Managing the customer orders and shipping goods on time via the right carrier is a load of work. Many logistics managers have a hard time managing all the aspects of the supply chain in order to fulfill customer orders on time. Apparently, managing the carriers, controlling the costs, meeting customer expectations, and supervising warehouse employees in addition to all the other duties, is difficult. Some aspects of a job like organizing the shipments, discussing the rates with transporting companies, and
allocating the shipment require careful attention, but in a typical environment, managers cannot fulfill all these in the given time.
A TMS is Your Central Console for Customer Order Fulfillment
It has nearly been a decade since the transportation management systems (TMS) have been utilized to optimize transportation and logistics operations. The use of telematics and geo-fences have become common as the cost to implement such systems has come down.
However, the legacy transportation management systems are becoming obsolete as the omnipresence of smartphone users and handheld devices has resulted in the development of cost effective and easily accessible TMS solutions that are capable of more than just tracking consignments. So, what should a modern transportation management system boast? Let’s find out.
Transportation Planning
From order planning to load management, the transportation management system you choose should have everything that you would need to optimize your transportation planning.
1. The TMS should fetch information about the orders from your already implemented systems and should also serve the data to the concerned parties like warehouse managers and logistics managers.
2. There should be a proper functionality where you can enter consignment details i.e. weight, dimensions, handling guidelines (including climatic condition compliances).
3. An order overview screen is also required to enable transportation managers to overlook the daily workload.
4. Route optimization and tendering is the most crucial part of the transportation planning process. For both the processes, there should be automation as well as an option for manual planning.
Transportation Execution and Visibility
Irrespective of the fact that you own a fleet or utilize a common network of carriers, your transportation management system should provide you with a bird eye view of your in-route consignments. Being a manufacturer or other similar business owner, you don’t necessarily need to invest in a full-fledged fleet management system. A transportation management system is the right pick for your use case.
Business Intelligence and Analytics
The real value of a TMS can be achieved via utilizing the data fetched over the years. An ideal TMS will include an integrated BI infrastructure which runs data extraction, transformation, and warehouse on the platform itself.
For example, a BI powered TMS will get you a performance-based analysis for each parameter of the transportation ecosystem like carrier, consignments, route, etc. It allows you to make intelligent business decisions to optimize the cost and efficiency of your transportation operations.
Wrapping Up
The advent of new technologies and the democratization of several of them will keep enabling us to scale up to higher efficiencies. On the quest to streamline transportation and logistics operations, manufacturers will continue to invest more on their technology infrastructure.
