Article

The power of supply chain visibility in container shipping

7 Min read | September 4, 2024
Supply chain visibility is important to stakeholders involved in the shipment of goods. It gives them the means to make plans and adjust as necessary if an unforeseen event impacts a schedule. However, visibility relies on effective information exchange and this is challenging for a range of reasons. Digital standards provide a way forward, enabling interoperability of supply chain visibility solutions so partners can track and trace container cargo.  

What is supply chain visibility?

Supply chains are complex, involving many companies and many links as components and goods are moved from their points of origin to their destinations. The multiple parties involved need visibility into shipments’ whereabouts and progress. If something happens, such as poor weather or an unexpected event, and it alters the schedule, everyone involved needs to know. They will need to act to minimise the impact of the change along the line.That means they need supply chain visibility. Without it, they lack control and are limited in what they can do to mitigate shipping disruption and its impacts.DCSA surveyed** North American logistics decisionmakers in shipper organisations to gauge the importance of visibility in container shipping. Respondents confirmed this is key to deciding which carrier they will use.Over 80% used multiple suppliers for ocean transport and 69% reported varying satisfaction levels with different shipping suppliers. In fact, over 70% of the survey’s participants said they would likely switch to a carrier that offered high schedule reliability, guaranteed arrival times and proactive communication around exceptions and better responsiveness.Shipper organisations also said container shipping should emulate more digitally advanced industries such as airlines, banking, ecommerce and hotels, all of which provide a superior customer experience as a baseline rather than as an exception to the rule. **DCSA survey of North American shippers; survey respondents comprised professionals involved in a broad range of supply chain management functions. 

What are the visibility challenges  in global supply chains?

Around 90% of traded goods are carried by sea, so addressing visibility challenges in container shipping can go a long way to improving visibility in global supply chains overall. Yet, if we consider a shipment’s journey, we find that a container is lost from view until it arrives at certain points. Multimodal transport chains often appear as ‘black boxes’, so it is difficult for cargo owners to track and trace shipments and adjust their plans if they need to. The data that supply chain partners need to track and trace containers that are being shipped tends not to be aligned or digitised for end-to-end supply chain visibility.Instead, information is often exchanged through channels of communication that are not ideal for collaboration, such as faxes, telephone calls and text messages. Some information is sent by email or through online portals but even that doesn’t often conform to a consistent standard. All of which means receiving, interpreting, formatting and sending information on involves unnecessary manual work.There are, of course, supply chain visibility solutions for digital information sharing, however these are currently overlaid on unstandardised data. Supply chain partners may use different solutions from one another and find they can’t then communicate. They may have to implement multiple platforms to exchange information with the many stakeholders they do business with.The US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) launched the Maritime Transportation Data Initiative (MTDI) because of data quality and communication issues. It held sessions with industry stakeholders and concluded there is not a system in place to ensure changes to shipping information are consistently and accurately conveyed. The problem is a lack of consensus around how to best convey timely updates and who is responsible for that communication. 

How can we improve supply chain visibility in container shipping?

To improve supply chain visibility in container shipping, stakeholders need interoperable technology solutions. Digitalisation can help speed up information exchange but to make it fully efficient, and to improve the customer experience, the industry needs a foundation for its digital information.That foundation is digital standards.  Standardisation bridges the digital gap, enabling the different supply chain visibility solutions to communicate with each other, so that partners don’t need to implement multiple platforms.As container shipping modernises and digitalises, it needs a way to send and receive data machine-to-machine in formats that everyone can understand and use. Then, shippers, carriers and all other supply chain stakeholders will have visibility into the whereabouts of containers being shipped and their status throughout. 

Real-time supply chain visibility solutions: DCSA's Track & Trace

DCSA’s digital standards are designed to enable a common technology foundation so stakeholders in the shipping industry can efficiently and seamlessly exchange digital information.The standards provide the means to harmonise terminology, processes and definitions, smoothing the path for industry players that are digitising to become more effective and sustainable, and to provide and receive a better customer experience.  For supply chain visibility, DCSA has made track and trace standards available for carriers, shippers and others, supporting all identified events when data is exchanged across five phases of pre-shipment, pre-ocean, ocean, post-ocean and post shipment.Track and trace is agnostic when it comes to supply chain solutions and thereby supports interoperability of systems regardless of which platforms are used by partners exchanging information. 

End-to-end supply chain visibility solutions: empowering the future of container shipping success

 Resilient supply chains must be visible supply chains. Without visibility into where shipments are at any given time, cargo owners struggle to manage disruption or unforeseen changes. A unified approach, and industry collaboration, is required to achieve the end-to-end supply chain visibility the industry needs. Digital standards, pioneered by DCSA and its carrier partners are designed to deliver this unified approach, aligning data definitions and driving interoperability of supply chain visibility solutions. 

Get involved for supply chain visibility

Become part of the change to improve supply chain visibility and benefit all industry stakeholders:Be a digital standards advocate – get to know DCSA’s digital shipping standards including track and trace for supply chain visibility.Collaborate – sign up to collaborate with DCSA on initiatives for change and to help shape future features and releases of the standards.Learn more – browse our resources for more information including how visibility will make container shipping more reliable, how digital standards help futureproof cargo visibility and our ebook on creating data visibility.  Contact us – get in touch with your questions and subscribe to receive the latest news and industry trends.

Latest resources

Video

How DCSA Standards Drive Cross-Industry Collaboration

Video

Commercial Schedules explainer video

Announcement

DCSA addresses sustainability in global trade at the World Coffee Innovation Summit 2024