Embrace Complexity through Automation in Supply Chain Management

In an ever-changing landscape, the logistics industry is catching the wave of technology advancement, process automation, and environmental preservation. To flourish in this era of competition, logistics companies must adapt swiftly to innovative technologies, instigating processes, and strategic approaches. With logistics technology to new heights, expect a future where prowess and authenticity define the industry.

There are several factors to be considered, such as new technologies to explore and use to our benefit, as well as shifting regulations that need new strategies and tactics for compliance. To stay ahead and competitive, logistics companies need to stay updated with emerging trends. Successful organizations are those that embrace the new trends and challenges in the logistics industry and make use of technology effectively to take advantage of them. So, what about you?

Major logistics trends that leaders are addressing in 2024:

Supply chain agility: Business occurs at a rapid speed due to the constant rollout of technological advancements and emerging supply chain trends. Companies and their supply chains must limber if they wish to remain ahead of the curve, logistics companies can gear the power of self-managed onboarding, as well as change and exception management.

Self-managed services give direct, hands-on control to the businesses, rather than relying on outside entities to finish up the tasks. Whereas, if your business is self-managing its integration solution, your team can immediately begin the onboarding process. There is no pendency of requests that must be completed beforehand, so your business can begin trading with your new client relationship.

Shortage of labor globally: The logistics and 3 PL industry tussles with a blazing issue: a global labor shortage that persists. This shortage contributes to huge costs of goods, affecting their production and delivery. To tackle the shortage of labor, manufacturers and logistics providers turn to automation. Warehousing processes witness increasing automation, with machines now responsible for picking up the products and executing packing. Transportation is also welcoming automation. Europe leads the way in experimenting with automated trucking. Companies venturing into driverless trucks, starting with two-truck units where the first truck has a human driver, while the second truck copies the driving patterns of the first.

Welcoming complexity through automation: Automation is a crucial resource for modern businesses since it diminishes costs and increases efficiencies; also it frees your staff to do other, more productive activities.

Logistics companies can harness the power of automation by implementing full integration between WMS/ERP back-end systems and many of the increasingly popular e-commerce solutions.

Companies continue to implement more and more platforms and systems in their business operations to gather more information than ever before. Data is very useful for making business decisions. However, the growth of applications and/or platforms also means the spread of information to different destinations. It requires users to move between software solutions to find and compile information, which is an extremely time-consuming and daunting process. Data collection is also prone to error because it is manually taken by a human.

WMS/ERP and e-commerce integration can greatly improve the data flow of your business by automatically sourcing and compiling critical data from various locations. This information is then presented in one central location, reducing the time users spend hunting for relevant information. The information provided is also updated as it is collected in real-time. In addition, data is presented in an organized, visually appealing, and easy-to-understand format.

With simplified data flows, your team can optimize operational monitoring and management. By integrating WMS/ERP and e-commerce, your team has access to more complete data and a better understanding of business processes. These insights highlight areas for improvement. Your company can then analyze this information to optimize processes. The information can be used to optimize supply chain management, forecasting, quality control, and supply management, for example.

Customers demand real-time data: Companies like Amazon has greatly influenced consumer shopping behaviors and expectations. Its trading partners and consumers now expect continuous updates on order location and delivery windows. This is hugely due to Amazon’s fast delivery. So, how can your business provide constant updates to your clients throughout the shipping process?

To deliver real-time status updates to your customers, consider integrating WMS/ERP with supply chain visibility platforms. Integrating the platforms will enable your business to track and keep an eye on the shipments, along with updating clients with real-time status updates. In return, your customers remain informed throughout the delivery process and can plan accordingly on their ends.

This works by allowing supply chain visibility platforms to track exact delivery locations. The shipment location information is then transferred from the visibility platform to the WMS/ERP which contains all customer and order information. WMS/ERP can then send automatic delivery updates to customers. Visibility of delivery location and delivery times is extremely valuable and useful to consumers, allowing them to better prepare and manage their business.

Supply chain transparency and collaboration: Logistics work with numerous moving parts on a daily basis. Real-time visibility into supply chains is vital for logistics companies to remain organized and manage their businesses. One way for them to achieve this is via integrating their EDI and APIs.

When integration is done correctly, EDI and APIs work together to offer better supply chain visibility and can even help with the onboarding process. API integration provides deeper insight into logistics integrations within your digital ecosystem, while EDI helps begin and put together business processes.

LTL (Less Than Truckload) Demand: With the increase in e-commerce popularity and demand for faster shipping, logistics companies are being asked to make smaller shipments more frequently. This is because organizations do not have time to wait until they have an order to fill up an entire carrier. One solution is LTL. With this method, various smaller orders from diverse companies are placed on one carrier- making a full load with countless delivery stops. The LTL method has certain advantages, including:

? Cost: Customers are only charged for their used portion of the carrier’s space. Logistics companies can more completely fill their vehicles so they do not let precious space go unused.

? eCommerce: eCommerce movers faster. LTL is highly efficient, letting customers renounce the need to fill a whole carrier. Instead, customers can submit orders whenever they require. Logistics companies can satisfy customer demands by promptly delivering shipments without losing revenue due to unfilled space.

? Friendly to small businesses: Small businesses commonly experience fewer sales than bigger corporations. Therefore, they likely do not have the demand to fill a whole carrier, nor the capital to pay for a half-filled load. LTL addresses this by letting small businesses pay for the space they put to use. Logistics then receives more business since they can accept orders from small businesses.

Organizations that survive successfully in this environment will adopt a combination of logistics excellence and become better equipped and more flexible for supply chain warehouses.