How Real-Time ETA Optimizes the Supply Chain

As a shipper, it’s hard to predict your product’s estimated time of arrival. It’s a moving target — unpredictable factors such as weather and port congestion, coupled with capacity limitations and equipment shortages greatly impact each arrival time. Across your supply chain, every move your product makes can present a potential delay.

But what if you had access to your product’s ETA, in real-time — and the ability to identify exceptions and predict delays — and make changes that mitigate delays throughout the long journey?

You’d have shorter lead times, and the ability to get your product to market faster — while keeping less inventory tied in safety stock at warehouses. Think of the strategic decision-making you could make while your shipment is en route — re-routing, appointment rescheduling and precise transportation planning and warehouse receiving operations, based on changing external factors as they happen.

Why is it hard to know your product’s true ETA?

The ability to track and trace products from source to final delivery is particularly challenging because of the number of carriers and companies involved in an end-to-end movement; creating risks that jeopardize areas within the supply chain. The lack of visibility into a product’s origin can also lead to unnecessary actions resulting in inefficiency and costly delays.

But access to real-time ETAs uncovers hidden areas and provide precise information and recommendations for how to mitigate delays and gives real-time visibility and orchestration of assets for your global supply chain.

Blume Global was recently recognized by Gartner in its market guide for real-time visibility providers. For more than 25 years, Blume Global has applied insights from our global logistics network and analysis of unpredictable event data to provide dynamic, real-time ETAs to its customers in retail, consumer products, hi tech, healthcare and life science and automotive.