The 2:00 Minute Warning

Years ago, Professor Bud LaLonde from The Ohio State University, a mentor and friend, would constantly preach about the importance of logistics and supply chain professionals being committed to continuing education. According to Bud, if you weren’t investing 200 – 300 hours per year to continuing education, your skills set would become obsolete in 3 years. Heeding Bud’s advice, to this day I remain committed to keeping abreast about things that are happening in the logistics sector and trends that will impact supply chains in the future.

One area that is getting a tremendous amount of attention is the role that digital transformation will play in helping companies deploy and integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities into optimizing their supply chains. While there have been ups and downs in this area, article after article has pointed out that now is the time for companies to invest in and accelerate the implementation of supply chain digital transformation.

AI is fueling the need to pursue a digital transformation of your supply chain. As I pointed out in an article about how artificial intelligence will impact supply chains, at its core, AI requires data – lots and lots of data. Since AI learns from data in ways that traditional process-oriented systems cannot, a digital transformation initiative requires data from every corner of your organization or data that resides external to your organization.

That brings into play the “Data Acquisition” issue and raises the following questions: 

What data do we need?

Where does that data reside?

How do we aggregate or consolidate that data where it can be easily accessed and analyzed? 

At a high level, digital transformation includes how you gather information, share that information throughout your organization, transmit it to other relevant parties for collaboration, and manage your operations more effectively with that information. The traditional models for gathering, or “acquiring” the data are antiquated. That is why today, as companies look at how they are sourcing data, there is an emphasis on finding new ways to automate the collection of data or use data orchestration to gather information from multiple sources into one place.

Here is a practical example of why digitizing supply chains will be increasingly important. The issue of data collection was highlighted in a recent webinar that the NMFTA held discussing the changes in the LTL freight classification system - a topic we talked about in a recent Two Minute Warning. The changes that the NMFTA will be implementing in May 2025 will emphasize density-based freight classes, and require shippers to collect information about the dimensions of their shipments. The NMFTA is making it clear that they want this information (a.k.a. size, weight and description of materials being shipped) to be exchanged electronically between shippers, carriers and 3PLs. Is your company prepared to be able to do that?

So, where do you start when it comes to digital transformation?  

If you’re looking for the right strategy, resources or capabilities, TranzAct, has a wealth of experience and expertise on how companies can digitize their supply chains and gather data accurately and employ it efficiently and effectively. We have learned this from collaborating with shippers and carriers, and processing billions of transactions over the years.

With our expertise in trading partner collaboration, TranzAct has helped scores of companies digitize their supply chains. When companies use the right strategy, resources, best-practice processes and tools to digitize their supply chains they become more efficient and more profitable by eliminating waste in their supply chains.
 
Let us help you get a better understanding of where the future is headed and help you arrive ahead of your competition. Get to the future first - give us a call, send me an email or schedule a time for us to meet via Calendly so we can get started.

BY MIKE REGAN, CO-FOUNDER OF TRANZACT

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