Today I want to get granular on two topics which are essential if you plan to bring your supply chain to excellence. We have asked Supply Chain Managers around the globe where they reckon the highest potential for improvements along their chains in general. It came out, that real time visibility and information is crucial. I am not talking about tracking services as you might know it from express parcel services. I am talking about real time visibility over the information that is coming directly from the cargo, for instance a sea freight container. Let’s call this information knowledge. Imagine if you would know the conditions inside your container, like temperature and humidity and get enhanced ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) calculation based on for example vessel positions, instead of simple point-to-point tracking information. This is what I call knowledge and this is what is giving you the power to manage your shipments actively. This must not longer be a nice-to-have, with arviem you can get this already today.
One platform, one dashboard for real time visibility
Based in the heart of Switzerland arviem is about to be a melting pot for global cargo monitoring. arviem’s knowledge and understanding of the global sea freight business and trade lanes is the basis for its web application. On workshops we sit together with interested parties and discuss their situation and analyze whether and where our services help the most.
As I wrote before, the arviem system is much more than a simple real time tracking service. Because arviem is monitoring the conditions inside of your sea cargo container and arviem is delivering the information you need: geo zone transitions, door openings, temperature or humidity alerts, and many more. And on your personal arviem dashboard you can find all your shipments by one click and get an instant overview on the, for instance, delays of your shipments. The arviem dashboard also provides preset reports which show you exactly where the most alerts were generated over a certain period. Or where most of the delays take place.
All these gadgets are very useful and presented in a nice and tidy environment, but before you can really begin to manage your cargo actively you will also have to…
…Attack prejudices
Bring yourself back into the driver seat, examine and steer your shipments. It is time to stop blind trust on your logistics service provider. Get the information you need in real time and take the chance to actively manage your cargo! But what does that mean and how you can reach that target?
Well, first you have to get rid of prejudices you might have, like
– the tracking service of your logistics service provider is always right
– the routes our service providers take are optimized
– the conditions booked are observed and maintained correctly
because if, what is listed above was true, why differ the transport costs and lead times that heavily? And why do we face 30% of the world’s cargo shipments either delayed, damaged or stolen? The arviem system cannot prevent your shipments from acts of God but we can at least give you real time visibility, notifications on conditions and events like for example door openings, delays, temperature exceedances and many more. All of this information is the basis for your actions and next steps which are bringing your processes closer to excellence.
