Visibility. It’s a word that’s taken on significant meaning to shippers and logistics providers the world over. Traditionally, visibility has meant knowing, at any one point in time, where shipped goods are within the cargo supply chain. But is this really all that it means? Is it enough to simply know where goods are? In a landscape of increased competition from non-traditional integrated technology and logistics players like Amazon and Alibaba, as well as rapid digital transformation within the maritime and port landside segment, the answer is: Not really. Not anymore.
In this new era of supply chain connectedness, the concept of visibility has expanded to take on additional shades of meaning. This includes the synchronous flow of information, the ability to use that information to accurately predict milestones and resource requirements, as well as gain prior warning of potential problems to proactively manage risk. The wider benefits of what we’ve come to know as ‘visibility’ has the power to dramatically improve the speed at which cargo owners can transport and manage their shipments across markets, while transforming profitability of the sector as a whole. This is done through workflow digitisation, process standardization and connection of meaningful data sets in real time.
