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Developing Resilience in the Supply Chain: It’s Now or Never

This is a volatile world. Whether by a freak accident, natural disaster, trade war, or health crisis, extraordinary circumstances can wreak unforeseen havoc on supply chains. In fact, over the past year, 94% of Fortune 1000 companies have endured disruptions to their supply chains amid unpredictable circumstances—and 75% have suffered a negative or severely negative impact on business as a result.

It’s more important than ever for shippers to strengthen their supply chains to protect against circumstances beyond their control. If you don’t take steps now, there may not be a later. Here are some ideas to get started.

Do more with data

In most supply chains, visibility is limited at best. But the more visibility a shipper can gain, the more flexible and responsive their supply chain can be, increasing their ability to handle unforeseen shocks to the system.

True visibility encompasses both on-the-ground information and big-picture insight. With real-time shipping data, for example, shippers can track the movement of freight, quickly alerting them to any delays or disruptions that may signal bigger issues down the line. But they also need global oversight in order to recognize patterns, opportunities, and problems on the horizon. Wielded effectively, the result of all this data is better forecasting, demand planning, and contingency planning, putting companies in a better shape to prepare for and navigate any curveball or crisis.

Enter the cloud

Reliance on paper contracts, physical record-keeping, and on-premise systems can be a major hurdle in a crisis, especially when time is of the essence. Should an unforeseen event make the facility unreachable or leave supply chain managers needing access from afar, cloud-based solutions can help keep things running as smoothly as possible.

These tools are valuable even in times of normality. When staff can pull up vital information in moments without having to dig through a filing cabinet, they can work more efficiently and with less friction. And when information isn’t confined to paper, everything from auditing to ongoing analysis becomes much easier.

Look to the experts

Supply chain managers are under immense pressure to do more with less. With fewer resources and more demands on their time, keeping up with new developments, best practices, innovations, and technological advancements is a near-impossible task. Unfortunately, this can leave teams operating under outdated assumptions and with less-than-optimal tools, making their supply chain more vulnerable.

Instead of struggling to keep their head above water, supply chain managers can grab a life preserver by tapping an expert like CTSI-Global. We spend every day looking for ways to make our partners’ supply chains stronger—from developing the latest in logistics software to identifying new methods for bolstering transparency and resiliency. That way, teams can remain on the forefront of supply chain management, impressing leaders while ensuring they’re ready for whatever the world throws at them.

Build a more resilient supply chain today

Building resilience shouldn’t be something on your to-do list. To survive and thrive in an increasingly volatile world, ongoing and intentional efforts to bolster resilience are essential. You may not get a second chance.

At CTSI-Global, we know that maintaining a strong supply chain is key to your business’s success. That’s why we’re committed to helping shippers find the solutions they need to ensure their supply chain can weather any storm—from leading-edge logistics technology to expert advice and support.

Don’t wait until tomorrow. Get in touch today.

The 3 S’s of Supply Chain Success: Speed, Service, and Scalability

There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for optimal supply chain management. After all, every shipper is different and faces its own unique logistics challenges and needs. There are, however, a few key factors that, when present, bode well for a supply chain’s success.

As you make decisions about your supply chain, keep the three S’s in mind: speed, service, and scalability.

Speed

The most successful supply chains are models of efficiency, with managers identifying and eliminating bottlenecks as soon as they crop up and taking advantage of technology that saves staff time. This includes automating time-consuming tasks to move orders from confirmation through to load tendering and beyond as quickly as possible, with minimal manual intervention from employees.

This speed also extends to the deliveries themselves. From using tools that optimize routing to designing distribution networks with efficiency in mind, supply chain managers that prioritize speed are focused on getting goods to the customer fast. But to ensure long-term success, this speed can’t come at the expense of quality, which leads to the second S…

Service

A strong supply chain is one that provides superior and reliable service to customers. This encourages repeat business, customer loyalty, and word-of-mouth referrals to potential new customers.

But great service doesn’t just happen: it takes planning, coordination, and investment in tools that allow shippers to balance speed with quality, like a transportation management system. That way, supply chain managers can easily keep track of carrier performance, ensuring they’re not entrusting their goods—and their reputation—to carriers that are unlikely to perform at a high level. Honeybee TMS has robust event management capabilities, like pre-shipment visibility and in-transit tracking, shippers can also get proactive about communicating with customers, ensuring the right expectations are set.

Scalability

Demand rarely remains static. It can fluctuate for a variety of reasons: economic dips and booms, time of year, increased competition, and so on. Sometimes shippers can see fluctuations in demand coming, but all too often, they’re taken completely by surprise. Being able to scale operations up and down to satisfy these shifts is key to staying in business.

For surprise upticks, having access to a variety of carriers that can be tapped at a moment’s notice can help shippers meet those surges and get goods out the door in good time. A TMS can help with this too, giving supply chain managers access to a wider pool of carriers than they might be able to manage on their own. The data that flows through the TMS can also help shippers improve their forecasting, making it easier to anticipate and prepare for surges.

If spikes in demand are expected to be temporary, partnering for logistics management services can be a highly cost-effective way to manage them. These solutions allow shippers to quickly scale up their operations without the long-term expense of hiring and training new employees, then scale them back down if circumstances change. In many instances, shippers ultimately decide to maintain these services even as their operations continue to scale upwards, recognizing the convenience and cost savings they bring. Which leads us to…

The extra S in supply chain success: Savings

Becoming masters of speed, service, and scalability can help shippers drive lasting success. But it’s the extra S—savings—that give them a real competitive edge.

At CTSI-Global, our industry-leading logistics technology and solutions are designed to streamline and enhance supply chain operations—while reducing overall costs. Set your supply chain up for success by contacting us today.

Are Freight Audits a Headache? Automate Your Process, and See Results

Even in a moderately complex supply chain, performing freight audits in-house can require shippers to spend countless hours and resources combing through paperwork and spreadsheets. Even then, they may not deliver results.

Done well, freight audits can ensure accuracy and recapture revenue. But shippers still using old-school, paper-based auditing processes might be missing out on a goldmine of untapped savings.

Utilizing automated freight audit and payment services through CTSI-Global can help cut down on time and expenses—and put money back in the bottom line. On average, it costs a company $5 to process and pay a freight invoice on their own, but only a fraction of that when they partner with us.

Whether you’re dealing with complicated multimodal global shipments, finicky regional carriers, or both, here’s how automating your freight audits can improve efficiency and significantly reduce your freight spend.

Establish consistency across carriers

Every carrier has its quirks. Across the board, there are no generalized terms to describe carrier services, meaning that deciphering invoices can quickly get confusing if a carrier has a unique term for a common service. In some cases, it’s like interpreting a foreign language.

Carriers also lack consistency when it comes to managing disputes or contesting invoice details. Effectively auditing these invoices in-house requires managing multiple invoice databases and keeping track of terms—every time you process an invoice. That’s time suck—and it doesn’t guarantee results.

Working with a partner that has the capability to rapidly review billing exceptions, interpret different carrier terms, verify freight data, and request chargebacks can help you get repayments and refunds processing in no time. Without the help of an automated system, not only is this process time-consuming, but it could lead to a denial of repayment.

Reduce human error in freight audits

Internal freight audits are a major burden on accounting teams and supply chain staff who likely already have a lot on their plates. Given the level of employee turnover and burnout in recent years, an overworked team could cause issues in your supply chain operations. But it can also lead to major opportunities to save being missed.

Auditing invoices is a massive undertaking. Even the most meticulous employees are susceptible to human error, especially when the invoices they’re combing over are hard to decipher at the best of times. Why add to employee workload and stress levels when an automated freight audit solution could save time and money—all while freeing employees up to do more value-added tasks?

Analyze data to drive improvement

Performing regular freight audits is good—but using the data from those audits to inform and improve decision-making is even better.

With a clunky, paper-based audit, that’s virtually impossible. But when a shipper’s freight data passes through a unified system, it’s easy to collate and analyze granular shipping information to make smarter decisions around freight spend moving forward.

Optimize your freight audits every time

Why pay a penny more than you need to? CTSI-Global’s industry-leading freight audit and payment solution takes the stress out of the auditing process, catching invoice errors that would otherwise go undetected—so you can maximize your savings every time.

Stop leaving money on the table. Contact us today.

How TMS Automation Can Transform Supply Chain Operations

When employees hear the word “automation,” they may picture mindless robots taking their jobs. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Adopting a transportation management system (TMS) that has intelligent automation built-in can revolutionize the supply chain, elevating visibility and precision and transforming the way teams work for the better.

An automated and fully integrated system like Honeybee TMS™ from CTSI-Global can help to scale down repetitive and labor-intensive tasks, enabling supply chain managers and their teams to focus on value-added assignments like strategic decision making, forecasting, and negotiation. Here’s how TMS automation can enhance supply chain processes—and boost the bottom line.

Optimize routes, carriers, and loads

Manually planning each and every load is not a good use of employees’ time. Using a TMS with automation baked in, shippers can rapidly confirm and schedule orders, select the right carrier and route, and optimize the load, taking advantage of every opportunity to consolidate shipments and embrace less-than-truckload pricing options.

The intelligent automation built into the system means that the information employees need to make great transportation decisions is right at their fingertips—no phone calls or searching required. Since the system will automatically pull in up-to-date carrier pricing and information like carrier performance, tasks that once took hours can now be completed in minutes.

Decrease costly mistakes

Another major benefit of automation is that it reduces the potential for human error in the supply chain. Small mistakes can have serious implications: something as simple as keying in the wrong code and improperly classifying freight, for instance, can lead to increased rates and unhappy carriers.

An automated system can eliminate costly errors like this, protecting relationships and the bottom line. And since staff will have fewer tedious manual tasks on their plate, they’ll also be able to dedicate more brainpower to the tasks that truly deserve their attention.

Gain total visibility

With multiple shipments in transit with different carriers across the globe, keeping track of freight can be an enormous challenge. With automated load tendering, confirmation, and exception alerts, a TMS allows supply chain managers to easily keep one eye on their operations to ensure things are flowing smoothly, without letting routine tasks swallow up all their time.

The system will also automatically collate, normalize, and synthesize data from across the supply chain, ensuring staff doesn’t waste time manually digging through spreadsheets and cleaning data to tap into the insights it contains. Supply chain managers and employees can then make use of the dashboards on their TMS to quickly evaluate their function’s performance and identify opportunities for improvement. Since their automated tools will have made them more efficient and taken time-consuming tasks off their hands, they’ll have more time to apply these insights to make meaningful changes. Automation and data go hand in hand: they’re both hallmarks of a supply chain that’s operating at its peak.

Harness the power of automation in your supply chain

To build a streamlined, high-performing supply chain, shippers need the right tools. CTSI-Global’s industry-leading TMS allows logistics teams to harness the mighty power of automation—so they can work smarter, faster, and leaner.

Give your supply chain a boost with intelligent automation. Contact us today.

Supply Chain Survival: Balancing Cost with Service During Economic Downturns

When the economy is in a tailspin, cutting costs is the name of the game. But while supply chain managers’ first instincts during an economic downturn might be to cut fast and cut deep, maintaining a high level of service during these periods is critical.

Remember, customers are likely also looking for ways to cut costs—and if a company they rely on is suddenly marred by late deliveries, poor communication, and other service issues, they may decide to take their business elsewhere. Retaining high-value customers is essential if shippers want to survive a downturn and maintain a strong reputation. If service slips and customers abandon ship, negative word of mouth may hinder any attempts to replace them.

Balancing cost-cutting efforts with a desire to maintain superior service can seem like an impossible task. Some tradeoffs are certainly necessary, but it is possible to trim the fat without damaging the overall customer experience. Here are some initial steps supply chain managers might consider.

Tap into a larger pool of carriers

When a shipper is only utilizing a small handful of carriers, finding lower rates can be a challenge. But calling a dozen carriers for rates on each and every shipment is simply not a good use of employees’ time.

By taking full advantage of a transportation management system (TMS), shippers can put their freight in front of more carriers, allowing them to source and select the very best rates. It’s important to note that this will not necessarily be the lowest rate. By leveraging a TMS, supply chain managers and their teams can easily evaluate carriers to ensure an attractively low rate doesn’t come at the expense of reliability—allowing them to select an option that suits their reduced budget without risking a poor experience for the customer.

Adopt more flexible solutions

When shippers are looking for ways to bring costs down, making expensive, long-term investments like hiring more staff tends to be off the table—even if those investments could result in a more efficient, effective supply chain and happier customers.

Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. By leveraging flexible solutions like outsourced logistics management services, shippers can enjoy the benefits of the investments they want to make, often at a much lower cost. Service won’t slip because supply chain experts are at the helm, and companies’ in-house teams can shift their energy away from day-to-day management and toward more strategic tasks that drive recovery. Since these solutions can be scaled up or down as needed and stopped at any time, shippers can consistently reevaluate and recalibrate as their circumstances change.

This kind of flexibility is highly valuable during economic downturns where a companies’ financial outlook and customer demand may constantly be in flux. But in our experience working with shippers during previous recessions, these solutions can prove so convenient and cost-effective that companies often continue using them long after the economy has recovered and the danger has passed.

Helping supply chains to survive and thrive

At CTSI-Global, we’ve been in the logistics game for more than 60 years, so we’ve seen what works—and what doesn’t—during economic downturns. We’re here to help you not only weather the storm but come out stronger on the other side.

Our proprietary, industry-leading TMS is designed to help shippers reduce their costs and boost efficiency the smart way, all while gaining more tools that support a better customer experience, like in-transit tracking capabilities. And if you need an extra pair of hands (or several), our expert logistics management services are available as a complete package or as customizable bundles, so you only pay for what you need.

Ensure your supply chain is set up to survive and thrive. Contact us today.