separately expressed plans to implement such software in the coming year.
From reactive to predictive
In classic transport visibility, information on the location of goods is manually entered or transmitted at regular intervals by EDI. Because this information is only exchanged and made available potentially hours after transport events occur, it is less reliable and does not allow for proactivity.
The next phase is real-time visibility, where data is collected from systems, such as smartphones, Internet of Things devices and APIs, in real-time to provide live location information of goods at any given moment. The information is reliable and allows for thorough post- delivery performance analysis.
For companies to gain predictive visibility, the information collected needs to be cross-checked in real-time against previously collected data, such as road traffic, estimated delivery times, and routes, to accurately calculate an estimated time of arrival (ETA). These insights make it possible to alert stakeholders of problems such as delays several hours or days in advance.
Shippeo has drawn up a checklist to make clear whether your company has an optimal delivery service. Answer these 10 questions and find out whether the transportation visibility of your company is below par, reasonable or optimal.
For a more in depth evaluation of how real-time visibility can unlock value in your supply chain, get in touch with our team of experts.
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