Pinpoint Arrivals and Eliminate Delays with Real-Time Supply Chain Visibility

Now more than ever, time is money. When shipments arrive late, that can mean unhappy customers, wasted labor hours, and thousands or even millions of dollars lost. Moreover, standards for the speed and timeliness of deliveries have never been higher. Everyone from Amazon to your local pizza shop is offering delivery faster, and with greater reliability, than ever before. It's time for the industrial supply chain to catch up .

So what is the modern shipper to do? Faced with growing complexity and rising customer expectations, many manufacturers have begun to invest in real-time visibility solutions to get the information they need to pinpoint shipment arrivals and eliminate supply chain delays. 

Gain Immediate Insight Into In-Transit Goods

Specifically, real-time tracking makes it possible to maintain visibility into the precise location of in-transit goods as they travel between different facilities, on different modes of transit, and cross national and international borders. With always-connected trackers attached to every shipment, the supply chain manager can access real-time location data from anywhere in the world, giving them eyes on their in-transit goods wherever they may be. Especially when it comes to shipments of high-value goods such as pharmaceutical products, luxury goods, or industrial equipment traveling between manufacturing plants, distribution centers, and other facilities all around the globe, it is vital to maintain real-time visibility into exactly where the shipment is, whether it has deviated from its planned route, and when it is likely to arrive.

Geofence alerts give you a heads up as soon as a shipment arrives at a certain location.

In addition to monitoring shipment location, the supply chain manager can configure location-based geofence alerts based on that real-time data. These geofence alerts will send a notification as soon as a shipment arrives or departs a certain location. For example, you can configure an alert to send you and your team an email as soon as a vital shipment arrives at the distribution center. Or, you can get a text message alert when a shipment enters and exits a port, so that you can better predict exactly when it will arrive at its final destination.

The Impact of Real-Time Visibility

Armed with this real-time visibility into the exact location and estimated arrival time of key shipments, it becomes possible to reduce costs across the supply chain.  For example, a late shipment can often resulting in factory downtime or costly fees to pay for expedited shipments of replacement goods. But with real-time visibility, you can get a heads up that a shipment will be delayed before it's too late to do anything about it. That advanced warning gives you time to shift factory schedules, order replacement shipments, or make other proactive arrangements. 

In addition, real-time visibility is helping manufacturers to deliver a superior customer experience. The modern customer is used to Amazon-level service in their consumer lives, so it's only natural that they are beginning to expect similar levels of speed, reliability, and transparency when it comes to their business deliveries. With visibility into exactly where shipments are and when they will arrive, the modern manufacturer can meet and even exceed those rising expectations. Real-time location data makes it possible to let the customer know if a shipment is likely to arrive late (or early), and even better, immediate notification about delays means the manufacturer can reroute other shipments or make other alternate plans to reduce or even eliminate the impact on the end customer.

End-To-End Supply Chain Visibility

Of course, modern supply chain tracking is not just about location and arrival times. Today, supply chain trackers can monitor not only location, but also temperature, humidity, shock, light, and other important environmental conditions. This additional dimension of visibility makes it possible to identify and eliminate in-transit damages as well as unexpected delays. With these comprehensive multi-sensor tracking solutions, manufacturers are reaching new levels of visibility into their supply chains, and reaching new heights in quality, cost reduction, and end-to-end efficiency.

To learn more about Tive's multi-sensor supply chain trackers, visit our website here. And if you're interested in testing us out for yourself, try Tive today and take the first step towards a new level of visibility for your company's supply chain.