Live Supply Chain Situational Awareness: Final-Mile Delivery
The final mile stage of delivery for supply chains are the most costly, complex and critical as the experience and expectations of individuals and key customer groups are felt mostly during this stage. Adding to the complexity are the risks inherent with shipping disruptions and quality of products while in transit. Parcels require 24/7 monitoring, ensuring on time and in full, proof of delivery, and cost avoidance. However, if Covid has taught us anything about home delivery, it is that the customer’s expectations for a seamless experience will not change.
Final-mile delivery teams face a myriad of challenges, including:
- distribution of route information to courier network is often done via EDI which is expensive and require high maintenance
- no tracking system of orders – customers get notifications only at delivery
- no alert system for exceptions notification
- no understanding of delivery performance
- no confidence in providing delivery windows to the customers.
A modern delivery visibility system helps overcome these challenges through digitalizing operations, acting as a Virtual Logistics Control Tower and at the same time as a middleware for all data transmissions between the company and it’s courier network, enabling it to:
- provide live insight and status information to sales and customer service teams
- monitor shipments real-time status and take action based on the latest updates
- confirm proof of delivery with digital signature
- improve track-and-trace transparency
- support a pay-for-performance model through scorecarding LSPs to identify low performers and improve their metrics.
Rethinking technology for full transparency of delivery is a critical factor to business survival and a must to gain a competitive advantage. By providing a digital user experience customers have come to expect, sales and service teams share transparent views of their orders’ location at any given time, significantly reducing “where is my stuff?” calls.
