Transforming Supply Chain Visibility in Container Management

Container dwell time is an issue throughout the supply chain. Downtime includes the time a container is idle at a specific location, such as a dock, railroad, or warehouse. How long it takes for a container to get from point A to point B depends on many factors: not enough staff to unload or load containers, weather delays causing ships to be diverted, or ports busy with the unloading containers while a ship has to wait, just to name a few causes these problems.

Implementing alternative transportation solutions takes time and you may not even be aware of an immediate problem in your pickup/shipment processes. A lack of communication or slow communication between shipper and company prolongs corrective action, especially if you don’t know where the container is or why the delay happened. They also have dissatisfied customers who want real-time delivery updates when needed and will not actively buy from a company that doesn’t offer such logistics transparency.

To increase supply chain visibility, you need to focus on improving the way container shipment data gets to you. With so many hands touching containers en route, the method you choose must allow access to the data between each shipper, warehouse manager and employee. By using tracking methods as part of your container management plan, you will know what is happening to your containers during shipping, storage, and delivery. Learn more about improving supply chain visibility and management with the following resource.