Intelligent logistics with Location based Services
Prateek Mukherjee • 2024-06-12T17:25:05.127Z
The pandemic has forced retailers to progress 'years in months', with omnichannel becoming central to their business model faster than most had anticipated. Retailers must stop expecting the market to go back to ‘normal’ and make permanent changes to combat the challenges and survive in the post-pandemic era.
Classical fulfilment and delivery management are being heavily challenged. Just-in-time and just-in-sequence have been given a shot in the arm due to technology advances in AI, ML and On the Go Mobile and Edge connected technologies. Be it excess inventory or poor implementation of Delivery becoming costly is passé. Anotherfactor to consider is the growth of transport sector in the developing world. To site and example: India`s transportation industry is very large and is ever-growing. It is estimated to be ~ $160 billion and is projected to grow to $215 billion in the next two years. India spends around 13% of its GDP on logistics, which is higher than the United States, Europe, and Japan (Ref: Economic Survey 2017-18).
To tap this huge opportunities, Logistics professionals and supply chain practitioners are beginning to embrace technologies like real-time location intelligence to apply lean concepts to remain competitive with an increased emphasis on speed and accountability within a smaller margin of error. Location-based services enable oversight and visibility for remote monitoring of assets (fleet/Agents). An additional benefit that businesses gain is the analytics and insights that can be derived on the performance and efficiencies via contextually relevant information for reporting and compliance. Sophisticated Location services that use the latitude and longitude derived from the location of devices carried by customers, delivery agents or inventory carries enable companies to provide the most optimum and efficient tracking and delivery within the digital scenario.
At Invenzo Labs, we have built a product IzoWhiz which is a comprehensive OnGo platform targeted for B2B2C Logistics providers that aims to leverage combined mobile and cloud technologies to provide a modern solutions to traditional logistics use cases. A Platform that uses latest tech to bring in a customer-focused, cost effective and well leveraged, cost effective unlocking financial benefits. Let us look at few services that can be used within your server side (backend applications) or within your Android or iOS applications.
Just in Sequence - On Demand, anytime, anywhere, identification and dispatch
Dispatch workflow based on location data is used for driver/agent assignments to load. Using driver location, dispatchers can select the driver closest to a load or drop off point. Based on various parameters driving the business, the best suited asses will be identified and paired during every delivery initiation. Dispatch algorithms based on past data and real time data of the assets locations and availability is a critical factor in enabling optimum matching.
Routing, Planning and Distance computation
Used primarily for obtaining data pertaining to route identification between any two positions, one can derive all data required in real time to track the movement of fleet, obtain approximated cost of the trip, define Estimated Time of Accomplishment between a pickup location and delivery destination. Based on Real time data on the mode of transport and the traffic and delays between the start and end of a trip , an optimum route can be plotted on a map along with the waypoints and alternate route paths to help assets on the field to plan the delivery trip. Minimizing impact of delays caused by heavy traffic, bad weather, road blocks by directing drivers around slow traffic areas or redirect to other warehouses can reduce wait times for onboarding/loading and unloading of goods.
Real time Monitoring of Fleet
Tracking and monitory during the duration of the trip can be captured and displayed on the apps in Realtime. Back end operation can have a aggregated view on the movement of a fleet or all fleets in real time. A heat map of the fleet powered by data analytics on the past trips will give a great amount of control and predictability to ensure any anomalies are quickly identified and corrective actions are implemented immediately. Individual entities (ex: Fleet mgmt. companies) will be able to constantly monitor in real time, precise location of cargo and assets throughout the transit process.
