When we talk of a booming economy, and growth and development across all
regions, the story can not be complete without dwelling on the role played by
infrastructure in taking all this development from the manufacturer to the end
user. Your mind starts counting all crucial means of transport, power grids,
roads and railway lines, air links, telecom networks and so on. Intertwined
somewhere are carriers who act as pivots from where all the action actually
starts and without whom the whole activity would come to a stutter. These are
companies who transport goods from production factories to the end-users, criss-crossing
innumerable distribution points-warehouses, wholesale markets, retail outlets,
airports, railway stations, etc. Thus, the importance of having a smooth
logistics network for goods and services goes without saying. In this age of
supercomputers and all pervasive telecom networks, tracking consignments and
providing point-to-point information on the movement of goods and services is
not only feasible but demanded as a matter of right by customers. IT has helped
ease matters by providing a multitude of options. Apart from the online shipment
booking and tracking services available on websites of logistics vendors, we are
witnessing an increased shipment tracking activity through mobiles, which is in
sync with the massive penetration of mobile phones in India. A more detailed and
efficient analysis can be carried out through the use of Geographic Information
Systems (GIS), which together with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) based
technology, not only help in keeping a tab on the movement of goods and services
through different points in the logistics chain but also in devising the most
efficient routes for movement of goods vehicles.
Another hot area is the adoption of SOA and we are actually seeing vendors
exposing Web Services for clients to embed them into their internal
applications. This means clients can not only carry out routine tasks such as
booking orders, tracking shipments, filing acknowledgement receipts and so on,
from the comfort of their offices but also access critical information that
makes their production cycles and warehouse management tasks more efficient.
Let's look at these in detail.
GIS and vehicle routing apps
When we talk of managing operations of a logistics company, routing of
vehicles across a very large geographical area is a very complicated task.
Thanks to GIS, this task can be reduced in complexity. The technology helps by
analyzing discrete geographic patterns and building complex, mathematical
relationships, so that analysts can take accurate decisions. The various
components that form part of a good GIS include Vehicle Tracking and Dispatch,
Route Analysis, Warehouse Operations and Fleet Maintenance.
In India, a GIS system can be made more fruitful if traffic density figures
are available off the shelf across all regions. This data could be used by the
route analysis application within the GIS system to advise on the best possible
routes for transporting goods. It can even be integrated with a standard
inventory control part of an ERP system to create a dynamic system of inventory
packets for delivery taking into account the destination assigned to a
particular vehicle and its loading capacity.
However, one of the hurdles that has impeded successful GIS implementation in
India is the lack of availability of requisite data at all locations. Once a
successful GIS system has been deployed, reasonably accurate decisions can be
taken and in time.
To get a complete picture of how GIS can be applied to logistics management,
let us closely look at how the movement of goods takes place from a manufacturer
to the consumer. The manufacturing company (customer) would approach a logistics
vendor or visit their website to book their consignment. Once the consignment
has been booked, a unique transaction ID is provided to the customer. This
contains the details of the goods to be delivered and the payment details. A bar
coded tag is placed on the consignment that contains details of the consignee.
The consignment is temporarily stored in the warehouse, before being loaded on
to the carrier vehicle for delivery.
This was a brief introduction on how logistics operations kick-start. For the
sake of brevity, we're not going into the details of supply chain management,
inventory management and the routing of goods vehicles. But the key lies in
cutting costs at each step. And enabling efficient vehicle movement based on
geography is the key to cutting costs.
It's easier said than done as it requires a great deal of calculations and
analysis. So, GIS makes it easy to determine crucial parameters such as the time
taken to deliver new stocks to a retail outlet and the quantity of goods that
can be loaded onto a truck on a single trip.
Vehicle tracking through GPS
Apart from GIS, GPS is at the heart of any vehicle routing system. And with
GPS applications becoming cheaper and more efficient, their use in carrier
vehicles and the whole of array of mobile devices is only increasing.
Many trucks today come loaded with radio transmitters and GPS navigation
systems. These devices send details about the vehicle's location at specific
intervals to the central control room where a GIS software interprets the signal
and displays the current location on the online tracking application.
Not only does the logistics company keep a tab on the movement of their
vehicles but the client can also be provided details about the status of his
consignments in real time. An interesting extension of this system would be the
integration of real time traffic monitoring applications with the GPS devices.
This would enable the company to divert their vehicles when confronted with
adverse traffic conditions on a particular route. This can be further enhanced
by incorporating meteorological forecast applications so that rain, snowfall,
landslides, cyclones can be kept at bay and delays avoided.
Expose Web services to clients
We can see a lot of successful SOA implementations around us. The most
omnipresent being Google APIs. They provide services for blogging, email,
imaging, maps, news feeds, searching (one of the first services that made them
immensely popular), video and more. They followed a very simple approach.
Collect a lot of data and publish them as a set of web services. And most of the
data is in public domain that can be used by individuals.
Just imagine the type of composite applications that could be built if your
bank, retail mart, airlines, hotels, logistics providers, product manufacturers
and cell phone companies all exposed services. Let's take an example.
Suppose on your way to the airport you suddenly realize you forgot your daily
diabetes pill. With such a setup, you can program your phone to alert you when
you're within 100 mtrs of a drug store that has the pill or if you've already
reached the airport, get Fedex to deliver the medicine to your destination hotel
and charge this to your bank account! You'll not find a better vertical than
logistics to highlight the need to switch over to Service Oriented Architecture
(SOA). The need to integrate internal applications with those outside the
company (with your customers and business partners) will always be the primary
driver for SOA adoption. The logistics sector provides ample opportunities for
such kinds of implementations.
FedEx and DHL have already exposed most parts of their applications as Web
services. Others are following suit. One of the core applications that needs to
be exposed is online consignments tracking. As discussed earlier, the customer
can be provided real time information about inbound, outbound and third party
shipments. This is quite beneficial for customers with large volumes of
shipments. They could readily consume a service that could be as simple as
printing airway bills and integrating it with their ERP applications rather than
frequently logging in to the logistics provider's website searching for
information. Such a move would also improve production efficiency as a
manufacturing company that imports raw materials can benefit from information
regarding the delivery date and time of such raw materials and streamline their
production cycles accordingly.
What are the challenges before the Transportation and Logistics companies? These are the days of cut-throat competition. Customers are extremely unforgiving both in terms of costs and delivery deadlines. So, we need to ensure that our processes are extremely efficient and even better than our competition. How does IT fit the SOA has become a very hot topic in the Logistics companies have to deal with lots |
Watch out for these |
A logistics management solution invariably comprises of the following five components: l Vehicle Tracking and Dispatch: You should be able to track the location and the inventory on board every vehicle and have the latest information on its position and operating status. l Route Analysis: Devise the best possible route for a goods vehicle based on inputs from a GIS based system. l Warehouse Operations: Probably the biggest part of any logistics process. The movement of goods within a warehouse requires accurate inputs in terms of production cycles and availability of transport vehicles, more so in case of perishable commodities. l Facilities and Depot Management: Structures that are used to house goods |
Prasad Dhumal Head-IT, DHL |
With increasing business activity, how do you ensure that deliveries are timely and hassle-free? The information on a confirmed booking is automatically dispatched to couriers on field who carry handheld scanners that are GPRS and GSM enabled. Once the shipment is delivered, they scan the shipment and put the relevant information on to their systems, which is then published on our website within 15 to 20 mins. We have an application which sends images and the copy of invoices to the destination country where custom clearance is involved. By the time the physical shipment arrives there, it has already been cleared on ground, cutting short the transit time by almost two days. Each and every leg of the shipment is mapped through IT systems, so that we have updated information at all points of time. For customers who have large volumes of shipments, we provide DHL's own application through which they can print airway bills and upload details on to our network.
How can a customer keep track of the movement How do you ensure uptime of your IT Any new technology that you are planning |
Adeesh Sharma and Jasmine Desai