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 and the challenge to find signal through the massive data noise is continually increasing.
How do you manage and make sense of all the available information there is to monitor? How do you find the actionable intelligence in the sea of living data? To illustrate this point, consider the potential amount of information available for a single temperature controlled (aka cold-chain) shipment – there is often an IoT device affixed to the product’s packaging; another device as part of the thermo-protected packaging unit; another device in the cargo container or cargo hold area of the aircraft or ocean vessel; the ELD of the truck that moved the goods from the port to a warehouse; a mobile application the driver has on a smart phone; device geofence technologies; ambient temperature and security information from the warehouse; proof of delivery data from the small parcel or LTL carrier that ultimately delivers the package to the door of the recipient; plus, numerous amounts of environmental event data (e.g. emissions) available across the shipments entire end to end journey. This is to say nothing about 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 monitoring data and the new business value broader capabilities and additional data unlock. 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 financial and customer service value drivers by fusing the RTM information with other information and insights available across a global end to end supply chain. The fusion leads to continuous digital transformation and live situational awareness that unlocks untapped value.
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 these broader value drivers and these broader capabilities as the core to 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.
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