Years ago, the baseline for visibility was simple track-and-trace—where’s my stuff? Today, companies have advanced far beyond that, especially when global disruptions throw supply chains into a tail-spin that makes recovery difficult.
Aside from a pandemic, we are now looking at the annual flu season approaching all over the world, and, like toilet paper, inventories of the “sneezing-sniffling-so-you-can-rest-medicine” are flying off local pharmacy shelves in anticipation. Real-time inventory systems are tasked to indicate stock levels in distribution centers, backrooms and on-store shelves. If indicators show over-the-counter cold and flu medicines are running low, internal alerts will be going off. These trigger the logistics teams to ship more from distribution centers, set-up as hubs for re-supply. The major pharma manufacturers are already keyed-into World Health Organization (WHO) data. They have already sensed the upcoming demand, so they are producing more at their factories, and ordering from their suppliers. It is essential for global health that the goods keep flowing.
This scenario isn’t farfetched in today’s fast-paced supply chain management. Shippers and their supply chain partners are gaining granular insight into the supply-and-demand sides of the supply chain and responding faster than ever to the needs of their customers at every step of the process. But the transportation and logistics teams are the ones who have to deliver – literally, and figuratively. In-transit visibility is pinnacle to ensure the goods are on the shelves when customers are looking for them.
Perhaps the most important value created with the right shipment visibility solution is the ability to be agile. The keyword being control; the converse of which is not in control. E2open’s shipment visibility solutions provide a new option for global companies. These applications start by providing a geolocation of your shipment while in-transit, builds-up to give you a better understanding of the predicted ETA by layering in historical and other impact data, which then helps you understand whether an early or late shipment really matters based on your inventory levels or demand.
To understand more, watch this short video that explains the importance of shipment visibility.
