Bridgestone’s Real-Time Digital Logistics

By Brian Lindenmeyer

At TransVoyant we often hear, “I’d just like to know where my stuff is,” and after that, “Why was my stuff delayed?” The truth is that many companies are not even notified until the shipment has already been delayed, even beyond its original date.  

While many organizations may be content to just know where their stuff is, that still creates the problem of addressing both bottlenecks and disruptions. Supply chain managers may be able to correct that one problem, but they don’t have insight into why it occurred or how to prevent it from happening again.  

We help our clients understand where their shipments are at any given moment, and what condition they are in. In addition to that, we share details about why disruptions are happening, plus prescriptive recommendations on actions to take. Here are just a few examples of how Bridgestone used those real-time and prescriptive insights to get ahead of disruption and preserve resources.  

Bridgestone Supply Chain Operations

Bridgestone and Firestone are one company, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The American headquarters, in Nashville, spans from Canada to Argentina. The company has been in business since 1931 and vies with Michelin annually for the top tire manufacturer globally.  

The company makes tires globally, from motorcycle tires all the way up to giant mining machine tires. Bridgestone’s American logistics team imports and exports approximately 50,000 containers a year, and all those shipments are timely. For each one, the team works with a group of freight forwarders, customs brokers, and carriers, who all provide bills of lading or other documents that list the shipping date and other key information.  

That sets the stage. Bridgestone’s head of logistics and trade compliance had these same questions referenced earlier, namely how could Bridgestone see their shipments, and why were they being delayed? We helped them answer those questions, and here’s how the logistics team immediately leveraged that data in three different use cases to save time and money.  

Tires Stuck in the Suez Canal

In 2021, the Suez Canal was infamously blocked for a number of days with the Ever Given vessel. Bridgestone uses the Canal quite frequently for outbound shipping from Asia. At one point there were almost 370 ships waiting to go through the Canal, and Bridgestone’s logistics team was facing questions from all sides about whether their shipment would be affected.  

Without TransVoyant, the logistics team had to dig up part numbers and raw materials data and match that to containers. They had to look up every bill of lading, check the routing, then go to the carrier website to uncover the information. This is critical information because the team needs to know exactly which tires are in which containers.  

TransVoyant’s platform allowed Bridgestone’s team to pinpoint a geographic area and pull all the shipments into a data format showing what’s on those shipments right down to the order and SKU number. Bridgestone was able to see in minutes what previously would have taken three or four days.   

The team knew in less than an hour exactly what was on which vessels, and which vessels were going to be impacted. They also could see which vessels were going to make it through the Canal.  

Screen shot of digital logistics tracking shipments through the Suez Canal
Figure 1: When the Suez Canal was blocked, TransVoyant’s digital logistics platform showed Bridgestone real-time data on which shipments and SKUs were delayed and for how long.

Armed with that level of detail, the team was able to determine that they needed to air shift inventory to meet the delivery deadline for some of the OEM tires.

Raw Materials Delayed by Disruption

When Hamas attacked Israeli targets last year, that also affected the Suez Canal. Almost all natural rubber, which is part of Bridgestone’s core manufacturing, is sourced from Asia and must reach manufacturing plants in the U.S., Mexico, and South America.  

The Hamas disruption quickly added significant lead time to Bridgestone’s manufacturing process – within a month the lead time jumped by 30%. While Bridgestone tries to keep a 60-day supply on hand, that supply can sometimes run low due to quality issues.   

Typically, Bridgestone would upload and review lead times monthly based on historical data. But simply analyzing historical data is no longer useful during disruption. Instead, Bridgestone turned to TransVoyant. They were able to analyze historical lead times more quickly, and then compare that to predicted arrival times (PTA) to reveal what the new lead times needed to be. That enabled the logistics team to get updated information to the planning team to analyze and update.  

It turned out that Bridgestone didn’t need to order backup materials immediately, but for the subsequent month they needed to adjust lead times.

Arrival Times Don’t Match Up

With ocean carriers, companies receive expected lead times – say, 32 days. A logistics manager then programs 32 days of lead time into the tracking system, and that’s usually that. But with TransVoyant, Bridgestone watches shipments in real time, then compares those to the contracted lead times with the carrier.  

Bridgestone noticed that with shipments from a manufacturing facility in Costa Rica, inventories were consistently running slow – up to 80 days.  

The shipper data showed routing from the Port of Limon through the Panama Canal up to Seattle with no transshipment. But when managers looked at the real-time data on the shipment, they saw there was a transshipment point in Panama where the container was scheduled to get off the vessel and go to a new vessel. The timestamps revealed that the vessel was then stopping at multiple ports, instead of the contracted route of direct from Panama to Seattle.  

Taking that non-conformity back to the carrier, Bridgestone was able to work with them on finding a different, and faster, lane option. They also adjusted lead times to be more accurate. 

Bridgestone was able to save millions of dollars in detention and demurrage.

Conclusion: Bridgestone’s Takeaways

With TransVoyant, Bridgestone tells us that they have a single source of truth for instant real-time information down to the SKU level, and all the data and dashboards integrate with carrier platforms. The logistics team builds self-service reports on the fly that they can share with other stakeholders. Bridgestone’s operation is a perfect illustration of our mission brought to life: course-correcting the world’s supply chains.

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