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Showing posts from 2015

100% container scanning is not reasonable

In a JOC.com article from last week a US congresswoman is quoted as following: “I have said it once and I will say it again, we need 100 percent scanning at our ports. The risks are too high not to.” I’d like to use an analogy in the discussion about 100% container scanning. Imagine you have your house inspected by the police to make sure no thief is in the house who could harm you or steal your valuable goods. After successful inspection, the police move away and your house remains unguarded and unlocked. There is a short moment the house can be considered secure and trusted. But shortly after, the house is wide open again for any gatecrasher. Even worse. Because of the inspection, you feel secure and you lose any usual caution, which could lead to the situation of being negatively surprised easily. The discussion about the 100% container scanning is comparable with the house inspection. For a short moment the container might be marked as secure, if the scanning data

The challenge of schedule reliability in international supply chains

According to JOC.com, SeaIntel Maritime Analysis recently reported, that the trans-Atlantic vessel reliability hit a three-year low. “Only 42 percent of ships in the trade arrived within one day of their scheduled calls.” This figure represents the performance on the trans-Atlantic service level for April 2015 only. Based on the shipments monitored over the last twelve months, arviem’s performance analysis concludes on a similar figure. The percentage of vessels, which have arrived within one day of their scheduled calls, is at 60 percent (shipments monitored globally and not only trans-Atlantic shipments). If the most capital-intensive service providers in logistics can’t sail in time, it is probably safe to say, that the other service providers are even worse, which has ripple effects on the end-to-end supply chain schedule reliability. arviem’s analysis show, that only 37 percent of all shipments arrived “on time” (delay of 1 day or less). That means, that 63 percent

Douglas fumigant products monitored by arviem

Arviem AG announced today that its cargo monitoring service supports the reliable delivery of Douglaschemical products to clients all around the world. More and more companies operating a global supply chain realize, that instead of actively managing their supply chain they are mainly experiencing its risks.   Douglas chose to manage its global supply chain by using arviem services , a control tower based Cargo Monitoring Service being an end-to-end service, available on a ‘pay-as-you-use” basis. Arviem’s monitoring services enable Douglas to have full visibility at any given time about enhanced ETAs, product integrity and supply chain performance helping to strengthen the reputation for an excellent customer service. Douglas is shipping among other products fumigants sold under the brand names Vikane and ProFume from the USA to many clients across the world. “Conventionally used reporting systems hardly allow you to have an overview on the complete end-to-end shipping

Transparency and integrity for your supply chain

The package delivery turns out to be a wrong delivery, the new LCD TV screen ordered remains black, the auctioned designer piece turns out to be plagiarism - in everyday life, we are often suffering the effects of improper handling of goods. Which is a minor inconvenience for the private citizen, causes in industry and trade high economic damage. Today's supply chains are polynomial and international with a high degree of complexity anda lack of transparency. The causes of integrity violations are often not found. Who is responsible for the transport damage, who pays the cost of lost production? The clarification of the question of guilt is time consuming and expensive. Avoid such scenarios, by having your supply chain under control. Ideally, the supply chain manager always knows where and in which condition his merchandise is. To collect the plurality of information different technologies are used that give whole containers its own intelligence to provide additional information,

Knowledge is power – Start managing your cargo shipments actively

Today I want to get granular on two topics which are essential if you plan to bring your supply chain to excellence. We have asked Supply Chain Managers around the globe where they reckon the highest potential for improvements along their chains in general. It came out, that visibility and information in real time is crucial. I am not talking about tracking services as you might know it from express parcel services. I am talking about real time information that is coming directly from the cargo, for instance a sea freight container. Let’s call this information knowledge. Imagine if you would know the conditions inside your container, like temperature and humidity and get enhanced ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) calculation based on for example vessel positions, instead of simple point-to-point tracking information. This is what I call knowledge and this is what is giving you the power to manage your shipments actively. This must not longer be a nice-to-have, with arviem you can get thi

"Surprises and disruptions are the name of the game in global supply chains"

I just stumbled over an article from Peter T. Leach on JOC.com about "West Coast congestion points to need for greater shipment visibility". see JOC article here The quote in the title of this blog is from an anonymous importer in Peter's article. We, at arviem, can fully support the message from this anonymous importer as well as Peter's article. arviem's real-time cargo monitoring services can provide that greater visibility. The arviem services allow among other benefits the independent calculation of the estimated time of arrival (ETA) as well as anytime visibility of the actual position of all cargo in transit. With the data coming from the cargo directly, at the edge of the supply chain, arviem is independent from any data sources of any other party in the supply chain, that "aren't up-to-date" quoting Peter's article again. With a very user friendly arviem dashboard, shippers will not be faced with the challenges described by

Industry 4.0 and Real-Time Cargo Monitoring

It means reduced costs and improved efficiencies. It means greater speed and scale. It means smarter products and services. It means Industry 4.0. In order to make all this happen, factories need to become more flexible, more intelligent and more efficient – machines, assets and products will start “talking” to each other within the factory but also between the different players. The car manufacturing process is an often-used example. At the moment the car manufacturer assembles the injectors into the engines, the information will also be sent to the injector supplier and to the supplier of the injector supplier – a seamless vertical integration will happen, which allows not only efficiency gains. HOWEVER – I have hardly ever heard about the Industry 4.0 implications on the physical integration among the factories, warehouses, suppliers etc. The supplier of the injector supplier knows now in real-time, when to produce the next batch of components to be delivered to the inj