Transport Operations Showcase SERIES

Visibility episode follow-up

Real-time visibility, check. But what’s next?

10/27/2023 | 8 min

Real-time visibility has been a trending topic in the logistics industry for the past couple of years. With supply chains run by both people and technology, logistics should be all about making people's lives easier so they can excel in what they're doing. Transport Operations is a solution that checks these boxes for more than one team.

The first webinar of the series, led by Jonathan Raemdonck, Head of Product Marketing at Transporeon, showcased a selection of visibility and execution-based use cases for each of the following fictional personas:

Els is responsible for inbound logistics, Jack is the warehouse manager, Tom is responsible for outbound transportation, Jessica is Head of Customer Service, and Mark is a Logistics Director.

Els is responsible for managing inbound logistics and ensuring that all inbound components arrive on time. She uses Transport Operations, which combines execution and visibility information in one view to show all inbound shipments and their status.

She can see if an order is in transit or ready for pickup, the estimated time of arrival, and all the available details - such as the materials, dimensions, packaging units, weights, and quantities. She can also visualise the current status of a shipment with all the different milestones and their status. Els can filter shipments by specific part numbers and even flag an order for close follow-up.

Jack, the warehouse manager, uses Transport Operations to see all the inbound and outbound shipments in one overview. He can see whether a shipment is scheduled, in transit, or delivered, the estimated time of arrival, and all the details available, such as the materials, dimensions, packaging units, weights, and quantities.

He can also visualise the current status of a shipment with all the different milestones and their status. Jack can optimise his loading docks and people with real-time visibility data linked to the slot booking application.

Tom, responsible for outbound transportation planning, uses Transport Operations to see all the outbound shipments in one overview. From here, he has a bird's-eye view of outbound shipments and the necessary data to balance costs with the expected service level. From his dashboard, he can stay on top of carrier KPIs and evaluate the performance of shipping lanes, shipping regions, and orders.

Jessica, Head of Customer Service, is not technically in logistics, but Transport Operations helps her deliver the best customer experience. As the Head of Customer Service, the main advantages to her using the platform include monitoring shipments for new customers to ensure they have an excellent experience with the company.

Another way she uses her dashboard is for opening incident tickets on shipments that need special attention. By categorising these tickets, she can monitor incident resolution time based on the type of issue.

Mark, the Logistics Director, uses Transport Operations to capture all the costs in one high-level overview. Here, he can see whether a shipment is scheduled, in transit, or delivered, the estimated time of arrival, and all the details available, such as the materials, dimensions, packaging units, weights, and quantities. He can pull data from an entire country or region to evaluate which carriers have the highest price per pallet, or what the costs per shipment are so they can operate more effectively.

We received a number of diligent questions from the webinar audience. The responses shared by our Product Experts are listed below:

How can you maintain multi-modal visibility in Transport Operations?

Transport Operations leverages the power of the Transporeon platform by connecting to carriers directly through API, and also to our Visibility Hub, which is the heartbeat of our visibility. Visibility Hub’s powerful AI capabilities enable us to acquire real-time ETA, asset positions and arrival/departure milestones, via its vast connectivity with onboard telematics, seaport and terminal integrations. It also aids tracking capabilities of ocean vessels and much more. Our data model has been built from the ground up, to model multimodal transports, taking into account all types of variations. For example, an end-to-end shipment that is being managed by a freight forwarder, or a multi-tiered approach, where specific haulages are managed by an NVOCC and subsequent carriages by the shipper. Transports Operations has the capability to manage the execution of multiple containers and visibility on the SKU line level.

Through our tight integration with Visibility Hub, we can obtain relevant positioning data that is mapped toward the assets and the SKU being shipped. Our users are able to track the movement of their cargo through the various intersections/stops as the shipments move across modalities en route to the final destination.

 

How can visibility be used to handle exceptions?

1. Our integration with Visibility Hub and our carrier network allows us to track containers with confidence and extend our reach beyond visibility. In addition, we are able to accurately track and calculate the demurrage and detention costs per container asset. In such cases, our users are able to monitor the remaining free time and react accordingly.

2. We also use visibility data to notify users when specific documents are due for submission – either when a shipment is ready for collection, x days prior to the scheduled pickup/delivery, or upon delivery or completion of the entire shipment. Our document management system includes a powerful workflow engine, which is able to send follow-up reminders and subsequently create an incident, when document documents are due or overdue.

3. Users can easily set up primary and secondary (follow-up) alerts, for cases such as  delayed shipments, missing tracking information, such as a license plate, or lost AIS signals. Users can also opt to have incidents automatically created when some of these exceptions occur, to ensure an audit trail and allow for a greater follow-up. Incidents are visually marked in the application and allows users (especially in a team set-up) to filter and manage these exceptions separately. Users managing these incidents can provide hour-by-hour updates, escalate to a supervisor, and initiate a chat or group chat with team members to collaboratively resolve the incident as quickly as possible.

Lastly, we provide a customer portal that allows our customers to monitor the execution of their shipments. We know from experience that this is a powerful toolset for our customers as it removes time-consuming manual communication with their end customers, especially when dealing with delays. This allows all efforts to be centered on resolving the delay or exception.

 

How are you as a provider approaching 100% coverage as we see in Europe, a big difference compared to the US?

Transporeon started in the European market and has grown into a platform we know and love. Since Trimble’s acquisition of Transporeon earlier this year, we have strengthened our position in the US market and around the globe.

 

Where does the data come from? 

This data comes from the calculated Freight Costs on all shipments originating from the targeted region (Germany in this example) - including breakdown of surcharges, extra costs, wait times, etc.

In conclusion, real-time visibility combined with Transport Operations helps different logistics teams with different needs and ultimately makes everyone's jobs easier.

  • Visualise the current status of a shipment with all the different milestones and their status, and optimise loading docks and people with real-time visibility data linked to the slot booking application.

  • See if an order is in transit or ready for pickup, the estimated time of arrival, and all the available details - such as the materials, dimensions, packaging units, weights, and quantities. 

  • Visualise the current status of a shipment with all the different milestones and their status and filter shipments by specific part numbers and even flag an order for close follow-up.

  • Get a bird's-eye view of outbound shipments and the necessary data to balance costs with the expected service level. 

  • Stay on top of carrier KPIs and evaluate the performance of shipping lanes, shipping regions, and orders.

  • Monitor new customers’ shipments to ensure they have an excellent experience with the company. 

  • Open incident tickets on shipments that need special attention and by categorising these happenings, you can monitor incident resolution time based on the type of issue. 

  • Pull data from an entire country or region to evaluate which carriers have the highest price per pallet or what the costs per shipment are so they can operate better.

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