Opening the black box

In my latest blog posting, I touched upon the major customer benefits and efficiency gains which the shipping industry can reap from new technologies, and how this ties in to the Maersk strategic ambition of becoming an integrated global logistics company with leading digital services. One of the innovations I mentioned was the development of Remote Container Management (RCM) and this triggered several comments and questions. That’s a good starting point for a deeper dive into the area.

RCM has been one of our most important digitization projects in recent years. By taking our entire fleet of refrigerated containers online and fitting them with sensors and GPS devices, we offer customers the option to follow temperature, atmospheric conditions and location of their cargo throughout the journey and get alerts e.g. if the reefer is suddenly off power. The technology has been thoroughly tested in the last years and we have today taken an important next step by announcing the introduction of the service to our customers by end July – you can see more at maerskline.com/news.

Why is supply chain visibility such an important innovation for the global reefer industry and its customers?

One of our major reefer customers – Safir Fruit – has been testing the solution in recent months and their view is clear:  For as long as they have been in business, they have wanted a better feel for how their fruit and vegetables were treated before arriving at the customer. During transportation, the reefer container was basically a “black box” and they were eager to get a stronger understanding of the end to end process making sure that the fruit arrived in the best possible conditions. With RCM data at hand, they suddenly have become master of their own goods again. That brings along two important benefits:

Firstly, with full transparency for the complete supply chain, the customers can ensure that the cargo is being treated with the highest care at all stages on the container’s journey. They can react if the container settings are incorrect or malfunctioning, due to human error or equipment failure. The problem is not negligible, data from the first months of 2017 showed more than 200 cases where our RCM technology could uncover substantial deviations and thereby avoid potential lost cargo.

Secondly, with more reliable data available, the customer can work more strategically on developing products and optimize processes along the entire supply chain. Safir Fruit, for instance, discovered that not all their producers precooled the fruit and vegetables as they should prior to loading the container. With full history of the conditions during transport it also becomes possible to take agile decisions as to how products can be optimally treated after transportation.

The RCM technology also opens doors for developing new business areas. Customers with less robust, high value cargo have in some cases been reluctant to deploy sea freight. A good example is the global Pharma industry where air freight moves more than 4 times the volumes transported by sea. With RCM technology up and running, we can go to our Pharma customers and start a dialogue on how they can better harvest the important economic and environmental benefits of sea transport without compromising on product safety requirements.

Our exploration of the many opportunities from more intelligent containers is still in an early phase but we have high expectations. We look forward to lead this transformation in the coming years in close cooperation with customers and partners!