Posted On February 13, 2019
Supply chain experts at global consulting firm A.T. Kearney recently published the four most important trends in supply chain management in 2019:
- Emerging technologies
- Supply chain visibility
- The sharing economy
- Evolving customer channels
All four are important, and we could spend this entire post talking about how much we love certain aspects of the sharing economy (looking at you, AirBnB).
Instead, we are going to talk about visibility.
It wasn’t long ago—or at least it doesn’t feel like that long ago—that visibility in your supply chain pretty much consisted of two sets of digits: a tracking number and a telephone number. At best. At worst, shipments went into the great unknown before they (hopefully, but not always) arrived at the intended destination on time.
That won’t cut it in the modern economy.
Shippers and customers expect to know exactly where a shipment is at any given moment. Maximum visibility allows shippers to identify and eliminate problems within a supply chain. That visibility is especially essential as shippers rely on the multimodal supply chains often required in an increasingly urbanized world.
The experts at A.T. Kearney argue that in the near future, emerging technologies like big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain will naturally increase visibility. Those experts are right. However, an inevitable increase in visibility as these technologies become more commonplace won’t give shippers the strategic advantage they are looking for today. And by the time blockchain and IoT are naturally capturing a shipment’s every move, visibility will be even more of an expectation and even less a way to separate your company from the competition.
Thankfully you don’t have to wait for the further emergence of IoT and blockchain to increase visibility in your supply chain. At Flat World Supply Chain, visibility is what we do.
How do we help our customers increase visibility in their supply chain as their shipment moves from ships to trains to trucks to their customer’s door or loading dock?
By using the industry’s most innovative transportation management system (TMS).
Pipeline™ Transportation Management System (TMS), Flat World Supply Chain’s proprietary TMS, provides a suite of web-native modules, including:
- A multi-carrier rating engine.
- Mode/shipment optimization.
- Shipping execution.
- Tools to increase visibility.
- Robust database functionality and reporting features.
- A point-and-click user interface for the practical user.
Pipeline™ provides transportation professionals with the tools they need to add value to their company—and it provides shipping managers with the ability to tell their company’s customers the status and location of a shipment that is unmatched by any other TMS.
Prologue Technology (a Flat World Holdings company) and Flat World Supply Chain deliver a level of visibility unmatched in today’s market. If you’re interested in a demo, we would be proud to show you the TMS developed by a team of supply chain experts and experienced transportation-management professionals.
And we would be even prouder to call you our customer, and the next member of the Flat World family.
