Supply chain: what digital solutions are available to you to get it back on track?

What are the useful and relevant means to best restart its logistics, transport and supply chain activities in times of crisis? Jérôme Bour, CEO of DDS Logistics, offers you his practical advice and short-term solutions for an effective resumption of operations.

One after the other, the dominoes that make up the supply chain have fallen. Causing, in fact, an impact on all the links of the chain. At the end of the crisis, it is therefore essential to restart all the different interconnected links. While reassessing priorities towards :

• The protection of its employees and partners,  
• The service provided to customers, 
• The ability to be nimble in the face of this highly volatile situation in order to control costs and production. 

To achieve this, over the last few years, digital tools have progressed strongly, allowing a rapid implementation and return on investment on your transport and logistics operations.

Pour preuve, voici six leviers accessibles à court terme  pour relancer votre supply chain management :

1. The first lever to boost your supply chain: Facilitating remote work for transport and logistics players

For many companies, transport management remains a very manual process. The level of equipment of the players painfully reaches 25% of the market. But with teams still predominantly teleworking, this operation is becoming complicated. Thanks to a digital management tool, employees can interact with each other, their service providers and partners. A platform such as Join2ship brings together transport players around their dedicated operations by enabling information sharing. What’s at stake? Extremely rapid gains in terms of efficiency and responsiveness.

2. Second lever for your supply chain: Switching deliveries to express transport

Faced with the crisis, the players dedicated to parcel transport have adapted very quickly. Thus, following the example of e-commerce practices, many companies have switched part of their flow to a direct Communication mode and edition of labels in the formats of the carriers, traceability of flows and provision of delivery information are among the main features of the collaborative platform Join2ship, saving time, productivity and better customer service.

3. Giving visibility to transportation

To reassure in the face of uncertainty in the global market, customers want more information about their deliveries and deadlines. Numerous platforms such as Join2ship now offer the ability to aggregate information from carriers, to anticipate hazards by calculating ETAs to the finest detail, and to connect the entire ecosystem for double visibility, both for customers and suppliers. Being reactive in the event of incidents and having the capacity to adapt during this period proves to be an essential lever.

4. Manage its international supplies

How much can my supplier produce? How is its production progressing? What quantities will be made available? When will it be available? These are all questions that can be answered using digital order management tools.

Collaborative tools allow an order tracing directly by suppliers and forwarding agents. And also a follow-up on the article of the quantities made available as well as the emission of alerts in case of discrepancies. In the end, production visibility is complete and collaboration between all actors is improved.

5. Plan your dock operations

Often managed manually, dock operations are prone to numerous malfunctions. This results in various problems: saturated docks, over- or under-active teams and expectations for carriers.

And yet, digital tools make it possible to establish processes to overcome these difficulties. Using a platform such as Join2ship, an open collaborative planning allows to define the reception capacities per warehouse and to establish a direct link between the order and the appointment. Updates are carried out in real time by the carriers. Finally, the activities are smoothed according to the capacity of the teams and the exchanges are digitized.

6. Coping with the volatility of transport costs

During the crisis, according to CNR, the loaded trip rate increased from 86% to 50%, increasing the cost per tonne-kilometre by 73%. Thus, in view of fluctuating rates and the failure of certain players, transportation is facing high volatility. The challenge of cost control is therefore paramount. A TMS makes it easy to update rates, simulates rates and automates invoice control. The management of spot and tariff costs is improved, the budget controlled and costs reduced through better control.

This palette of tools is illustrated as easily activatable levers, relevant in these uncertain times. Whether it be Join2ship, a ready-to-use platform, pre-packaged solutions such as Shipper Light and Import Light or complete tools such as DDS Shipper, these solutions also and above all rely on people and their ability to adapt.

DDS Logistics thus provides you with adapted solutions to effectively restart your supply chain!