Global Cargo Monitoring / Cargo Tracking / Supply Chain Intelligence

A transportation management system (TMS) helps companies move freight from origin to destination efficiently, reliably, and cost effectively. In a TMS survey, ARC found that respondents indicated freight savings of approximately 6 percent with the use of a TMS application. TMS achieve these savings based on process enforcement, visibility, analytics, and optimization. Whereas process enforcement and optimization are based on visibility and analytics – any visibility benefits or any analytics functionality is only as good as the data quality and the currentness of data processed. Capgemini also indicates, that the demand for global visibility is increasing and that shippers want to know where everything is located across the entire supply chain at any given point. Shippers today are still challenged by disparate systems, an obstacle no serious global shipper can afford. The conclusion is: real-time data is key in order to achieve visibility, analytics, optimization and process ...

Nestlé has implemented a cost-effective solution for real-time monitoring of thousands of container movements around the globe each year. The system has significantly increased supply chain visibility bringing a number of operational, strategic and financial benefits. IGD SupplyChainAnalysis

Forget about Siri! Talking to your iPhone is certainly cool. But you still have to tell Siri what you want and what Siri has to look for. Wouldn’t it be great, if your phone would anticipate, what you want to ask and give you the answer before you have even asked for? The same probably the case with supply chain managers. It is certainly cool to “talk” to the ERP system and get the system do the planning, the ordering, the invoicing, …. But like with my iPhone – every day I manually have to turn on the silent mode, when I go to bed, or I have to turn on the airplane mode when entering the airplane, or turn on/off Bluetooth for my headset in the office. I want these things to happen automatically, so I don’t have to worry about them anymore. Likewise the supply chain manager: He most likely would also appreciate, if certain actions would happen automatically and he did not have to worry about. So – how to make the supply chain read your mind? My answer to this...

A few weeks ago, we published a sad story in our blog about refugees discovered in Morocco. Now, another such sad story got published by BBC (see below). Real-time cargo monitoring could not only safe live but also prevent gangs from their brutal trade with human lives. **** http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-28817688 BBC News -  16 August 2014 A man has died after 35 people - including children - were found in a shipping container at Tilbury Docks. The survivors - believed to be from the Indian subcontinent - are said to be recovering "fairly quickly in most cases" at nearby hospitals. They were discovered after a freighter arrived from Zeebrugge, Belgium at about 06:00 BST and was being unloaded. Essex Police have launched a homicide investigation and officers are being assisted by their Belgian counterparts. Supt Trevor Roe said staff at the docks were alerted to the container by "screaming and banging" from inside. He said about 50...

Is it morally defensible to write about African refugees to actually advertise a commercial cargo monitoring service? Hundreds of thousands of people are preparing to cross the Mediterranean from the North African coast to Europe. Figures for the first few months of this year already show a dramatic increase on previous years. They know they are putting their lives at risk in the hope of a better life in Europe. In order to cross the boarders, many options are tested out, among them also travelling as stowaways in containers. While the container is in transit to the outbound port, refugees intrude into containers and try to reach their goal like prisoners in metal boxes. For the shipper of the container there is another side to the coin. Customs clearance of containers will be slower, cargo will arrive later and/or miss the vessel and most likely some of the cargo can’t be used anymore. arviem’s cargo monitoring services help to address such i...

Betzdorf, Luxembourg, May 22, 2014 LuxSpace received an ESA development contract for the design of an innovative container tracking device. The project volume amounts to EUR 2.5 million of which 50 % is financed by ESA. In cooperation with their two sister companies OHB teledata (D) and megatel (D) and project partner arviem (CH), the innovative cargo monitoring device will offer localisation and cargo condition monitoring capabilities via a wireless sensor network, and report using satellite or ground communication systems. Apart from the technical development, the project partners will offer the cargo monitoring device within a comprehensive customer tailored real time cargo monitoring service, including analytics and operational support. "The service concept will ensure the transparency and the overall control of the cargo shipment process which conventional reporting hardly allow", as pointed out by Jochen Harms, Managing Director of LuxSpace. The project named RTICM (...

Fuel prices remain volatile and continue to increase. The price of fuel has a direct impact on transportation costs. Some experts have calculated that each $10 increase in the cost of barrel of oil results in a 4-cent per mile increase in transportation rates. That adds up! For an average arviem client, this would mean around 400US$ more for each and every shipment. Increased transportation costs can affect the optimal design of a supply chain. With low transportation costs, it often makes sense to pool inventory in fewer locations so you can optimize space, labor and inventory pooling. However, as transportation costs increase it is more optimal to place inventory closer to customer locations, reducing overall transportation miles. However, as a distribution professional, it can be significantly more complex to manage multiple smaller warehouses rather than a single large facility.  Another key to managing the fuel-optimized supply chain is transportation...