Technology is just one part of overhauling a traditional supply chain industry. It may sound obvious but people and the investment decisions they make about the way the supply chain operates in the future will be the critical factor in speeding up transformative change.
In recent years, the shipping industry has moved from a landscape of relatively few technology providers to one where investors have become concerned the industry is now overcrowded with a confusing array of new technology initiatives. Innovation itself has blossomed from within and outside the industry. In turn, technology is moving fast with numerous different technologies competing to solve similar problems from different angles.
For transformative technology to take hold, I believe more industry leadership will be required on issues such as data standards. The digital world needs interoperability, and this requires agreeing to and enabling better data standards.
The industry will move faster and improve performance for itself and its customers with more technical understanding and business knowhow shared between multiple parties. For Blockchain to succeed first requires trusted sources of data and pluggable systems. For Artificial Intelligence to add significant economic value, more trusted data must be freed from systems and made available in trusted and secure ways.
In 2019, we’ll see more cargo-handling vehicles, cranes, container boxes, chassis, and rail wagons being made part of the Internet of things. These machines and assets will be turned into intelligent connected devices that can send and receive information and in some cases perhaps follow instructions to move freight.
The technology that can securely plug into these IoT sources and integrate this data with planning and execution systems that optimize the movement of cargo will provide the next level of productivity and transparency.