The Business Value of Supply Chain Visibility and Monitoring

In recent decades, freight transport and supply chains have made sophisticated state-of-the-art applications of information and communication technologies that have made visible the whole transportation and supply chain and have increased the ability for collection, analysis, and use of data to improve performance. This approach involves both the demand side—data about items being sold, inventories, order, and receipt of goods—and the supply side—data about available capacities for packing, shipping, and transporting freight. Dynamic, reliable, and relevant information and data are essential to improving the whole freight transportation process through such factors as security information (e.g., theft, tampering), location and condition of cargo (e.g., temperature variations, humidity), and routing optimization. Technologies that make this information available to enterprises have several benefits, including the financial advantages of more efficient management of stock and supply chain operations. This paper identifies and quantifies these benefits according to research results based on the monitoring specific supply chains through the development and use of container monitoring devices. This quantification of benefits is possible because of specific practical tests and experience gained through field research at enterprises that apply the systems and through participation in international research projects funded under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme.