The supply-chain problems highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the distribution of vaccines have underscored the necessity for greater information sharing and supply-chain visibility. The adoption of digital supply-chain technologies that accelerated in the wake of the virus will only continue its march once the pandemic is history. Other sensitive and high-value cargoes, such as flowers, food, and electronics, require intensive monitoring, and there is a general thirst for supply-chain data and information, whatever the cargo.
“Information and data are the foundation of insight,” said Mikael Lind, a professor at Research Institutes of Sweden. “Everybody wants to know more.”
Supply Chain Visibility
There already has been work underway for improved cargo visibility (see story on page 9) that will reach beyond the pandemic. “Pharmaceutical shipments needed better visibility and, especially, condition monitoring, and that will continue to be required after the pandemic,” noted Chris Jones, executive vice president at Descartes. “The same goes for high-v0alue shipments, such as special electronics, where cargo owners want to know exactly where their goods are and if they have been properly handled.”
Descartes is working on an IATA pilot program that addresses these issues. “If anything,” said Jones, “the pandemic is accelerating the deployment of these advanced digital supply chain technologies and many industries will benefit as a result.”
Continued investments in blockchain technologies and the internet of things will be two of the elements of systems that will provide greater visibility and monitoring of supply chains,
Blockchain, a distributed ledger technology which establishes an immutable record of transactions on a network, is important to building trusted information. IBM recently worked on a pilot with pharmaceutical supply chain organizations to demonstrate how data in a blockchain network can be used to verify the quality and origins of products. The project also demonstrated that product recall notifications for a vaccine could be accelerated from days to seconds. With Sonoco, a provider of pharmaceuticals packaging, IBM is setting up a vendor-neutral blockchain platform for use by pharmaceuticals manufacturers and carriers.
ORBCOMM Inc., a provider of IoT solutions, has innovated dual-mode satellite and cellular connectivity as part of a cold-chain telematics product that provides end-to-end tracking, monitoring, and control of refrigerated cargoes across multiple transportation modes. Out-of-range conditions trigger alarms that enable carriers to take corrective action. The redundant connectivity, said Chris MacDonald, ORBCOMM’s Senior Vice President and General Manager, Americas, allows the system “to track and monitor temperature-sensitive freight from the time it’s loaded to the time it’s delivered.”
“The latest IoT technologies can provide complementary insights to the whereabouts and status of goods and assets,” said Lind. “Combining all available data improves situational awareness. When parties decide to collaborate and agree to mutually share data about a shipment, the benefits are huge.”
These benefits include reduced waiting time, secured fulfillment levels, minimized administrative burden, data accuracy, cost effectiveness, and capabilities for predictive actions. “All these,” said Lind, “contribute to cost effective, integrated fluid supply chains.”
