How often does your organization think about order fulfillment, routing, and optimization? Failures within inbound freight management will naturally lead to problems fulfilling orders and an inability to properly optimize outbound freight.
The application of an advanced transportation management system, specifically a TMS that provides inbound freight capabilities, proves valuable to shippers who wish to perform fulfillment, routing, and freight optimization.
Shippers and logistics service providers who want to increase profitability for their enterprises need to understand the challenges of managing inbound freight in a world that is frequently driven by e-commerce. Also important to consider is how optimization requires the application of data and a few best practices in order to maximize an inbound freight TMS.
Challenges in Managing Inbound Freight in an E-Commerce World
E-commerce is integral to the success of any business today. Retailers realize the value of fulfilling orders online, and in today’s world, omnichannel capabilities are crucial for achieving competitive advantage.
Unfortunately, the growth of international shipping for e-commerce presents additional challenges for inbound freight management. According to Supply Chain Brain:
When you add in these market forces with various supply chain disruptions, there is a lot of pressure on supply chain professionals to stay proactive and keep costs low around inbound freight. One way to tackle costs and remain proactive is to consider how inbound freight visibility centers around data and clear collaboration.
Inbound Freight TMS Management Centers on Data and Supplier-Carrier Collaboration
Proactive inbound freight management relies on data and robust supplier-carrier collaboration.
As the volume of supply chains increases alongside the added complexity of e-commerce supply chains, data is an essential step to proactive inbound freight management. Without data, organizations cannot effectively relay orders to various suppliers, and organizations will have trouble realizing what inventory to reorder and fill faster.
Therefore, an enterprise TMS with inbound freight capabilities will add value to the supply chain by creating strong, established channels to communicate with suppliers, secure available capacity for inbound freight, and gain more visibility into inbound moves.
How to Maximize Inbound Freight Value in a TMS
Shippers and logistics service providers can maximize the value of inbound freight TMS capabilities by applying the various functions as follows:
- Improve schedule reliability with centralized scheduling tools for carriers, suppliers, and shippers.
- Proactively recognize disruptions.
- Handle payment processing immediately and accurately.
- Leverage business intelligence and analytics to make data-driven decisions.
- Integrate your TMS with other supply chain systems such as a WMS or ERP.
- Encourage supply chain partners to deploy like, if not the same, TMS platforms.
- Allow robotics process automation (RPA) to self-optimize claims’ filing and resolution processes.
Retake Control Over Inbound Freight Functions With an Advanced System
In today’s edge of the supply chain world, the slightest improvement can have a drastic effect on customer experiences and promote long-term stable business relationships.
Organizations need to retake control over the procurement side of the supply chain with dynamic, flexible inbound freight capabilities within an advanced TMS.
