Modern supply chains are highly complex and are inevitably subject to disruptions. To some extent, visibility has been essential for optimal performance. The volatility, disruptions and vulnerabilities that define the supply chain today – made all the more prominent by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic – has put the spotlight on real-time visibility like never before.These are the findings of a recent research study conducted by Transport Intelligence (Ti) in an attempt to determine the selection criteria that shippers use when choosing transport devices.The survey results demonstrate the high priority shippers assign to carriers that provide real-time visibility.According to Project 44, the creator of an advanced visibility platform for shippers and logistics service providers, solving any supply chain problem these days requires a technology expert.In this regard, companies intent on introducing tech solutions such as real-time visibility will find themselves at a competitive advantage in the future as this basic requirement will become central when choosing a service provider.Project 44 maintains that real-time visibility is, however, only a means to an end rather than an end in itself. As a crucial enabler in optimising the supply chain across multiple dimensions, it helps shippers limit costs, improve efficiencies in back-end operations, and source capacity at higher service levels, while gaining data-driven insights into their supply chain to improve on-time performance, customer service, sustainability and predictability.In a White Paper, Project 44 and Ti argue that real-time visibility is now considered more important than factors such as customer service, safety record, geographical coverage and even sustainability. The research, they claim in the paper, highlights that it is considered a critical service differentiator by shippers. “The volatile demand, uncertain supply, capacity shortages and transport delays experienced during the Cov id-19 pandemic have uncovered pain points within the supply chain that improved visibility can ease,” reads the paper. “This is likely to increase the importance shippers attach to real-time visibility and carrier on-time performance when selecting transport partners.”Words such as “closure”, “congestion” and “capacity shortages” have become synonymous with the movement of freight over the past two years as Covid-19 brought supply chains crashing down. This lack of resilience highlighted the need for visibility. Whilst the ongoing advances in technology have reduced the barriers to access and operating costs of these systems, thereby allowing more companies to introduce track-and-trace systems, the competitive advantage no longer lies just in providing some kind of visibility, but also in the ability to share information in real time with multiple parties.According to Ti, cargo in the custody of a single carrier or forwarder has always seen visibility data that is available and good; it is when shipments involve multiple parties that it becomes sub-optimal.“Our research has found that only 20% of shippers claim visibility across all regions and all modes, while it also ref lects that only 20% of carriers provide visibility into partner operations,” according to the paper. “This makes it very difficult to balance cost against performance when choosing logistics partners.”
