Exam 3: Transportation Technology and Systems

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Accuracy Transportation information must depict reality. A true picture of freight status and location that is free of errors facilitates logical decision making. In contrast, decisions based on inaccurate information can lead to delivery delays, inventory shortages, and unhappy customers. Accessibility Accurate transportation information must be available to supply chain professionals who have a legitimate need for it, regardless of their role, location, or employer. Gaining accessibility to needed information can be difficult because transportation data often are dispersed among multiple companies, locations, and information systems. Technical barriers must be overcome to ensure systems connectivity and good information flows.
Relevancy Transportation professionals must have access to pertinent information for analysis and decision making. Irrelevant data and unnecessary details must be avoided as they hide important details, waste time, and distract decision makers.
Timeliness To be relevant, transportation information must be up-to-date and available in a reasonable time frame. Timely data flows from a highly synchronized information system will allow you to monitor network conditions and respond quickly with corrective actions to avoid additional problems. Transferability Information also needs to be transferred quickly between locations and systems in the transportation network to facilitate accessibility and timeliness. Hence, information must reside in electronic formats that can be readily transmitted and converted. Usability Information is useful only if it can drive effective decision making. Up-front efforts must be made to define information requirements and capture appropriate data. This will avoid the time and costs of capturing extraneous data that will not be used by transportation decision makers. Also, information is only usable if it can be seamlessly shared and translated from one format to another with no discernible loss of data. Reliability The information contained in transportation reports and transaction data sets must come from trustworthy internal and external sources. The data must be accurate, unaltered, and reasonably complete to support the intended uses. When incomplete or estimated data is provided, a clear explanation of the missing values and assumptions is needed so that a decision maker's analysis can be adjusted accordingly. Value Achieving these seven quality standards is neither an easy nor a cost-free proposition. The hardware and software needed to capture and disseminate transportation data can be expensive, though costs are coming down thanks to innovations like cloud computing. Transportation professionals must target information technology investments that enhance knowledge and generate tangible benefits.

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A widely cited and highly desirable advantage offered by a TMS is cost savings that increase return on investment. Various studies indicate that use of a TMS helps an organization reduce freight costs by 6 percent to 10 percent. Users have attributed the savings to more effective mode selection, better routing, and better procurement negotiations. By providing transportation professionals with desktop and mobile access to carrier rates and service information, a TMS also provides the ability to make better, faster carrier selection decisions that optimize costs, flows, and delivery. With this access, the freight buyer can quickly choose the best available option. Another important reason to use TMS is the dramatic increase in end-to-end transportation network visibility. The TMS organizes relevant information into precise and easy-to- read lists, which equips the transportation professional to make impactful business decisions during critical moments that improve customers' experiences. Increased paperwork accuracy results from automated documentation processes. Key documents are produced using the TMS database of international, regulatory, and multilingual documentation and creating electronic and non-electronic customs filing. This capability helps the transportation professional avoid delays due to missing or incorrect documentation. Other notable TMS benefits include improved customer delivery performance, greater compliance with regulatory requirements, and stronger data security. Effective TMS suites also integrate effectively with WMS and order management systems to seamlessly share information and support end-to-end fulfillment processes.