Efficiency Gains From Greater Supply-Chain Visibility
A UK based global freight forwarder looked at the efficiency of their internal processes to streamline operations and provide a higher level of service, focusing on two areas: inbound container planning and ship visibility.
In terms of inbound container planning, they wanted to improve the process of booking haulage in order to minimize detention and demurrage costs; ensuring haulage providers pickup and delivery of containers in a timely on time, as well as implementing systems to more efficiently track and manage the movement of containers.
Improved ship visibility was also sought to reduce latency and increase overall coverage, using tracking systems to provide real-time visibility into the movement of shipments. By improving transparency of the supply chain, allows for better service to customers and reduce response times.
The challenge of data latency and unreliable ETAs which are essential for informed decisions about routing, scheduling, and resource allocation.
The solution was an AI based container tracking and shipment planning solution that utilizes machine learning and deep learning algorithms to analyze and fuse together a wide range of data points that are relevant to the movement of ocean containers. These data points include weather conditions, port congestion, vessel schedules, historical data, and much more.
This all means highly accurate and real-time updated using the most up-to-date information for predicted times of arrival (PTAs) for every container being tracked, enabling informed decisions about routing, scheduling, and resource allocation, and more accurate and timely information about the status of their shipments.
By relying on the most accurate ETAs, enabled planning of haulage booking process and minimize rebooking costs that result from inaccurate ETAs. Additionally, the overall costs related to detention and demurrage were reduced thanks to more accurate ETA predictions, which resulted in more on-time, in-full (OTIF) deliveries and therefore less penalties; and Actual Times of Departure (ATD) and Actual Times of Arrival (ATA) timestamps on 100% of tracked shipments, which are updated in real-time and always-available. This makes it considerably easier for the forwarder to review invoices and dispute those that require it.
Also benefits in having continuous access to real-time insights on the movement of containers, they are able to quickly and easily respond to inquiries and provide accurate and up-to-date information. This has saved resources that would normally be required to handle daily tickets related to delay notifications, times of arrival, departure communications, and other status checks.
Achieved:
- Saving per container of $12.7
- 196,850 containers across the year
- Total saving $2,500,000
- 163% improvement in planning abilities
- 10% reduction in detention and demurrage fees
100% removal of data latency issues.