The face of the global supply chain has seen a significant shift in recent years as consumers have changed how they obtain their goods, and the turn to e-commerce was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic when people couldn’t leave their homes and needed goods shipped directly to them in short periods of time.
It’s no longer early adopters using the technology it takes to participate in e-commerce. Nishith Rastogi’s parents order everyday products to be shipped to their home with the click of a button, and like all consumers, they expect that shipment to be at their door by its estimated time of arrival.
“What has happened in the last 10 years is a very interesting shift where people, as end consumers, have entered the supply chain. We used to go to a retail store and pull our goods from there. Today, most of our goods and now even services are being pushed down to us at our home and offices,” said Rastogi, founder and CEO of last-mile logistics technology company Locus. “That creates an entirely new leg of supply chain and a significantly more random, dynamic piece, which requires intelligent decision making.”
Shippers now have considerably more locations to ship to when getting consumer products to their individual households at a certain time on a certain day rather than a select few stores that then distribute products to the masses, and it’s not an easy thing to do, Rastogi said.
It has created logistical challenges from order to delivery as companies’ demand patterns are completely different on a daily basis, but Rastogi said real-world visibility can help alleviate those pain points.
Rastogi’s company recently launched its real-world order-to-delivery dispatch management platform that removes the responsibility of dispatching from shippers by connecting to their order management systems and offering a bundle of options to deliver goods to customers in an effective manner.
The platform uses advanced optimization algorithms and intuitive workflow automation to learn from previous outcomes to drive more efficient dispatch planning, scheduling and routing. It also helps increase visibility, capacity and carrier management under an integrated API-ready solution that helps streamline logistics complexities, maximize operational efficiency and improve end-user experiences, according to Locus.
