Thanks to technological advancement, industries have been experiencing significant changes over the last few years. Increasing technological innovations are making big waves across industries, and the supply chain is no different. The supply chain is known for its continued use of manual processes and large data sets in different ways and locations. However, the adoption of emerging trends and technologies will play a huge role in improving the efficiency of your supply chain.
These trends and technologies have impacted most supply chain sectors, including the transportation department. Shippers and carriers are implementing new technologies and trends in their production lines to ensure they maintain an upper hand in this competitive marketplace. However, it’s important to understand that adopting these technologies is a costly investment and may leave a huge dent in your saving margins. For this reason, it’s important to conduct extensive research to identify the ideal solution for your transportation sector, guaranteeing a higher return on investment (RoI).
The following article discusses all you need to know about the trucking supply chain. You’ll learn the role of transportation in the supply chain, emerging technologies to adapt to maintain a competitive advantage, and more. Read on.
The Role Of Transportation Is Supply Chain
The supply chain involves several steps to get a product or service to the consumer or target market. The steps include transporting raw materials, converting them into finished products, packaging them, and then transporting and distributing them to the consumer. An optimized supply chain system will ensure you meet the clients’ needs and expectations at a lower cost, improving your profit margin and public image.
Of all the steps in your supply chain, transportation plays a huge role in improving the efficiency of your production line. The trucking sector will ensure deliveries to and from your company flow smoothly and reach the target market on time.
For this reason, it’s important to conduct extensive research to identify and correct risks and challenges in your transportation sector, ensuring maximum optimization. Ultimately, this is one of the ways to reduce production costs for a business where transportation costs may account for as much as half of the total operational costs.
What Are The Modern Supply Chain Transportation Risks To Consider?
Although technological advancement played a huge role in improving supply chain transportation, it still came with its own set of risks and challenges. Mitigating these risks will play a huge role in improving your competitive advantage and increasing revenue and cash flow. Some of the common risks include:
Increased Chances Of Cyberattacks
Adopting modern trends such as the Internet may increase your chances of cyber threats such as hacking. These cyber threats may compromise your competitive advantage, lowering sales and revenue. Thus, it’s important to consider the security infrastructure when adopting these technologies, saving your sensitive data from cyber threats and related issues.
The Continued Decline Of Roadways And Transportation Infrastructure
The growing population has led to traffic congestion on available transport networks, leading to delays and other issues. This would affect the efficiency of your delivery system, compromising your production line. However, adopting an effective technology or trend will make it easy to find freight, ensuring they reach your customers at the right time.
Top Trends And Technologies To Emerge In Modern Trucking Supply Chain
Adopting advanced trends and technologies will play a huge role in improving the visibility and transparency of your supply chain. This will cut your operational costs and lead to customer satisfaction and sustainability. It’ll also ensure that you adhere to all the set rules and regulations, saving you from fines and convictions.
Here are some emerging trends and technologies you should consider adopting in your supply chain management. They include:
1. Big Data Analytics
Every business generates massive amounts of data each day. With so much data at your disposal, it might be challenging to analyze all of it, especially when making critical decisions. With no proper analysis of available data, this could lead to errors and other issues affecting your supply chain.
Thanks to technological advancement, you can easily adopt complex computing techniques such as data science to collect, sort, and analyze large data sets. This will allow you access to critical information about your trucking supply chain and utilize it to revolutionize your supply chain.
Analyzing big data will help bring value and insights to the following areas in the trucking supply chain:
Weather Patterns
Data science will help you understand the weather patterns in your locality and the place your goods or services will be heading. Thus, you’ll avoid deploying your trucking system during unfavorable weather conditions such as storms, which could destroy your whole cargo of goods.
Warehouse Efficiency
A warehouse plays a huge role in supply chain transportation. Proper management of your warehouse operations will ensure the trucks are released on time, guaranteeing raw materials and finished products reach their destination at the right time. Data analytics will ensure you have sufficient information, avoiding instances of double deployment, which could affect your entire supply chain management.
2. Artificial And Augmented Intelligence
This is another trend you should expect in the modern trucking supply chain. Adopting artificial intelligence (AI) will make it easier to improve the efficiency of your transportation system through route planning, intelligent transportation, and more. Other solutions include warehouse automated picking systems and predictive optimization software in the trucking supply chain. This ensures you meet your business’s and customers’ needs by delivering raw materials and finished goods on time.
Augmented intelligence works together with AI, improving the visibility of your supply chain. It combines AI processes with human intelligence. It utilizes inputs from human planners (skills, responsibility, common sense, customer service, and more) with AI technology. For this reason, adopting the ideal AI technology will ensure your workforce utilizes it to improve their productivity, leading to a higher RoI.
3. The Internet Of Things
The Internet of things (IoT) is an innovative advancement that makes it easier for you to connect physical objects to the Internet through software and sensors. Connecting your objects to the Internet will play a huge role in improving the efficiency of your logistics. Thus, it’ll be easier to access the needed information, regardless of the location.
IoT can help improve warehouse management, fleet tracking, mechanical maintenance, and more, besides giving more oversight in your operations and transportation. This will increase the efficiency of multiple areas in your supply chain, leading to increased revenue and cash flows.
Bottom Line
As discussed above, technologies and trends have played a huge role in revolutionizing the trucking supply chain. Although most of these trends may have a higher upfront cost, they might save you some bucks in the long run.
Thus, it’s important to ensure you choose the ideal technology or trend for your trucking sector, improving its efficiency.
