The unsteady state of the global economic environment in recent few years has left many organizations doing more with less. In order for companies to succeed in the current economic climate, efficiency and informed decision-making become top priorities. In 2012, companies in the global supply chain — from manufacturers to distributors and warehouses to yards to end users — will increasingly look to technology to provide them with the intelligence to optimize how they do business.
Traditionally, companies have been able to identify and track the location of important assets, people and transactions on a fairly basic level. However, as the supply chain becomes increasingly global and more complex, a new level of visibility is needed.
In 2012, we will see increased adoption and rapid innovation in technologies, from the proliferation of devices and reliance on the cloud computing to more widespread use of automatic identification and data capture technologies — to deliver a more interconnected and instrumented network of tools for businesses in the supply chain to rely on. The result will be a network that enables information gathering and decision-making in real time. Businesses will begin to benefit from new traceability — the ability to know the condition of a particular object in real time and to collect, mine and analyze data to make quicker, more informed business decisions.
In the upcoming year, those working in logistics and transportation will likely see increased emphasis on the need to see more deeply into their operations and based on that business critical information, take action and optimize their business.