Route to Success: Automation & End-to-End Visibility in Transportation

Based on recent Gartner findings, 80% of enterprises pursued logistics transformation almost annually since 2020 — a time of significant supply chain disruption brought by the global pandemic. We explore recent innovations that will enable chief data officers (CDOs) and logistics leaders to ensure business adaptability and competitive advantage in the near future.

The logistics industry has accelerated its digital transformations in a short five-year window, enhancing the cooperation between transport services and warehouse operations. With multiple strategies and solutions made available to CDOs and transport leaders, it can be challenging to identify where to begin your logistics transformations.

In this article, we explore two rising trends in transportation and logistics innovation: real-time automation and end-to-end visibility, along with the technologies that can help your business transform its supply chain and transportation processes. 

Figure 1. Emerging innovations in transportation and logistics 

Real-time automation

Automation has played a huge role in optimizing not just the transportation sector but entire supply chain processes. It allows systems to react to real-time changes, such as risk of delays in transport, and inform critical decisions. 

With automation, manual work like adjusting delivery times, routes, and loading sequences based on real-time data can be done in split seconds. Gartner predicts that by next year, 95% of data-driven decisions will be partially automated. 

But the benefit of real-time automation goes beyond automating tedious and repetitive tasks. Automatic and immediate reactions in transportation can free up transport leaders for higher-value tasks and help ensure that the entire supply chain is effective with the capacity to fulfill demand.

End-to-end visibility

Another pivotal innovation in transportation is full visibility of the transportation process through advanced data analytics and new platforms. EY business consulting leaders see an increase in investments in digital transformations and analytics to increase visibility. From working with traditional and optimized silos, enterprises are now shifting their focus to ripple effects across the entire supply chain. 

End-to-end visibility has become a fundamental aspect of logistics technology. It can play a significant role in minimizing the impact of unforeseen circumstances on your business and managing your orders, transportation, warehouses, yards, and fleets.

Transformational solutions in transportation

Effective real-time automation and end-to-end visibility in the supply chain are becoming vital for future business success. However, pursuing these technology trends while addressing current challenges can be daunting for many CDOs and logistics leaders.

With the expertise of data partners, your business can be empowered to address key questions in transportation operations and drive logistics transformation. Here are recommended solutions for CDOs and logistics leaders to advance real-time automation and full visibility effectively. 

Transport Control Tower

How do you manage and coordinate goods and vehicles?

To address this question, enterprises have invested in control towers to integrate transport planning and execution. We foresee that this trend will continue, as Gartner research suggests that by 2027, 80% of global supply chains will use logistics control towers to enhance shipment visibility and performance analytics. 

At Lingaro, we offer different iterations of this solution. For instance, we help our partners and clients by developing a tailored Transport Control Tower to give them real-time visibility across the transportation process. This dashboard can generate root-cause, intelligence, and rapid responses that can strategically reroute journeys through “what-if” scenarios, simulations, and risk management. 

It’s also programmed to monitor execution and ensure data consistency and quality. With accurate reporting from the solution, CDOs and transport leaders can be armed with better insights and decisions to improve their automations, transportation costs, and efficiency.

Transportation Cost Analyzer

Are your current costs competitive and reasonable?

Answering this question will require an immense amount of data analysis and work when done manually. But with advanced data analytics, service providers can help you utilize a data and analytics tool to monitor and optimize your transportation costs.

As dedicated data partners to our clients, we support them in understanding whether their current transportation costs are competitive through a Transportation Cost Analyzer. This solution is designed to provide cost estimation, comparison, and reporting, including dynamic simulations based on fixed or variable cost elements.

The Transportation Cost Analyzer can also be calibrated to individual and country-specific parameters. This provides CDOs and logistics leaders with highly granular data and enables better-informed decisions and cost analyses.

Gravity Center

Are your current sites strategically located?

Optimizing transportation journeys needs strategic locations for your distribution centers, warehouses, and other logistics facilities. To determine if your logistics facilities are situated in the right place with minimal transportation costs and optimal service levels, you will need to collect a vast amount of data from demand and supply locations.

With the help of data partners, enterprises can adapt solutions such as a “gravity center,” which can gather data from different locations and quantities. This solution can build scenarios through calculating weighted coordinates of different locations and identifying the center of gravity.

Visualization is the key value offered by the solution, which can factor in business or operational constraints and compare current costs with new scenarios. Insights from the solution can help initiate the conversation between CDOs, logistics leaders, and real estate departments on new locations for logistic facilities.

Transformational impact of new technologies

Enterprises that have embraced logistics transformations are highly likely to reap significant benefits from their technology investments, making them best positioned to lead in an evolving and competitive market. Here are some of these benefits: 

• Real-time response: Automation in transportation facilitates immediate responses to real-time changes without incurring as many delays or negative business impacts as possible compared to manual responses.
• Cost savings: With investments in automation, it’s possible for enterprises to gain overall cost savings of 3-6%. You can learn more about success stories from our recent partnerships with global CPG companies here.
• Operational efficiency: As with any sector in the business, integrating AI and advanced analytics for automation and visibility can help you optimize operational resources, reduce manual workload, and streamline transportation processes for better outcomes.
• Regulatory compliance: Automation and advanced analytics help ensure compliance with various regional and international regulations, such as weight restrictions, working hours for drivers, and specific requirements for transporting different types of goods.
• Security enhancements: End-to-end visibility can enable CDOs and logistics leaders with enhanced security in deliveries. Integrating technologies like “track and trace,” GPS-enabled seals, and temperature control monitoring keeps the integrity of shipments, preventing theft and ensuring the quality of transported goods. 
  
  

Shaping transportation on the route to success

Real-time automation and end-to-end visibility in transportation offer numerous benefits, including improved efficiency, cost savings, and better management of the transportation of goods. Pursuing such innovations and logistics transformation is the best course for any CDO or logistics leader who wants to position their organization ahead of the competition. 

As these technologies continue to evolve, the transportation sector will likely see even greater advancements and transformations in the coming years. If you want to learn more about how your enterprise can improve its transport services, our experts are ready to guide you on your journey. Learn more about your route to transportation success here.