“Big things” don’t occur overnight in the logistics industry. Since so many different parties are involved in the movement of goods, across so many countries, it often takes a lot of time to get everybody’s buy-in. But once everybody agrees on a standard, whether for a physical object like a shipping container or an electronic document like a manifest, the benefits are substantial and far-reaching”, according to a recent report by Adrian Gonzalez, director of the Logistics Executive Council at ARC Advisory Group.

In Gonzalez’ report, entitled “The Next Big Thing In Logistics,” he said that when recently asked about what exciting developments-i.e. the next big things-are coming down the logistics pike, his short answer was “I don’t know.”

But he did note that over his last eight years at ARC, the one constant theme he hears when speaking with retailers, manufacturers and logistics service providers is that collecting and cleaning up data is the most difficult or time-consuming part of their software implementation projects.

While data cleaning and collecting may not be viewed as the sexiest thing, Gonzales said if it was addressed by shippers and logistics service providers in a standardized manner to streamline processes, maximize value and achieve all sought after goals and benefits out of software implementations, that it could, in fact, be the next big thing in logistics.

In his report, Gonzalez hypothesizes the world in the year 2035 where he is speaking at an industry conference. He is giving a talk on the last big logistics industry development: “the emergence of standards-based logistics communication and process execution networks (a fancy way of describing the ‘logistics utilities’ that virtually every company uses today to exchange electronic information and exchange business processes with their trading partners, customs, and regulatory agencies.”

While 2035 may be nearly 30 years away, Gonzalez told Logistics Management that data cleaning and collecting processes are something that needs far more attention from companies than it is currently receiving today.

“Data quality—collecting and cleaning up data—is the number one issues [shippers and logistics service providers] are facing, and it is only getting worse,” said Gonzalez. “

“It is more of a roll up the sleeves, blue collar-type of thing, and companies just don’t have it prioritized as well as they should.”

Along with giving the issue more attention, another way to improve data collection and capturing processes is to work on a standards-based platform, said Gonzales. He likened a standards-based approach to the shipping container in the sense that the container brought value to all industry parties because it was a standard physical unit to build processes around.

And this approach, explained Gonzalez, could be akin to a unified approach to data collection and capturing processes by shippers and logistics service providers.

“It does not have to be a single set of standards used across all industries,” said Gonzales. “It could be industry-specific, and if each company in a specific industry agrees to adhere to specific standards for things like messages and documents it will help to alleviate many of the data quality problems that are occurring.”

Gonzalez also said that making the right internal investments and outsourcing-perhaps via the futuristic “logistics utilities”—may be the optimal way to go about this.

For more information on the “Next Big Thing in Logistics” report, go to www.arcweb.com.

Source: Logistics Management

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