The Visible Supply Chain
Introduction: What Does Visibility Mean to You?
It’s a critical question, yet one that many enterprises struggle to answer clearly.
The reality is that supply chain visibility is an abstract term. If you take 10 different companies and ask them to define what visibility means to them, you’ll likely get 10 different answers. Some view visibility as a transportation-specific function. Others break it down further, viewing visibility as a mode-specific capability.
Best-in-class enterprises, however, look at visibility as broadly as possible. That is to say, they want visibility across as many supply chain-related processes as feasible. That might include something as far upstream as raw material procurement and as far downstream as final mile delivery to an e-commerce consumer.
This need for visibility is directly related to the speed of the supply chain. Firms can react individually and meet the need for speed by building up inventory and buffers. Supply chains can also respond more efficiently to demand by having greater visibility for all of the firms. This requires a ‘we’ mentality. Tomorrow’s efficient and effective supply chains will operate at the ‘Speed of We’©.
There’s a problem though: there is a critical gap between that which supply chain executives want and what’s available. That slows down the supply chain.
Historical Roadblocks to Supply Chain Visibility
Companies that hope to achieve end-to-end visibility, including critical areas like transportation and inventory management, find themselves cobbling together data from several sources, and feeding that data into a variety of systems. That’s suboptimal to say the least.
Here are the problems:
• Data is plentiful these days, but is rarely standardized, normalized, or structured across transportation modes
• Transportation data isn’t synced well with complementary supply chain data around warehousing, inventory, fulfillment, and production
• Data latency and accuracy is a major problem, primarily due to antiquated data formats and transmission timeframes
• System implementations and integrations are lengthy and costly, creating a reluctance to engage in complex cross-functional visibility projects
There are two other things to consider:
• Shippers typically labor under the weight of too many disconnected systems, either internally operated or provided by logistics providers (or both)
• Shippers often don’t even know where to start when it comes to pulling in, curating, and integrating vital visibility data
by Karl B. Manrodt, Ph.D.
email: [email protected]
Mary C. Holcomb, Ph.D.
email: [email protected]
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