The Wireless Dimension
"Where's my stuff?"
If you can't answer that question for your customers and supply chain partners, be prepared to lose some business.
All constituents in the supply chain have a stake in the real-time enterprise, one driven by instant communication and seamless access to information. While advances in enterprise applications are helping move businesses toward this ideal - bridging operational silos within a company and across supply chain partners - software is only part of the solution.
According to an Aberdeen Group survey, supply chain managers cited the following items as their top three supply chain challenges:
- Identifying shipping delays, errors, and exceptions;
- Providing shipment visibility for supply chain partners; and
- Integrating with other units/processes of the enterprise.
These challenges mirror the growing complexity of today's supply chains. Networks of suppliers, in-house and outsourced manufacturers, distributors, third-party logistics providers, and service and support organizations all rely more than ever on information to synchronize and expedite goods to customers.
And just as an order delivered a minute, an hour, or a day late can trigger a chain reaction of dissatisfaction, so too with information. Today's real-time enterprise doesn't just depend on information, it hinges on real-time information.
To pass the litmus test of the real-time enterprise, data itself must be real-time, coming fresh from the front lines of fulfillment, whether in the warehouse, on the loading dock, or in transit. These environments are ripe for, and actively being transformed by, wireless data capture and communication.
Wireless technology shortens the distance between supply chain information and a company's internal and external customers. It is providing the enterprise new levels of visibility into supply chain events and milestones - supplemented by tight integration with back-office systems - that is enabling companies to increase inventory turns, respond to supply chain disruptions, and better service customers.
Today, wireless business solutions permeate the end-to-end fulfillment cycle, from the movement of raw materials via air, rail, and road in deliveries of all sizes that mark today's personalized, last-mile fulfillment processes.
The advancement of wireless throughout the supply chain is happening because new capabilities have emerged to provide enterprises and their logistics teams more complete business solutions at a lower cost of ownership than ever before. These advancements include:
- Location-based services;
- Next generation network capabilities and devices; and
- Applications that provide best-in-class visibility.
Location-based Services
Global positioning systems (GPS), once affordable to only the largest of companies, can now be found in wireless phones, making new vehicle tracking and fleet management solutions not only easier to deploy, but more cost-effective.
Whether you need turn-by-turn driving directions or a smarter way to manage mobile resources, GPS solutions can help get it done. With accurate, built-in GPS receivers, wireless handsets - including rugged versions that have been engineered to withstand physically demanding environments - can pinpoint locations in seconds. They address three fundamental location requirements.
First, they help people navigate, so drivers, for example, can use their cell phones to find the quickest routes. Applications are available that provide phone-based visual and audible driving directions, including turn-by-turn directions with exact street names and automatic rerouting capabilities.
Next, they can help you locate employees anytime, anywhere. Getting employees to the right place at the right time can mean the difference between repeat business and lost customers. With location-based solutions, you can instantly locate and communicate with your mobile workforce to increase productivity, improve customer service, and reduce costs.
Finally, location-based services provide a smarter way to manage mobile resources. They enable you to keep your vehicles in sight, even when they're miles away. With enhanced tracking solutions, you can optimize routes and loads with improved planning, reduce overtime and unauthorized mileage with smarter time management, and provide more accurate pickup/drop- off times.
Increasingly, GPS technology will become a standard component of larger business solutions, just like data and voice are today. For example, let's look at the value GPS capabilities can add to a workforce management application by bringing the ability to track employee jobs, hours, and locations through their GPS-enabled mobile phones.
Workforce management applications provide a simple, inexpensive way for businesses to track employee location, record shift times and breaks, and capture job/work order information from a GPS-enabled mobile phone.
With them, companies can easily track and record start times and location of their mobile employees. Employees simply carry their GPS-enabled mobile phone with them throughout their regular activities, and their location is automatically tracked and recorded. When they clock in for work, or start/end a job, they enter that information directly into the phone using a simple, one click interface, and the time stamp and location are captured automatically.
These applications also dramatically reduce the time and expense associated with capturing and reporting Department of Transportation driver logs. They give drivers the ability to log their duty status information from their mobile phones. Driving records are stored online for review through any standard Web browser to view reports for hours of service compliance.
Also, because the applications run on GPS-enabled mobile phones, administrators can see where all their trucks are on an interactive map from a desktop computer. Fleet management and dispatch are other applications that are dramatically improved when integrated with wireless and GPS capabilities. These applications enable companies to monitor and redeploy drivers and transportation assets in real-time, reducing unnecessary expedites, improving on-time delivery and pickup performance, and enhancing customer service. They leverage GPS technology to feed real-time status information back to dispatchers regarding location and current driver status along with reviewing planned versus actual performance.
The applications improve operational efficiencies through instant data exchange with remote personnel. By keeping the enterprise up to date on actual status, companies can be more responsive to the fluid nature of business, and customer satisfaction improves due to better visibility.
The Next Generation
Another critical driver behind the widespread adoption of wireless in supply chain applications is improved capabilities in networks and devices.
For instance, Nextel is enhancing its nationwide digital iDEN voice and packet data network by integrating Motorola's WiDEN higher speed data technology, which is designed to triple data speeds and provides increased support to mission-critical wireless data applications to businesses.
Another area bringing improvement to the enterprise are integrated wireless local area networks (WLAN) and wide area networks (WANs), which provide new levels of in-building coverage to support wireless warehouses and receiving areas.
However, data-only applications are not enough for today's rapid pace business environment. Walkie-talkie voice capabilities make it easy to connect with co-workers, customers, and suppliers. With just the press of a button, users can have long-range, digital walkie-talkie conversations to address business and customer service issues quickly.
To meet ever-increasing demand, wireless networks are improving their voice capabilities as well. For instance, we have seen the boundaries for walkie-talkie capabilities go beyond national borders. This year, Nextel will extend the coverage area for its Push To Talk walkie-talkie service to include Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, and Peru.
This is especially important for logistics and ground transportation companies that view the North American market of the United States, Canada, and Mexico as one seamless market. Since 1994, the total volume of trade among the three countries has expanded from $109 billion to $622 billion in 2000. Each day, nearly $1.7 billion in trilateral trade crosses borders.
By pressing a single button on the side of a cell phone, a driver can connect with a dispatcher instantly - without waiting for the phone to ring or going to voice mail. It's instant communication that allows you to get right through with the push of a button, and it delivers sharp voice quality. There is also no voice mail tag, and it doesn't use up your cell phone minutes.
Significant improvements in wireless devices have also hit the market. New generation handsets deliver improved data memory and screen quality. Greater memory capacity enables the phones to support more robust application features such as Internet browsing, text messaging, and Java capabilities. Screen quality enhancements provide users with better picture clarity, improving the user experience.
Best-in-Class Visibility
Logistics and transportation companies have long recognized that the last mile of delivery to either a store or home is the hardest to master - and typically the least profitable. The challenges are twofold: documenting proof of delivery, and getting paid for what is shipped at the point of activity.
New wireless capabilities have stepped up to the plate to address both of these challenges. Bar code scanners integrated with cell phones allow delivery personnel to collect information wirelessly and in real time. Additionally, point-of-sale (POS) devices combined with cell phones enable mobile businesses to securely wirelessly accept credit card transactions.
Bar code scanning attachments work seamlessly in conjunction with a wireless data service to provide field personnel with access to and transmission of critical information at the point of activity. In addition, they help reduce data entry errors and integrate applications for specific industry or business use, such as asset management, mobile pickup and delivery tracking, inventory fulfillment, and inventory management.
Solutions available today combine the accuracy and reliability of laser-based bar code scanning with the extensive voice, data, and application capabilities of Java technology-enabled phones.
By using a bar code scanning attachment, a cell phone becomes the ultimate mobility tool. Scanning inventory quickly enables drivers to update inventory databases while significantly reducing tracking errors. This means robust and accurate data collection of order level detail. It can also support proof of delivery capture with date and time stamping.
Wireless POS devices make it easy for delivery personnel to accept customer payments. When it's time to pay, the delivery person swipes the customer's credit card through the device attached to a cell phone, enters the amount payable, quickly obtains an approval, prints, emails, or faxes a receipt, and the customer transaction is finished.
No longer do companies need to wait for phone calls to transcribe account numbers or for a manual imprinted sales draft with handwritten information and full swipe transactions have lower processing costs versus manual and verbal transactions. This process is a secure method for collecting fees, because it can leverage advanced digital secure-at-the-swipe encryption technology. Another important business benefit of this approach is it provides an excellent way to track multiple drivers and keep track of service revenue.
The next technology area to watch is RFID, a driver in affordable inventory control. RFID can now be read by scanners embedded in mobile phones providing instantaneous tracking information at any, and every, point in the supply chain.
A Wireless Ecosystem
The ecosystem of wireless innovation is answering the call of logistics professionals for solutions that provide greater security and visibility, a demand the logistics industry is hearing from its customers. By capturing and sharing real-time location and fulfillment data wirelessly, it is possible for companies and shippers to take the guesswork out of order fulfillment, knowing with certainty who signed for a given order, what truck an order is on, where a carrier is at any given time while en route, and an order's estimated time of arrival. This added precision, and the ability to relay delivery status easily to customers and partners, is translating into a win for both customer service and operational efficiency.
In fact, many businesses now assess logistics providers as much on their ability to deliver information as their ability to deliver goods. And manufacturers' ongoing push toward outsourcing and lean inventory environments puts an even further premium on timely data capture and information exchange - building blocks of flawless supply chain execution.
