Improving schedule reliability and reducing visibility blind spots are the current priorities for Scan Global Logistics. The company has increased its focus on researching and developing predicted estimated times of arrival (ETAs) solutions.ETAs have been gaining ground across the supply chain and are considered a game-changer when it comes to taking a more proactive approach, thanks to real-time visibility. Mads Drejer, the company’s global chief commercial officer and chief operating officer, explains: “We need to get ahead of the curve on potential delays, as opposed to only reacting after a delay occurs. “Transparency and early warnings on exceptions remain top of the list. Customers do not wish to hear about all the shipments that are going according to plan; they wish to be notified instantly once there is a deviation from a planned departure or arrival. “On top of this comes a more dynamic way of working with key performance indicators (KPIs). We see an increased focus on being able to use data to establish actual root causes, as opposed to only concluding if a KPI target has been met or not.”According to Drejer, predictive ETAs and real-time analytics or tracking are not the only technology trending at present. “Robotics, automation and big data analytics are all top of mind for supply chain managers,” he tells Freight News. “The trends are evolving. There seems to be a thirst for a digital revolution and disruption. We very much see it as a natural progression. “At Scan Global Logistics we do not subscribe to the notion that the industry has been sleeping for many years. We firmly believe that the complexity of what we do is far higher than what many give it credit for. “Blockchain was a few years ago hailed as an instant disruptor, but it has since gone very quiet. The obvious reason is that it is much more complex than what many had anticipated and this is not about to change.”Drejer says the adoption rate of technology is increasing rapidly in the freight sector. “However, as with all change, there are changes of direction along the way. Our approach is that systems support people, not people support systems. Self-service and full automation have been key drivers for many of our global competitors, but we see a clear trend that customers insist on maintaining some level of a people-service component, especially when it comes to exceptions and deviations. “The industry as a whole needs to be careful not to undervalue the complexity of what we do in the quest for automation.”One of the major challenges in the sector still lies in connecting and bridging the customer experience versus achieving and realising efficiency gains. “Much of the ongoing digitalisation work serves to improve efficiencies on the supplier side and does not serve to improve the customer experience. Many, of course, will claim that it does, but the reality is that in a low-margin industry efficiencies remain the holy grail.”
