Roland, a renowned producer of musical instruments, faced extended transit times from its widespread production locations to customers due to disruptions in ocean transport. This challenge, exacerbated since 2020, prompted the adoption of the project44 platform to enhance delivery predictability.
Despite operating multiple production facilities worldwide, Roland’s shipments of musical instruments had for a time been plagued by lengthy delivery times and increased uncertainty, a trend that was intensified by the pandemic. To combat these challenges, Roland implemented the project44 platform, driven by a noticeable decline in the reliability of data since that year. The company, famed for its electronic musical instruments and related equipment, annually fills about four thousand containers for global destinations, with major markets in North America, Europe, and Asia, and primary production in Malaysia, China, and Japan under the Roland Corporation.
The need to adapt to supply chain disruptions prompted a significant shift in Roland’s operational approach. With the backing of a new CEO, the company began focusing more intently on ‘supply chain innovation’ across the board, an initiative that includes the newly chosen supply chain platform ‘Movement by project44’.
Previously, Roland’s method for tracking shipments involved relying on information from freight forwarders and external web services, like Marine Traffic, coupled with processing downloaded reports internally. However, these methods proved insufficient due to frequent disruptions, especially in ship scheduling, leading to poor visibility at Roland’s headquarters.
In response, Roland’s SCM department undertook a detailed selection process for a new system, involving extensive discussions between the supply chain department at headquarters and the overseas sales and production sites. A spokesperson for Roland elaborates, “Roland and our overseas group companies conducted a comprehensive comparison and evaluation of several freight visibility solutions. We valued project44 over other vendors because it offers not only tracking capabilities but also rich analysis functions and global coverage. That’s why we chose project44.”
The decision to go with project44 was based on its robust features, particularly its capability for global, real-time cargo tracking. The implementation of project44 has significantly altered Roland’s working practices. The company, which previously invested considerable time in deciphering supply chain activities, now benefits from a clearer overall picture, enhancing the visibility for recipients regarding shipment locations. This shift has also allowed the supply chain department to focus more on strategic issues. A key feature of the platform, the AI-based Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA), provides more accurate transport schedule predictions.
“project44’s AI-based predictive ETAs (estimated time of arrival) allow us to understand more accurate and realistic transportation schedules and share them with our overseas sales offices,” a spokesperson notes. “Additionally, when unexpected incidents occur, the Overview screen in the Movement platform shows a list of impaced shipments, which helps us to quickly understand the situation and share it with related people.”
Also, the ‘Port Intel’ function offers insights into real-time port congestion scenarios and potential delay-causing incidents. Roland also utilises the platform to aggregate data, a process that was previously time-consuming due to multiple data sources. The platform’s efficiency not only speeds up internal data sharing but also facilitates quicker communication with external parties. Despite these improvements, there are areas for further enhancement. The ocean lead time analysis function of Movement allows Roland to scrutinise transit times, informing negotiations with freight forwarders and contributing to reduced lead times in the supply chain.
“Movement by project44 provides an ocean lead time analysis tool as part of its ocean visibility functionality, which helps us to analyse the lead time. Leveraging such analysis data, we can now negotiate with freight forwarders more effectively. One of our achievements is that we successfully managed to shorten the lead time by changing the service route.
“With project44, we can now track shipments from port to port. In the future, we would like to expand this visibility – for example, start tracking from the early stage of booking and maintain visibility until the user’s door.
“Previously, we needed to spend a lot of time and effort to understand what was really happening. But now, project44’s Movement continuously provides us with a holistic view, improving transparency and enabling quicker information sharing with consignees. As a result, we can now reduce inefficient operations and handling of shipment-related inquiries, allowing our supply chain professionals to spend more time on strategic tasks.”
For more information on project44, click here.
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