Traditionally, supply chain software has been used to track and trace products. Andrew Coldrey, Vice President, Oceania for C.H. Robinson, says the focus is now on improving efficiencies and preventing problems that might occur well into the future.
C.H. Robinson works with large global businesses with diverse distribution networks and manufacturing sites across the world.
The specific needs of these businesses differ from wholesalers based in one city that import from independent suppliers through one DC.
The requirements also shift throughout industries. A fashion retailer’s operations require completely different solutions to an oil and gas company.
Andrew Coldrey, Vice President, Oceania for C.H. Robinson, says supply chain software didn’t previously offer the variety to fully understand industry nuances. So the company created its own proprietary software to solve this shortcoming.
Andrew believes predicting, rather than reporting, allows businesses to smooth out supply chains issues arising from the pandemic and its fallout.
“There’s a trend towards prediction and aggregation of data to try and make decisions,” he says. “If a major port in Sydney has bad congestion today, you need to consider what that will mean in three months’ time.”
Factors like industrial action, port congestion and government COVID-19 restrictions all disrupt supply chain.
Data from predictive analytics helps to provide businesses with alternate routes and pathways to overcome these challenges.
“AI and machine learning consider these factors to try and use software to help make better decisions rather than simply reporting on what’s already happened,” Andrew says.
The recent major disruptions at the Yantian Port in China shows the need for flexibility and adaptability in modern supply chains. A COVID outbreak threatened to cause a bigger disruption than the Suez Canal blockage in March.
As a result, up to five per cent of global freight capacity was held up in the Chinese container terminal.
“We can then use predictive analytics to identify not just what’s happening in Yantian, but all the surrounding ports and where there has been a port omission in the path,” he says.
“The analysis shines a light on the flow-on effect of an incident at a point in time – and you can quite easily replicate the impact of that across other situations.”
C.H. Robinson’s Navisphere suite of tools helps businesses around the world navigate supply chain and freight management.
The software has been introduced to APAC customers this year after years of international success.
Andrew says as North America’s largest truck broker, C.H. Robinson has learnt valuable lessons from data scientists working in that space.
“These lessons and skills are then translated into the global forwarding space so APAC customers get the benefit of major global investment in technology over a long period of time,” Andrew says.
In 2019 C.H. Robinson announced a commitment to invest a billion dollars in technology advancements over the next five years, doubling its previous investment.
Navisphere Vision is software that provides real-time order and shipment information, proactive alerts about external factors that can disrupt supply chains, and predictive and prescriptive analytics.
It was created for Microsoft – software created for the giants of software.
As well as being a software company, Microsoft moves huge amounts of product all around the world.
The tech giants approached C.H. Robinson to build a more powerful visual tool than previous existing software to capture all modes of transport off the shelf.
Both companies’ supply chain and logistics staff and programmers collaborated on the project.
“Microsoft use Navisphere Vision to drive innovation in their own supply chain, provide more predictability, and be more proactive in their decision making with different business groups,” Andrew says.
“The benefit that we get out of it is we can make Microsoft programs available to our customers.”
Navisphere Insight is another C.H Robinson tool, used as an online business intelligence platform to provide a clear picture of a user’s worldwide supply chain.
“Insight is about giving people something they can make decisions on that will directly influence the landed cost of the goods,” Andrew says.
Container utilisation is one example of Navisphere Insight in action.
The software analyses the container utilisation across all containers and suppliers. It then calculates an average utilisation rate and identifies any unused cubic metres. This allows the customer to assign unused container usage a dollar amount, and forge new solutions.
“Where it’s really powerful is by having the cost associated and being able to drive it by individual supplier,” Andrew says. “This means that you can target your efforts.”
Transit times are another factor to consider. By analysing each leg of the supply chain, Navisphere Insight can identify where delays are happening at certain ports. With volatile transit times, the software is able to establish which transit routes have a high variance in delivering from A to B.
“It’s really the first time that we’ve seen a tool that is really proactive rather than just being a pile of data on your shipments,” Andrew adds. “This provides actionable insights on what we do next and how to improve.”
C.H. Robinson’s software aims to serve all components of the business. Andrew believes the sales, marketing and finance team should understand and easily access this supply chain data. “What we’re trying to do is build tools that the whole business can use, rather than just the person who’s responsible for moving the product,” he says.
“That’s one of the reasons we have different tools tailored to different people.”
For more information on C.H. Robinson, click here.