Leveraging New Technology to Boost Supply Chain Resilience

By Mike Bhaskaran, Group COO of Digital Technology at DP World, explores how technology can help bolster supply chains of the future.

Mike Bhaskaran

Business leaders are coordinating across their organisations to re-evaluate the resiliency of their end-to-end global networks, including developing strategies that consider changes driven by technology. They must invest in defending logistics networks against risk, expand digitalisation, and provide incentives that make global trade work for everyone.

Track and trace technology in today’s supply chains

Manual processes create gaps and vulnerabilities within supply chains. It is difficult to assess and mitigate potential risks or disruption to a supply chain when there are blind spots within it. Businesses recognise these shortcomings too, according to a recent Reuters survey questioning industry professionals on the global trade landscape. More than 50% of the respondents, predominantly upper-level executives or directors for trade logistics and supply chain management, stated that they had already deployed technology for global trade management or were exploring the possibility of implementing more emerging ones.

Track and trace technology can be transformational in reshaping supply chains to the dynamic and agile systems they need to be today. Consumers expect businesses to provide full visibility of their purchased goods’ journey to them, and this expectation is increasingly shared by business customers, albeit for tracking cargo. The ‘blind spots’ in supply chains should not be an issue cargo owners have to deal with when attempting to locate their goods at any given point of their journey. Recent advancements in big data and the Internet of Things have made this ideal situation possible via developments such as long-lasting solar-powered tracking devices.

The visibility track and trace brings means that supply chains can be more efficient and agile than ever before, with course correction of cargo more viable when businesses know exactly where their cargo is at any given point. Track and trace technology could play a massive role in fortifying and unifying regulatory control, guaranteeing secure supply chains. However, for its benefits to be realised, it needs the approval of government agencies worldwide.

Tech fostering collaboration

Rather than parts of global infrastructure remaining fragmented in the aftermath of recent worldwide challenges, technology presents the opportunity for unification and connections within supply chains. The digitisation of supply chains will open the door for much better collaboration and communication among business leaders working across them. This could be achieved primarily through software-as-a-service-based visibility solutions, in which ecosystems of logistics tools and services platforms can be developed that place freight transport companies in one location.

Improved collaboration could be facilitated by online document sharing, where forms, fees and duties no longer need to be paper-based. Online documents are not vulnerable to the limitations and potential for error of paperwork, and data is accessible exactly when it needs to be.

Additionally, when track and trace technology is also featured in these same software-as-a-service visibility solutions, enabling customers to track their goods, they can offer a granular level of visibility to, for instance, a large cargo owner working with multiple logistics vendors.

Digitising bills of lading

Supply chain digitisation can also provide a significant overhaul for the all-important bill of lading: a contract between a carrier and shipper for the transportation of goods, as well as a receipt issued from carrier to shipper. Particularly important in ensuring that goods arrive at their final destination, they have until recently been confined to paper form. This constraint has proved costly in terms of printing and couriering, as well as being susceptible to forgery. Making these bills electronic boasts many advantages, including the possibility of instantaneous transmission between shippers and carriers and increased security through introducing PIN codes for access.

The new frontier of supply chains

DP Worlds believes technology is the key to achieving supply chain resiliency. The supply chains of the future are those that are equally responsive and adaptive to change. Digitisation is the only thing that can truly facilitate this, with new levels of visibility and agility achieved through developments such as track and trace technology and e-bills of lading. With it, real-time information can be the driving force behind decisions made by cargo owners, allowing for unprecedented efficiency. Embracing technology will bring us one step closer to the supply chain utopia we have long envisaged.