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NETWORK OPTIMIZATION<\/strong><\/p>\n Transportation Management Providers Look to AI Solutions\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n AFTER WEATHERING THE storm of the pandemic and container crises, supply chain businesses are again looking to the future. What\u2019s the best way to manage international networks, freight transport and the cost of doing business? One area getting more and more attention is the application of artificial intelligence (AI). Over the past few years, AI has moved from being an abstract idea to a technology with numerous real-world applications.<\/p>\n Although most of the recent AI news has been focused on groundbreaking software such as ChatGPT, there is a quiet AI revolution happening across supply chain management systems. One of the visionaries in this space is nVision Global, a leading software vendor for transportation and freight management.<\/p>\n nVision\u2019s Senior Vice President of Supply Chain Services, Stewart Dunsmore, is focusing on optimizing transportation networks for logistics providers, the value of a best-in-class team and best practices in managing cultural resistance when introducing AI solutions.<\/p>\n This starts with how customer requirements, and the systems that support those needs, are evolving. nVision is building AI solutions that look beyond simple transportation management systems. Instead, they are developing software around the central concept of global freight management \u2014 applications that can bring together transportation, cost management, freight audit, business intelligence, claims and other key areas. These tools change the way supply chain businesses control their transportation networks. Instead of a one-way focus based purely on moving freight from A to B, integrated software can balance cargo management, orders, inventory, forecasting and business intelligence. Optimization is key to all these areas.<\/p>\n Freight and logistics providers are moving on from the shocks introduced by the pandemic, container availability, pricing and inflationary pressures. They want to know what to focus on next to drive growth and improve stability.<\/p>\n Dunsmore says that the key sectors where he\u2019s seeing greater customer needs are across regional and global cost management, freight consolidation and shipment visibility \u2014 all areas where AI can help.<\/p>\n \u201cCustomers want to optimize their global supply chain across all cargo types, and they\u2019re looking for software and AI to help them optimize. They want to reduce the administrative overhead of their activities and find tools that can help them be dynamic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This need for an agile and dynamic response to rapid changes isn\u2019t surprising. One of the core lessons to come out of COVID-19 and its downstream impacts is the need to react quickly, get early insight into risks and issues, and have contingencies in place. Pricing is a particular concern. The length of fixed-price transportation contracts doesn\u2019t always align with rapidly changing costs and charges. How can freight providers,<\/p>\n carriers and customers use AI to give them an advantage in a volatile pricing environment?<\/p>\n nVision says that with increasing demand pushing up rates, the answer is greater visibility of costs across cargo types. Dunsmore sees this with nVision\u2019s customers.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have had to deal with adapting to dynamic rates moving on a regular basis across a good amount of cargo types \u2014 particularly in the sea freight side. They want to analyze their freight span and costs across all cargo types. They\u2019re looking for AI to help them optimize pricing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Data and business intelligence are starting points for understanding pricing, but it\u2019s AI that does much of the heavy lifting. As costs change, shippers and carriers must adapt their pricing strategies \u2014 they need tools that can match those needs. Spot auction tools and automated bidding are taking center stage, giving closer visibility and control over rapidly changing rates, especially for LTL and specialty trucking. \u201c<\/p>\n Our global auction tool manages pricing and currencies across the regions of our customers. That\u2019s important because global contracted rates are still moving on a rapid basis. Before the pandemic, they would have contracts that would be locked in for 18 months on, for example, air and ocean,\u201d Dunsmore said.<\/p>\n Strong cost control and network optimization feed into several other critical areas for supply chain businesses: Cash-to-cash cycle times; revenue interruption; increasing interest rates; and financial management across countries, currencies and regions.<\/p>\n The principle of managing rates across multiple currencies and regions is vital. Increasing globalization and consolidation means that more businesses are operating across large, international supply chain networks.<\/p>\n Buyers and sellers must balance country-level pricing and transport with overall corporate requirements for cost control and budgeting.<\/p>\n UK companies working in British pounds need to effortlessly report their expenditures to a US parent company in dollars. The US parent company needs to provide its British business with autonomy while ensuring strong budgetary controls.<\/p>\n nVision solutions use machine learning and intelligent systems to lower transportation costs, provide detailed visibility into rates and allow for regional and corporate financial control.<\/p>\n Business intelligence and visibility make it easy to see the value that AI<\/p>\n provides. Data collection, and insights into that data, are starting points for better forecasting and predictability. nVision uses broad, deep information from across its operations to suggest ways clients can optimize further. Dunsmore believes that one of the strengths of global freight management is being able to understand data across various operations and regions.<\/p>\n \u201cOur diversified customer base gives us access to freight data across all cargo types and global lanes. AI can use that diversified data to provide greater predictability. The interpretation of that AI output is key, and it\u2019s a great avenue for customer conversations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This highlights a key point \u2014 AI isn\u2019t just about data, algorithms and predictive analytics. The interpretation of these areas is what drives true value. This boils down to business analysts and data scientists seeing broad trends identified by AI, together with deep insight into a specific customer\u2019s freight operations.<\/p>\n It\u2019s that combination of software-driven insights with analyst expertise that helps carriers, shippers and others get the most out of AI. A team with myriad viewpoints and experiences helps to add nuance and context to customer conversations.<\/p>\n Dunsmore emphasized the importance of nVision\u2019s analysts and their variety of strengths and expertise. This ranges from experience in specific transportation functions such as inventory or pricing, across knowledge of cargo types, through to understanding cultural touchpoints, country-specific norms and regional variations.<\/p>\n This creates a mutually beneficial relationship between analysts, AI tools and freight management customers. Analysts can feed their findings and concepts into the tool and the AI layer can learn from, analyze and validate those ideas. This provides conversational starting points with customers, focused on their actual data and contextualized with the business analyst\u2019s experiences.<\/p>\n From a customer perspective, the ability to visualize and act on both operational data and analyst recommendations is crucial. This speaks to a larger point, that of configuration \u2014 freight managers are busy, data is complex, and AI can be a black box. Easy configuration is extremely important for nVision\u2019s customers.<\/p>\n \u201cOur software was built on its ability to adapt. We\u2019re going to configure our software and demonstrate its value when it\u2019s applied to our customer\u2019s business processes and challenges,\u201d Dunsmore said.<\/p>\n Alignment with customer business priorities is key. nVision holds strategic business reviews with customers on a quarterly basis, ensuring that their requirements feed back into software development, implementation and configuration. They support this approach with workshops, where the company and its customers can collaborate on regional business processes and configure the tool to support those needs.<\/p>\n Although AI has many upsides, it\u2019s not all smooth sailing \u2014 as expected, there can be significant pushback on bringing AI tools into a business. While it can bring down operational costs and highlight future opportunities, AI can also be a threat to employees if their work is outsourced to an algorithm. Although it\u2019s still too early to say what impact AI will have on the labor market, companies must be mindful of individual and cultural sensitivities when introducing these tools. Protectionism around AI can be a major challenge. Leaders, managers and employees could resist the introduction of new tools due to job concerns. Certain countries, facing their own economic uncertainties, are very resistant to change. Some are still on the fence, while others are ready to embrace the technology and the benefits it can provide. nVision sees a lot of different levels of pushback. Dunsmore believes in a sensitive, phased approach to introducing these tools, requiring strategies to minimize disruption. \u201cYou have to introduce software gradually. That means little projects that prove the value of these tools and easing people into the changes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This also includes not going over people\u2019s heads. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to go straight to the CFO or COO and say that people are resisting opportunities. We\u2019d much rather work directly with people who are resistant to these changes to understand and address their concerns. That leads to much better business relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n A measured, sensible, small-scale implementation can provide considerable benefits to nVision and its customers. They have found that working closely with concerned employees helps to remove their fears and build confidence in the value of the tools. This helps turn resistant stakeholders into advocates, who then highlight the benefits of AI to their peers and managers. Limiting the original scope of AI can drive more positive experiences and build greater trust and use of the tools over the long term.<\/p>\n AI tools can revolutionize how freight managers do business. The opportunities are significant and touch on a multitude of areas including cost management, transportation networks, freight audit, claims, visibility and business intelligence. The combination of a diligent approach, innovative software and expert teams will help supply chain businesses optimize for the future.<\/p>\n Journal of Commerce, June 5, 2023, written by Paul Maplesden<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NETWORK OPTIMIZATION Transportation Management Providers Look to AI Solutions\u00a0 AFTER […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/test.tranistics.com\/nvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/test.tranistics.com\/nvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/test.tranistics.com\/nvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/test.tranistics.com\/nvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/test.tranistics.com\/nvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/test.tranistics.com\/nvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/test.tranistics.com\/nvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/test.tranistics.com\/nvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/test.tranistics.com\/nvision\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}