Digital Supply Chain Journey: Real-Time Monitoring to Live Situational Awareness
The continued development of real-time monitoring (RTM) capabilities such as RFID, IoT devices, GPS tracking, electronic logging devices (ELD), etc., can be a good thing for shippers who need to stay aware of the real-time location and condition of their shipment. As often the case, too much of a good thing presents a challenge. The proliferation of RTM capabilities means there is more things to monitor than ever before. The challenge to find signal through the massive data noise is continually increasing.
To illustrate this point, consider the potential amount of information available for a single temperature-controlled shipment – there is often;
- an IoT device affixed to the product’s packaging
- a device as part of the thermo-protected packaging unit
- the ELD of the truck that moved the goods from the port to a warehouse
- ambient temperature and security information from the warehouse
- proof of delivery data from the small parcel carrier that delivers the package to the door of the recipient
- numerous amounts of environmental event data available across the shipment’s entire end-to-end journey.
…This is to say nothing about the product, cost, rate, potential disruption, or customer details that are also available.
We frequently see companies taking advantage of RTM while neglecting to consider the full potential of capabilities from this data. They are often only concerned about the short-term outcome resulting from the pings collected from the RTM device on their shipment. This is not a bad thing. We have seen early shipment interventions from potential temperature excursions amount to meaningful business value. However, our customers quickly move past this initial use case and find value drivers by fusing the RTM information with other information and insights available across a global end-to-end supply chain.
TransVoyant solution
TransVoyant customers view RTM as one step towards their strategic imperative for live situational awareness and actionable intelligence to measure, monitor and improve global supply chain performance and customer experience. These customers chose broader value drivers and broader capabilities as the core of their global digital transformation. They understand RTM is only one building block of their objective…living situational awareness. Although it sounds futuristic, these capabilities and the resulting live actionable intelligence are deployed and operational with TransVoyant customers today.
Know what you don’t know.
© 2024 TransVoyant, Inc. All rights reserved.