Improve Supply Chain with IoT Data
By Carolina Ruiz • Published January 31, 2020 • 4 minute read
In PwC’s 22nd Annual Global CEO Survey trends series*, 77% of global CEOs surveyed reported they are planning activities focused on operational efficiencies in the next 12 months to drive revenue growth. With freight management technology being a massive catalyst for delivering a lot of these efficiencies, more companies realize how the Internet of Things (IoT) can quickly impact their entire operation and are ramping up their initiatives to stay ahead of the competition.
With the rise of intermodal freight demands to meet global e-commerce demands, organizations are forced to seek more streamlined data insight and implement leaner business processes. Sensor-based hardware has become more readily available, with suppliers lowering costs to compete in a saturated market.
The transportation and logistics space is also attracting a younger workforce, and they are bringing new ideas and new processes paired with this new technology to an industry that has traditionally been slow to adopt. What was once seen as complex and long-tail integrations of systems can now be implemented quickly through scalable business practices, new apps, and a network of global logistics partners ready to take on end-to-end freight management needs.
Visibility across the supply chain is imperative now that real-time tracking of packages has become the standard for the consumer. We’re seeing more medium-sized and small shippers even offering real-time tracking of packages and delivery times within 24 hours of online orders. This presents a huge challenge for logistics providers that are not tapping into monitoring and asset management technology. They lack the visibility of their shipment status across multiple modes of transport, which can eliminate challenges relating to the time of delivery, consolidation of freight, theft, and quick customer reconciliations.
Data consumption is also a challenge when first implementing new freight management systems. Information needs to be extracted promptly and delivered in such a way that everyone, from the logistics provider to the end-user, understands how to apply it to their business. For 3PL’s, this may mean improving driver routes or the consolidation of shipments, which can have a huge impact on margins.
The Internet of Things has penetrated almost every market to date, creating efficiencies across entire organizations from IT to customer support, to finance. It’s no surprise that freight providers are placing a heavy emphasis on integrating these new forms of technology to optimize their business and drive revenue growth.
Sources: * https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey/2019/Theme-assets/reports/pwc_2019_t-l.pdf
