What is Shipment Visibility and Why Does It Matter for Agile Businesses?
Introduction
Shipment visibility is the ability to track and monitor the movement and status of goods and materials as they move through the supply chain, from the point of origin to the destination. It provides businesses with real-time information on the location, status, and condition of their shipments, which can help them to improve efficiency, reduce costs, mitigate risk, and enhance customer satisfaction.
Why is Shipment Visibility Important for Agile Businesses?
Agile businesses are those that can quickly adapt to change and meet the needs of their customers in a timely and efficient manner. Shipment visibility is essential for agile businesses because it allows them to:
- Improve efficiency: By tracking the movement of their shipments in real time, agile businesses can identify potential bottlenecks and take corrective action to minimize delays. This can help them to improve their on-time delivery performance and reduce lead times.
- Reduce costs: Visibility on shipments can help agile businesses to reduce costs by optimizing their transportation routes and reducing inventory levels. They can also use shipment visibility to negotiate better rates with carriers.
- Mitigate risk: Visibility can help agile businesses to mitigate risk by identifying potential disruptions in the supply chain and taking steps to mitigate them. For example, if a shipment is delayed at customs, an agile business can use shipment visibility to identify the cause of the delay and take steps to expedite the process.
- Enhance customer satisfaction: Visibility can help agile businesses to enhance customer satisfaction by providing customers with real-time updates on the status of their shipments. This can help to reduce customer anxiety and improve the overall customer experience.
Challenges of Implementing Shipment Visibility
While shipment visibility offers a number of benefits, it also presents some challenges, including:
- Cost: Implementing and maintaining a shipment visibility system can be expensive.
- Complexity: Such systems can be complex to implement and manage.
- Data integration: They need to be integrated with other systems, such as ERP and CRM systems. This can be a complex and time-consuming process.
- Lack of standards: There is no single industry standard for it. This can make it difficult to choose the right system and to integrate it with other systems.
How to Implement Shipment Visibility
There are a number of steps that agile businesses can take to implement shipment visibility:
- Identify your needs: What are your specific goals ? What data do you need to track and monitor?
- Choose the right system: There are a variety of systems available on the market. Choose a system that meets your specific needs and budget.
- Integrate the system: Integrate your shipment visibility system with your other systems, such as ERP and CRM systems.
- Train your staff and external stakeholders: Train your staff as well as external stakeholders on how to use the shipment visibility system and how to interpret the data. CHAs, Freight brokers, truck drivers and your logistics team should be able to use the platform seamlessly to reap the compounded benefits of supply chain visibility.
- Monitor and improve: Monitor the performance of your visibility system and make improvements as needed.
Examples of How Agile Businesses Can Use Shipment Visibility
Here are a few examples of how agile businesses can use shipment visibility to improve their operations:
- Timely delivery of e-commerce goods: An e-commerce retailer can use shipment visibility to track the status of customer orders in real time. This allows the retailer to provide customers with accurate delivery estimates and to identify and resolve any potential problems early on.
- Optimized capacity utilization at production planning: A manufacturer can use visibility of shipments to track the movement of raw materials and finished goods. This allows the manufacturer to optimize their production schedules and inventory levels.
- Efficient tracking: A logistics provider can use it to track the movement of their customers’ shipments. This allows them to identify and mitigate potential delays, and to provide customers with real-time updates on the status of their shipments.
How GoComet Can Help Your Business Improve Shipment Visibility
GoComet’s shipment visibility solution is a cloud-based platform that provides businesses with real-time visibility into the location, status, and condition of their shipments. GoComet integrates with a wide range of carrier systems, so businesses can track their shipments from any carrier, anywhere in the world.
GoComet’s shipment visibility solution offers a number of features that can help businesses improve their operations, including:
- Real-time tracking: GoComet provides businesses with real-time updates on the location, status, and condition of their shipments. This allows businesses to identify and resolve potential problems early on.
- Proactive alerts: GoComet can send businesses proactive alerts about potential delays or other disruptions to their shipments. This allows businesses to take steps to mitigate the impact of these disruptions.
- Data analytics: GoComet provides businesses with data analytics tools that can help them to identify trends and patterns in their shipment data. This information can be used to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and mitigate risk.
Conclusion
Shipment visibility is an essential tool for agile businesses. By investing in shipment visibility, agile businesses can improve their efficiency, reduce costs, mitigate risk, and enhance customer satisfaction.
GoComet’s shipment visibility solution is a cloud-based platform that provides businesses with real-time visibility into the location, status, and condition of their shipments. GoComet can help businesses improve their operations, reduce costs, and mitigate risk.
If you are interested in learning more about how GoComet can help your business improve shipment visibility, please contact us today.
