MANUFACTURING INSIGHTS OPINION

Manufacturer supply chains are becoming longer and more complex and have real challenges getting timely and accurate information to the right place at the right time. These globally distributed supply chains present the largest challenge to the transportation and logistics organizations whose efforts to make operational and execution processes more efficient and effective are regularly hampered by late, inaccurate, and incomplete data caused in large part by the inefficient transfer of logistics data through the use of manual forms and input to capture that data.

Although the use of digital capture devices appears slightly more mature in the transportation and logistics part of the supply chain, there is still the view that substantial improvements can be made in the business process. While nearly 80% of logistics functions still use paper forms and 52% of the data is input manually, more worrisome is that one-fifth of the data captured manually is not entered at all. This leaves only 28% of the data being entered either with a digital scanning process or through the use of a digital pen. Certainly, this lack of automation is contributing significantly to the poor level of data accuracy and corresponding shipping errors within transportation and logistics.

The benefits of moving to digital capture of transportation process data are significant. Respondents identified improvements in their ability to store/retrieve information, improved process efficiency and lower costs, improved data accuracy and timeliness, as well as a more robust form of signature capture for regulatory compliance. This last point is significant as we are seeing a lot of interest in governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) in the supply chain in general and in logistics specifically. Management of trade and customs compliance, anticounterfeiting, and supply risk management are all increasingly dependent upon accurate transportation process data to function seamlessly. It is the view of Manufacturing Insights that automated, digital capture of logistics data is a critical foundational capability to effectively manage GRC and a distributed global supply network.

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