While I was reading the
case study “Zappos.com: Developing a Supply Chain to deliver WOW!” from
Stanford Graduate School of Business, I was really interested in the situation
described that Zappos used “The Drop-Ship Model” and did not know when a
customer order had been shipped until the customer was unhappy and called to inquire
about the order. I suddenly recalled a opposite situation when I ordered an
iPhone 4S from Apple Store, there was a function called “Tracking your order”
that helped me to view exactly where my “precious” item was and so did Apple.
I immediately looked
back at my email inbox and found the site that allowed me to track where my
iPhone was during its shipping period.
Screen-shot of Apple’s
Track Shipment Function
It brought me an
impression that the real-time tracking shipment system would be the future of
Supply Chain Management. I decided to go further and researched about real-time
tracking shipment system.
Benefits
of Real-time Tracking System
- In my point of view,
real-time tracking system is a secure technology that allows a company to
locate exactly where its assets are at any point of time the assets being
shipped. It definitely increases the efficiency of the Supply Chain process
since the scheduling plan will be much more accurate.
- Secondly, when the
company shares the information with its customer, the customer will have a
visual look where his/her goods are being shipped. Thus, the brand of the
company will be more reliable. In my case, I sometimes ordered Protetin powder
from GNC’s website; the company just indicated that the shipment would be
delivered by 4 business working days. It made me feel uneasy day by day when I
did not see my goods until the day it reached. In the other hand, Apple provided
me a tracking function that I can see exactly where my iPhone 4S were at any
time I opened the website.
- Furthermore, with my
research, I realized that industry analysts are increasingly emphasizing the
need for technology that lowers operating costs and protects assets. Mr Michael
Fauscette, Software Business Solutions Group Vice President at IDC, a global
provider of marketing intelligence and advisory services for the IT industry,
said:
“Sense and respond solutions, particularly those that
incorporate mobile technologies to track and take action on high value assets,
are getting a lot of attention from large companies in these highly competitive
and uncertain economic times”
History
of Real-time Tracking System
Tracking
and monitoring of shipping containers came in focus after 9/11. Many companies
saw an opportunity and started ambitious container tracking projects. However,
neither the technology nor the market was ready at the time. Today, mobile and
satellite networks can provide ubiquitous online connectivity at a reasonable
cost and mobile computing and sensor technology delivers high performance, as
well as excellent usability. All of these components which are combined enable the
delivery of supply chain management, security management and operations
management applications linking containers and enterprise IT systems.
Real-time Tracking System will be competitive advantage in
near future
Today,
more than 80 percent of international trade goods are carried by sea. At the
end of 2011, there were approximately 20 million cargo containers worldwide,
the equivalent of 30 million TEUs. Berg Insight is of the opinion that the
market for shipping container tracking solutions has entered a growth period
that will last for several years to come. The number of tracking systems with
GPRS or satellite communication for intermodal containers in active use is
forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 66.9 percent from 77,000
units at the end of 2011 to 1.0 million by 2016. The penetration rate of remote
tracking systems in the total population of intermodal containers is estimated
to increase from 0.4 percent in 2011 to 3.6 percent in 2016. (Based on Press
Release of PR Newswire). Aftermarket solutions mounted on high value cargo and
refrigerated containers will be the first used cases to adopt container tracking.
Recently,
on 30th January 2012, Business Wire has a press release that
announced the launch of Savi Mobile Tracking System ™, advanced technology
identifies and tracks in real-time the location, movement and condition of
high-value assets. The system supports a wide range of "tag"
technologies including GPS, GPRS, RFID, and satellite communications that
provide in-transit visibility and real-time asset management for greater
accuracy in location and movement tracking.
Savi Mobile Tracking System’s GUI
And also, in Holland, a
regional shipping company has just announced a new mobile app to provide
customers with on-the-go access to real-time shipment tracking. The free app is available
on iOS and Android platforms, which are used by most of the mobile smart phone
users.
Free app to track shipment in real-time
In conclusion, my
prediction would see that the Real-time Tracking system will play an important
role for any company which are providing delivery/ shipment service. Not only
the expensive item like the iPhone 4S, but also the cheaper item such as
clothes, supplement powder, electric equipment, etc… would be integrated with
the new system with the assumption that the technology would become cheaper in
the future that every company would afford to use it to add value for its
customers or create competitive advantage.
Do you agree?
