In October 2024, it was estimated that supply chain disruptions cost organisations an average of US $184 million every year. These disruptions stem from a variety of causes including natural disasters, worker strikes, and other global issues. For example, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 severely impacted supply chains, particularly along the US Gulf Coast, affecting the production, refining, and transportation of oil. Labour strikes, like the West Coast Port Strikes of 2014-2015, caused worker slowdowns and delays in shipping, while the 2020 pandemic paused the transport of goods worldwide. In 2021, the six-day blockage of the Suez Canal by the containership Ever Given single-handedly affected 12% of total global trade passing through the canal.
These events serve as stark reminders that the ripple effects of supply chain disruptions are huge, unpredictable, and increasingly unavoidable. While we can’t necessarily prevent them, we can work towards building an agile and resilient global logistics ecosystem that will boost the ability for different components in the supply chain to mitigate the impacts.
One aspect of a resilient supply chain is visibility. Visibility refers to the ability to track and understand the status of cargo as it moves through each node in the supply chain. These nodes are different points where cargo is processed or stored, such as factories, warehouses, or distribution centres. Links that connect these nodes include ships, railroads, trucks, and drones. Operations visibility is critical for a terminal operator to make informed decisions on the allocation of equipment and resources. But what’s more important, is the connection of different visibility solutions with execution platforms that enable this visibility to be transferred to shippers and shared throughout the wider supply chain.
While there has been a rise in real-time data use since COVID-19, this trend has failed to keep up with the complexity of our modern world and fails to provide the efficiencies expected from pure visibility. Our research shows that lack of visibility is a result from multiple factors related to data privacy and security concerns, organisational silos and systems not designed to work together, and lack of standardisation of execution systems. These challenges result in a highly complex disconnected array of objectives that hinder the overall productivity of the supply chain. What shippers think they should receive in terms of visibility on the movement of their cargo, and what terminal operators believe they are providing is misaligned. Visibility into cargo movement alone is insufficient for supply chain efficiency. A successful visibility strategy has at its foundation a comprehensive execution vision.
To optimise terminal and shipper operations, improve efficiency, and ensure seamless cargo handling to meet customer expectations, capable execution systems are required. Over the course of the next twelve weeks, this series of articles will explore how and why this disconnect exists and what impact this has on the efficiency of terminal operations and the entire supply chain. It looks at the core components needed to eliminate this visibility gap and build a resilient and agile supply chain that is able to adapt to changing market conditions.
1 Swiss Re (Oct, 2024) Quantifying business interruption
2 World Economic Forum (Mar, 2021) The Suez Canal in numbers
For further insight into the areas highlighted in this article, download our thought leadership report, The Great Divide, created in partnership with Kaleris.
