Faster than ever, supply chains today are adopting new digital technologies. From track and trace capabilities to machine learning, advanced analytics, and integrated systems, companies are improving transparency, increasing speed, and managing unexpected challenges in their supply chains.
With too numerous digitalization opportunities to name, we can look at digitalization just from the perspective of the shipping container—an essential component of most global supply chains. When container operations are optimized, it opens the door to competitive advantages like increased agility, resilience, and cost savings simply by leveraging container-based analytics and end-to-end visibility along with quality data.
How Container-Operation Optimization Fits Within the Digital Supply Chain
Digital evolution has brought us to the digital supply chain, and at the center of any supply chain lies the shipping container. No matter how advanced a supply chain becomes, its efficiency relies partly on the effective movement and management of containers. Digitalization has given container operations access to more data and controllable variables than ever before, giving companies insights into the following areas:
- Container Tracking – Using real-time tracking, companies always know where their shipments are during transit. This enables them to make optimized, responsive decisions and take proactive approaches to identifying improvement opportunities.
- Port and Terminal Operations – Companies can optimize the movement and logistics of containers within ports. This means shipments make it to the next leg of the journey faster and more efficiently, reducing delays and avoiding the costly accumulation of fees.
- Optimized Routing – Companies can ensure their shipments travel via the most efficient routes, considering factors like weather and port congestion. This saves time and costs while also reducing the chances of unexpected delays.
Without the support of digital technology, companies are left trying to contend with the obstacles of:
- Siloed Data – Without digital tools, the manual processes required to access updated information are time-consuming and error-prone.
- Limited Visibility – Once the norm for ocean freight, limited visibility is now a detriment that increases the chances of inefficient operations down the chain and delayed shipments.
- Complex Coordination – Communication suffers when it does not have the support of streamlined tools, helping companies align all moving logistical pieces of the chain that the container depends on.
Companies need the tools to manage these challenges and avoid unnecessarily high costs due to inefficiencies, reduced responsiveness, and a limited ability to manage risk.
Leveraging Technology for Container Optimization
By integrating advanced solutions into their operations, companies can add layers of efficiency and data-driven insight to the supply chain, helping them optimize their container operations. Here are three keys to accomplishing this:
1. Leveraging End-to-End Visibility
Companies must have a holistic view of the entire container journey, in other words, end-to-end visibility to manage containers at every point from pickup to the destination.
This is where Vizion helps shippers—with the coverage of 99% of global shipments, guaranteeing they get consistent data regardless of their choice of carrier. Vizion combines data from different sources to ensure that businesses have access at all times to the status of their shipments, even after the container reaches the port and, for intermodal shipments, as they continue via rail.
2. Ensuring Data Accuracy
End-to-end visibility would be nothing without data accuracy. For container tracking, this means having a multifaceted, real-time approach to data collection.
Vizion provides enhanced accuracy with a variety of sources, including terrestrial and satellite AIS and geo-fencing at ports and terminals. This approach ensures a significantly higher degree of reliability compared to the data that carriers provide. Then, by integrating into ERPs and TMSs, this data is delivered error-free to fit within existing workflows, saving users from manual processes with inconsistent results.
3. Prioritizing Actionable Analytics
Adding another layer of deeper value, companies need actionable analytics from their container data for decision-making that leads to optimization.
Vizion provides port performance insights to identify high-performing ports, detect issues like bottlenecks, and guide strategic routing decisions to improve delivery times and reduce costs. Shippers also get the ability to monitor container volumes between global port pairs, so they can predict trends, understand trade routes, and plan proactively for demand surges or drops.
Elevate Your Container Management with Vizion
With a focus on optimization for container operations, shippers can build efficient and resilient supply chains, discovering improvement opportunities that save money and keep them prepared to manage unexpected obstacles.
Reach out to Vizion and learn more about what container-level visibility and insights can do for your shipping operations.
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