The global freight industry is a highly sensitive commodity. Numerous inevitable and often unavoidable events ranging from extreme weather to environmental risks and, both human and man-made disasters, can trigger a series of events that can create catastrophic disruption, increase freight spend, and diminish brand value at a breakneck pace.
The Facts
Global shipping consultancy Drewry’s ‘Container Forecaster‘ report clearly illustrates that supply chain managers have significant concerns in this industry that’s already struggling amidst escalating geopolitical tensions and a slowing global economy fuelled by the US-China Trade War.
The Why
Increased spot rates, vessels out of service, and containers rolled make deploying technology that enables end-to-end supply chain visibility business-critical. Doing so allows businesses to connect all stakeholders in the logistics process, gain a competitive advantage, and remain relevant.
The How
Container tracking features such as those provided by Gravity, ensure you don’t just have eyes on a vessel, but have crucial full visibility into the exact location of your goods. The technology also provides critical information into the overall in-transit condition of your cargo throughout the critical path, at a consolidated or SKU level view, and is always in real time. The automation of essential processes leads to decreases in the time and costs it takes to handle goods and subsequently enables you as a business to make fact-based decisions with certainty.
The Need
Businesses must take control of their cargo from the point of origin to the final destination. The 2018 BCI Supply Chain Resilience Report states that:
Real time container tracking visualizes the path of all your containers across multiple carriers, enabling you to take complete control.
Live exception management alerts can warn you about potential disruptions, such as delays, vessel changes, or strikes. This critical information can get accessed in real time, 24/7.
The benefits..?
You can appreciate significant differences in your inventory planning and increase overall efficiency levels to ensure you’re not only ahead of your competitor but are also gaining an indisputable advantage over them.
Stay ahead… ACT, don’t react
Thinking on your feet is essential in this fast-paced environment. However, there can and will be many disruptions thwarting your supply chain planning, and these will, in turn, place timings, budget, and ultimately the customer experience at risk.
According to research performed by the Logistics Bureau, only 22% of companies have a proactive supply chain network and indicate the types of events that can lead to supply chain disruptions are:
- Mergers & acquisitions 66%
- Extreme weather 41%
- Factory fire 37%
- Business sale 33%
Be proactive
Consider the amount and quality of information that can get provided by a supply chain management platform.
Predictive technology doesn’t just show you what’s going on now; it can also anticipate future issues by analyzing the data to establish the level of potential risks. Such disruptions might be those caused by incremental weather patterns, sudden shifts in the industry landscape, or natural disasters.
With enhanced levels of visibility, you can act on foreseeable issues ahead of time instead of reacting after the disruption has occurred. In this way, businesses can avoid costs incurred as a result of lost or delayed shipments.
Master carrier performance
The weeks before global celebrations or other seasonal events taking place, need supply chain managers to leverage ‘all hands on deck’ tactics. During these peak seasons, carriers will always ship higher-yielding shipments, which can easily disrupt regular contracted agreements resulting in delays.
A supply chain management platform helps you navigate situations such as this, with features such as real time KPI reporting ensuring that you can stay ahead of the game.
The tools provided by platforms such as Gravity, enable users to compare the performance of different carriers over time and offer fact-based assessments that rely on actual data, providing valuable insights to businesses when negotiating new contracts.
There is no disputing that investing in supply chain technology that provides end to end visibility is worth the investment. Multimodal container tracking mitigates risks and optimizes efficiency by detecting issues before they occur, benefiting both your timings and your budget but, most importantly, increasing customer satisfaction and subsequent retention.
Sounds too good to be true?
It’s not… it’s reality! Check out Gravity Supply Chain Solutions’ cloud based real time visibility and execution platform to understand the benefits you can achieve.
Contact us, and one of our experienced team will be more than happy to discuss your requirements. We want to ensure the very best opportunities get aligned with your needs. If you’re already confident and ready to take the next step, why not schedule a discovery session to see how Gravity can benefit your business?
