Shipment Visibility Improves Freight Flow and Inventory Management

April 25, 2023

Managing international logistics can be complex and frustrating. Inefficiencies and uncontrolled freight costs arise from outdated manual processes, unforeseen delays, and extreme disruptions. Improved shipment visibility solves many challenges, but the “visibility” definition remains debatable and often case-specific.

In the case of multimodal international freight, which may include ocean, drayage, rail, and trucking modes for a single shipment, visibility should encompass data at both shipment and order levels. Shipment visibility and order-level visibility enable organizations to monitor inbound freight, identify risks, manage exceptions, and plan future orders. Order and shipment visibility improves job satisfaction for logistics managers, too.

Recognizing the importance of end-to-end supply chain visibility, MercuryGate acquired ClearTrack Information Network to extend our international freight visibility. Through the integration of ClearTrack’s visibility features with MercuryGate’s innovative transportation management capabilities, you access full lifecycle shipment visibility and transportation execution.

This blog examines shipment and order visibility in MercuryGate’s Smart Transportation platform and the benefits users can access.

Shipment Visibility in MercuryGate’s Smart Transportation Platform

MercuryGate’s Shipment & Order Visibility software incorporates ClearTrack to provide unprecedented global visibility and multi-enterprise collaboration across your shipment lifecycle at container, order, and item levels.

This high-level approach to supply chain visibility is available across multiple modes and results in a better understanding of inventory levels and status at every stage and moment. Why is this important? Organizations can identify inventory risks early and proactively mitigate out-of-stock occurrences or missed fulfillment schedules.

Key features of the Shipment & Order Visibility tool include a unified system of record, standardized processes and workflows, and improved delivery reliability. By digitizing communication between numerous international supply chain parties – such as suppliers, freight forwarders, customs brokers, steamship lines, and transportation carriers – the tool collects information from existing OMS, ERP, TMS, and WMS platforms and standardizes the data into a singular, accessible agnostic hub.

This provides visibility to the full continuum of supply chain activities, from order, tender, acceptance, arrival, and final receipt, helping shippers transform their overall operations through enhanced collaboration.

Standardizing operational workflows ensures a consistent flow of goods and reliable delivery schedules. A unified, master system of record helps shippers identify information gaps and other issues at each workflow milestone to regain control of processes that jeopardize the downstream supply chain. It also allows for better assessment of opportunities to deploy automation that frees up operations teams to focus on exception management when a disruption falls out of tolerance and threatens supply chain continuity.

An organization depends on the accuracy and reliability of shipments to minimize out-of-stock occurrences and ensure outbound orders can be filled as promised. When these systems fail and are subject to disruption and unanticipated risk, the company must maintain higher safety stock levels, which unnecessarily increases overhead costs and eats into working capital.

A unified system of record and standardized workflows ultimately help ensure that shipments are on time as planned, eliminating the need for excess safety stock and lowering overall operating expenses and costs of goods sold.

Benefits of Order & Shipment Visibility

Establishing processes for monitoring the movement of inbound freight is essential for all parties in the global supply chain. Manual tracking processes are inefficient and susceptible to human error and oversight. Digitizing and automating shipment and order tracking alleviates these issues and offers additional benefits:

Multimodal shipment visibility from origin to destination. See the full shipment lifecycle across all modes – ocean, air, rail, drayage, and trucking – in a single hub.
Structured, accessible, usable data. Capture disparate information from across the fragmented supply chain network and standardize it in useful formats – making unstructured data structured and easy to use.
Network integrations configured to logistics processes. Integrate with existing logistics platforms and networks without dramatic changes to workflows and processes.
Accessible information source for all supply chain parties. Access shipment information and updates with customized push alerts or send updates directly to ERPs via API.
Gain control of the flow of goods. Get a comprehensive view of inventory cycles for every item and SKU to minimize safety stock levels and drastically reduce overhead.
Efficiently scale business processes. With a purpose-built shipment visibility system in place, scale faster without adding linear labor resources to logistics and supply chain operations.

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Get on the Clear Track with MercuryGate Shipment Visibility

MercuryGate’s Shipment & Order Visibility tool provides:

Multimode visibility from origin to destination.
Structured and accessible data.
Support for existing logistics platforms and networks.
Ability to scale business processes efficiently.

The tool functions as a control tower for inbound freight across the multimodal network, providing data at various levels and making it readily available 24/7. Order and shipment visibility plays an active role in improving job satisfaction for logistics managers. See how MercuryGate delivers full lifecycle shipment visibility in this infographic.

Download our eBook to learn more about order and shipment visibility and how it functions in the real world to provide logistics managers with critical information that helps them manage inventory, minimize detention charges, and optimize distribution center operations.