GIS Benefits #M2- Monitoring: Tracking the movements of people, assets or consignments

This is the first in a series of articles is extracted from Eagle Technology's database of the many and varied capabilities and benefits provided by geospatial technology and GIS. This is a useful tool to support setting the strategic direction for your organisation's use of GIS. These articles focus on single use-cases one at a time, and drill down into the detail and examples and identifies the business benefits.

Do your personnel in the field sometimes have a situation where ‘the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing?’ Sometimes do field operations visit the same places or places near to each other in inefficient ways? Is there a lack of situational awareness in the coordination of your activities?

Many commercial or government-owned vehicles are now equipped with GPS and location transponders. Mobile devices carried by personnel can be used to transmit location (assuming privacy concerns are mitigated). Packages with bar-code labels can be scanned as they enter and leave facilities or vehicles. These capabilities can be used to visualise the real-time location of these things or people or to trace where they have been and when. These capabilities can be used to optimise operations by combining activities that are within a certain proximity from each other (e.g. parcel pickups or shared taxi services) or for ensuring safety by informing people or control rooms if someone or something is entering an area where there are known hazards.

Example: Downer

Downer realises efficiencies with GIS tools, monitoring field staff visually and deploying the closest personnel to respond to emergencies.

“Downer needed a way to see where its field staff were located in real time and to integrate information from other emergency management services to be able to respond in a more timely, effective manner.”

Example: UPS

Delivery Company UPS utilises ArcGIS systems for real-time analytics for operational efficiency. Their My Choice Service allows consumers to track their incoming deliveries, choose delivery preferences, reroute shipments, and adjust delivery locations and dates as needed. The GIS-powered system has greatly aided UPS on its efficiency while helping drivers get to each doorstep.

?“We’ve used operations technology and analytics to allow us to serve customers as they want to be served while also keeping our operations efficient.”- Jack Levis, Senior Director of Process Management for UPS

Example: Fruit of the Loom

?Fruit of the Loom views and manages its supply chain using location intelligence provided by Esri products. The company gradually moved from historical spreadsheets to predictive analytics modelling, starting with a supply chain simulation project powered by location intelligence.

?“We started plotting the supply chain in its full entirety, from raw materials to finished goods, and we noticed right away that one of our raw material suppliers had a really long lead time. We showed this map to our sourcing team, and they were just amazed by these immediately glaring insights.”- Beth Rogers, Senior Manager of Data Science at Fruit of the Loom

Example: YSAR

Youth Search and Rescue (YSAR) uses innovative GIS technology in search and rescue and emergency management, tracking the movement of people. Part of their spatial analysis includes cross-country movement showing how far someone can travel in specific timeframes.

?“YSAR needed the ability to have full two-way communication between the searchers and the operations base, supplementing voice communications with chat, sharing of search plans, images, and status reports. Although the operations base could already track where each of the search team were located, the updated system would also allow each of the search teams to access the same live view in the field. These enhancements will mean that teams in the field can be deployed more effectively. It enables more precise, targeted and timely searching.” -Steve Campbell, YSAR’s general manager, leader and instructor

More Information:

Business benefits:

• Improve production scheduling and staging processes.
• Improve terms with service providers (delivery, warehousing, etc.)
• Improve capacity planning processes, skills, and tools
• Improve transport and delivery processes/ algorithms
• Rationalize production quantities and timing
• Improve logistics performance management methods and tools
• Improve logistics/ distribution efficiency
• Increase the use of just-in-time procurement