Container tracking technology has elevated how shippers and freight forwarders monitor the movement of goods across water and land. It increases their visibility, improves supply chain management, and allows them to respond faster to disruptions. However, despite its advantages, ocean container tracking is not everything—by itself, it primarily serves as a reactive versus proactive tool. There’s a piece that must go along with container tracking or any other technology for shippers to be better equipped for any circumstance: advanced analytics.
Today, we’re discussing how analytics can reduce uncertainty, made possible by more proactive supply chain operations.
Despite Key Advantages, Ocean Container Tracking Has Its Limits
Ocean container tracking relies on real-time data updates; in other words, it strictly deals with what is happening in the present moment. Shippers and freight forwarders receive alerts and notifications on containers' current location and status. As a result, they can react more quickly to any deviations from the plan that arise, whether it’s adjusting their logistics operations, rerouting shipments, or informing customers about delays or disruptions. In this sense, container tracking gives shippers the data they need to respond to events and mitigate the impact of disruptions on the supply chain.
However, container tracking does not have foresight or hindsight. While it provides valuable insights into the current status of containers, it does not offer insight into factors that may be of future concern or factors that can contribute to future improvements.
As a result, shippers and freight forwarders can only react to changes rather than proactively identify and mitigate risks. If they rely on container tracking as their primary strategy, they miss out on opportunities to improve efficiency, optimize operations, and reduce costs. A proactive approach employs advanced analytics to both analyze past data and look forward with forecasting. Shippers can then take preventive actions well in advance, for example, optimizing routes, allocating resources more effectively, and implementing contingency plans.
Advanced Analytics: Shedding a Light on Uncertainty
Even though uncertainty poses significant challenges for stakeholders in logistics and supply chain management, advanced analytics can bring light to areas of uncertainty. With the proactivity of analytics applied to real-time data visibility, predictive modeling, and collaborative data-sharing, combined with the reactivity of container tracking, shippers can have a powerful toolkit for informed decision-making and proactive management of their operations.
Real-Time Data Visibility
Applying advanced analytics to real-time data visibility, shippers and freight forwarders can transform their operations and decision-making processes from strictly reactive to proactive. Advanced analytics offers insights from large volumes of data by flagging emerging patterns, trends, and anomalies as they begin to arise. Shippers can analyze and summarize historical data to understand key metrics, including transportation costs and delivery times, helping to identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and areas for improvement that were otherwise hidden behind a mountain of data.
Predictive Modeling
Joining together historical data, real-time information, and advanced algorithms, shippers and freight forwarders can get predictive modeling. This valuable tool allows them to forecast future events and outcomes with a level of precision that they can use to inform their supply chain decisions. Based on anticipated disruptions, they can develop strategies to mitigate risks associated with uncertainties like fluctuating customer demand, weather conditions, transportation delays, and market dynamics. The benefit is a supply chain that more optimally aligns actual operations to every curve in the road.
Collaborative Data-Sharing
Advanced analytics brings the added benefit of supporting collaborative data-sharing among supply chain stakeholders. In exchanging relevant data with partners, shippers get a broader viewpoint, shining a light on their entire supply chain. A collaborative approach means better coordination and the ability to address potential issues from multiple angles, helping shippers handle areas of uncertainty and resulting in greater operational efficiency.
Enable a Proactive Approach to Ocean Freight with VIZION
The need is not just for supply chains to have container tracking data but also to improve future decisions and strategies.
That is why VIZION now offers VIZION Analytics Stream—live monitoring and analysis of the global containerized network. This tool enables performance monitoring and benchmarking of the entire industry and all geographies worldwide. With VIZION Analytics Stream, businesses can gain unparalleled visibility into global trade, stay informed on unexpected events, discover optimal trade network designs, and adjust to real-time fluctuations in network health.
To learn more about VIZION Analytics Stream and VIZION API, contact us today to book a demo.
