Did you know that transportation costs can make up over half of a company’s total expenses and logistics? Factors like labour, global business growth, new market penetration, complex supply chains, and increasing the material prices are becoming more and more important when calculating transportation costs. Thankfully, transport integration has been saving businesses money by making their system work more effectively and at a better overall cost.
Integrated Transportation Solution: How Does It Work?
An integrated transportation solution works by adding an additional layer to existing transportation to optimize it and better serve a shipper’s needs. This dedicated solution provides shippers with greater coverage and flexibility to scale their assets as necessary. It provides reliability, customer service, and control that a shipper would normally expect from a private fleet.
Strategic Transportation Network Planning
The optimization process for integrated logistics begins with strategic planning. This entails planning an optimal transportation structure for a new market or product, and defining a cost structure. These costs can be reduced by the following:
- Optimizing the structure at large, and levering network synergies
- Optimizing processes like improving “empties” runs
- Optimizing packages such as increasing capacity levels, or using containers that are foldable
- Optimizing tariffs which can be achieved by re-tendering and benchmarking current tariffs
Digital Supply Network in Logistics
A digital supply network uses new technologies to change the way products are designed, sourced, made, moved, stored, and serviced in the supply chain. Transportation is a key component of the digital supply network, and it can help companies establish a competitive advantage and contribute to sustained and profitable growth. Implementing additional supply networks with an integrated transportation strategy is beneficial, and it has become central to a company’s growth. With this system, companies can gain a significant advantage over their competitors who still see transportation as a bunch of disconnected elements, rather than a vital, strategic, and unified system.
Multiple Transportation Management Systems
Transportation Management Systems (TMS) can help your business increase visibility, improve performance, and reduce spending. TMS software provides a variety of benefits that include better management, simple monitoring, stress-free integration, and aggregated data. This technology also provides superior customer service, intelligence, and flexibility by improving freight logistics and management, scheduling, operations, and reporting. There are different levels of integrated transportation systems, but with full integration, business can have a chance at gaining data that find real and exact results. TMS provides companies more visibility to adjust their capabilities and collaborate. If the TMS is not fully integrated, companies can easily overlook problems due to limited visibility.
Real-Time Freight Data and Analysis
Real-time freight data analysis allows you to run reports and make better decisions based on your trends and history. Access to such valuable data at your fingertips can empower you to see the total cost of your choices as a business owner, and prevent future expensive bad decisions.
Freight Management and Freight Costs
TMS is flexible enough to help you regain control over freight management, costs, and risks. It achieves this by accommodating custom company business rules, and ensuring all users follow the policies that guarantee efficient and cost-effective shipping.
Shipment Order Entry
The benefits of using an integrated transportation system are seemingly endless. One of the detailed processes involved is shipment order entries, such as the type and quantity of containers, the sender and recipients, and the pickup and delivery schedules. Having detailed processes like these at hand, will allow you to create strategic and tactical planning efforts.
Detailed Dispatching
Detailed dispatching refers to loads that were already modelled and adjusted to allocate single orders to another load. An integrated transport and logistics system can help you get the most efficiency out of this process.
Set Up an Integrated Transportation Solution with Lean Supply Solutions
Integrated supply chain software can add real value to your business and allow you the visibility to create a strategic, tactical, effective planning solution for your transportation department. If you’re a small- to medium-size business, it can be quite a challenge especially if you wanted to see growth. While you should be focusing on your marketing and customer service strategies, you may find yourself struggling to manage your supply chain as well. This is why outsourcing to a third-party logistics company is a great idea.
Lean Supply Solutions can help you if you are looking for a third-party logistics (3PL) company with the latest technology. We make ourselves aware of the rising trends in supply chain transportation and always strive to stay up to date with the latest automation technology. We understand that when correctly employed, automation can drive many benefits to help a company’s bottom line, whether it deals with robotics on the manufacturing floor, features that eliminate manual processes, or features that provide information seamlessly as needed. Logistics automation in a transportation management system can help drive efficiency, eliminate waste, and save you money in this department. We offer our clients consistent, accurate, and quality results through our services, which include product and shipment order fulfillment, warehousing and distribution, pick-and-pack fulfillment services, and more. To learn more about outsourcing to our 3PL distribution team, or to ask any questions, contact us at 416-748-8982.
