Today’s transportation management platforms continue to be enhanced, allowing for superior automation, optimization, speed, and transparency across networks. The transparency drives collaboration among shippers, carrier communities, and all stakeholders within the transportation ecosystem, along with increasing network agility, visibility, and predictability. Supply chain professionals will take advantage of multi-shipper collaborations, planned and dynamic continuous moves, LTL pools, and other strategic partnerships to improve capacity and cost management. Advancements in AI and machine learning on these platforms now offer predictive and prescriptive logistics execution support. From intelligent inventory demand forecasting to production scheduling, more and more logistics execution will be automated, saving time and increasing efficiencies within the supply chain.
Additionally, the latest innovations in near real-time data processing are powered by IoT devices, APIs and, potentially, blockchain shared ledgers. Going well beyond geolocation visibility, logistics plans can be immediately adjusted based on the superior accuracy and timeliness of the data. The intelligent and automated supply chain analytics will improve procurement performance, minimize risks, identify root causes, and accelerate forecasting. With automated data processing and predictive analytics, workstreams will become more aligned across supply chain and transportation departments, as well as among logistics partners.