A vessel call sign is a unique identifier assigned to a ship for radio communication purposes. It is used to distinguish the vessel from others in maritime communication systems, including VHF radios and satellite communications.
A vessel omission (sometimes called a port omission) occurs when a scheduled vessel does not call at a planned port during its voyage. This disruption means that the vessel skips the port entirely, which can impact the transportation and delivery schedules of goods.
In cargo shipping, vessel rotation is the planned sequence of port calls that a shipping vessel follows on its route to optimize cargo loading and unloading operations.
The timetable of departure and arrival times for each port call on the rotation of the vessel in question.
A journey by sea from one port or country to another one or, in case of a round trip, to the same port.
Warehouse utilization is a logistics metric that refers to the effective use of available warehouse space for storing goods and inventory.
Order for specific transportation work carried out by a third party provider on behalf of the issuing party.
Logistics yard management refers to the process of overseeing and controlling the movement of trucks, trailers, containers, and other vehicles within a yard or distribution center. This includes tasks such as scheduling, tracking, and coordinating the arrival, departure, and storage of these vehicles.
The business case for supply chain visibility
There is a common misconception that supply chain visibility is just about freight tracking. But this constrained definition fails to capture the transformational strategic and financial benefits that organizations stand to gain from an investment in visibility.
So what does supply chain visibility really mean? At its core, supply chain visibility is an organization's ability to access, share and analyze their supply chain data. To put it simply, investing in supply chain visibility helps organizations unlock new capabilities, transform ways of working and future-proof their businesses.
The strategic benefits of supply chain visibility are wide-ranging
Firstly, supply chain visibility gives you ownership of your supply chain data. This is essential as supply chain and logistics teams typically face two major challenges when it comes to data; there is rarely a single source of truth that enables you to get the full picture of what’s happening, and data is often controlled by supply chain partners. Beacon and other visibility solutions are well positioned to solve these problems by automating the collection and organization of freight tracking data in a single platform. Ultimately, data drives knowledge, and knowledge is power.
Secondly, visibility streamlines supply chain collaboration. Supply chains are made up of a huge network of actors and any good visibility programme has to extend beyond the walls of your organization to reach your supply chain partners. Supply chain collaboration solutions like Beacon Live Boards bring together all stakeholders, data, documents and communication in one place.
Finally, visibility platforms such as Beacon help to measure Scope 3 carbon emissions, get ahead of regulations and protect your brand. If you are not currently required to report on the carbon emissions of your supply chain, you can bet the question is coming soon…
Visibility is also good for the bottom line
Beyond the strategic benefits, improving supply chain visibility also delivers savings that boost your bottom line. Insights into past performance boost negotiating power with supply chain partners and help you make better, data-driven planning decisions that collectively drive down costs and improve supply chain performance. Data-driven approaches to planning also help to achieve the dual objectives of reducing reliance on excessive safety stock levels and reducing the frequency of stockouts (boosting revenue in the process). From an operational standpoint, visibility solutions also save teams time by virtue of automating high-frequency tasks like fetching and communicating tracking updates.
In today’s world, being data-driven is imperative. Supply chain visibility solutions help to amass a robust historical data set, and once this database is built, companies can be well-prepared to take the leap into AI-powered supply chain automation.
The benefits of investing in supply chain visibility are highly impactful and wide-reaching. Not only does it help drive near term cost savings and supply chain performance improvements, but it also helps businesses future proof their supply chains and set the groundwork for automation. Improved visibility and data quality are two sides of the same coin, and if you aren’t focused on it now, you risk being left in the dark.