CONVERGENCE

THE COMBINED POWER of MICROLOGISTICS and WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY

 

Executive Summary

Logistics, Transportation and Distribution are mission critical business disciplines whose capabilities have, for too long, gone unnoticed and therefore underutilized! Missed opportunities have their roots in underutilization; and professionals in logistics, transportation and distribution, up until recently have long been frustrated by this fact.  Their corporate centric position and awareness of and sensitivity to the corporate knowledgebase, position these professionals adjacent to one of the largest “pools of potential opportunity”.

 

For many years, transportation management was considered a “corporate outcast” and was treated as the “butt end foul up of everyone else’s mistake”.  Gradually, over the last fifteen (15) years, this worthy micrologistics component, “transportation” has been recognized for its capability and given a seat at the corporate table.  Finally, it is being recognized for its potential and as a valuable resource. 

 

“Convergence” is a coming together, but convergence as understood and practiced by TransportGistics is, “the coming together of like and disparate knowledgebases, skill sets and disciplines; the purpose of which is to solve business equations with the intended results of creating new paradigms and achievements that would be unachievable through traditional processes”.

 

Corporate recognition of “convergence” as a business tool will give the transportation and logistics professionals the status necessary for meaningful participation in the decision making and planning processes.  Its influence will identify new corporate opportunities through the unique perspectives of the transportation and logistics professionals.

 

Purposes of this White Paper

The general purpose of this white paper is to present the reader with a meaningful understanding of what convergence is, describe a method of approach with respect to identifying and implementing a convergence process and to identify important characteristics that will assist the reader in their pursuit of the attributes, features and benefits of implementing a convergence practice.   

 

The specific purpose of this paper is to present the reader with an understanding and view of the successful result of converging the micrologistics component, “transportation” and wireless technology.

 

Click here to read the entire paper

 

 

 

Convergence

Convergence is a coming together of like, similar and disparate disciplines, knowledge bases and skill sets. 

 

Convergence is a powerful and dynamic enabler! It is capable of expanding and crossing existing barriers and establishing new frontiers!  Convergence will create new paradigms!  The results of a successful and proficient “convergence program” will propel companies to a higher level of success than could otherwise be achieved!

 

Convergence, as a practice, process and program can be utilized in almost every human endeavor.  Below are several examples of the specific areas of convergence that will be addressed in this white paper.

 

Convergence of different disciplines and technologies, as when the micrologistics component, “transportation” and wireless technology come together. 

 

Convergence can also occur when industry and academia recognize the importance of the joining of their unique capabilities, perspectives and knowledge.

 

Convergence occurs within and amongst companies; the coming together or joining through cross cultivation of both like and disparate knowledge bases and skill sets, focused in inter and intradepartmental and inter and intradisciplinary relationships.

 

Convergence of cultures

 

Convergence is a naturally occurring intellectual phenomenon, the benefits of which should be apparent in all aspects of life. While this white paper will address “convergence” within the boundaries of commerce, industry and academia; recognizing convergence in other venues such as music and science will provide the “convergence practitioner” a much richer and robust understanding, appreciation, experience and better use of this dynamic and influential instrument.  Convergence will produce a result significantly better than that which would otherwise occur from traditional contemplation or pursuit.

 

Embracing convergence as a business tool requires the elimination of corporate silos.  Once this is achieved, it won’t be long before convergence is recognized as a comprehensive and compelling process.  In order for convergence to be successful, it must manifest itself in a universal culture, bent on exploiting the joining or coming together of like and disparate knowledge bases and skill sets.  If this notion is correct, we will begin to see convergence evolving as a recognized business process manifesting itself, initially, in intra and interdepartmental relationships resulting in intra and interdisciplinary work groups within and across a company and its partners. 

 

Perhaps the greatest commercial and industrial benefits occurring from the convergence practice will come from work groups comprised of various disciplines and technologies that are combined with academia.  Intellectual cross cultivation of disparate and similar knowledge bases and skill sets will provide new and better ideas, products and resources. Those ideas, principles, products and services that result from convergence will far exceed the levels of expectation and capability that would otherwise occur from traditional work groups!

 

Converging Micrologistics and Wireless Technology

Early in the establishment of the TransportGistics, Inc. Consulting Division, it implemented its senior level convergence practice.  This group recognized that “logistics” could provide better opportunities and be more effective.  The particular “convergence work group” that discovered the Dichotomy of Logistics was comprised of the following TransportGistics disciplines and technologies: Macrologistics; Micrologistics; Economics; Engineering; Communications; Information Technology; Human Resources and Finance.   

 

Micrologistics is the study of the operations and the application of the components of logistics, such as, but not limited to: transportation; inventory; warehousing; purchasing and customer service.  The micrologistics component that will be treated in this paper is, “freight transportation”.

 

“Wireless” typically describes a means, other than hardware over or through which data and/or information is transported. “Technology” is the application of science and engineering for the development of efficiency and effectiveness.  Therefore, “Wireless Technology” is a means and a method of transporting data and/or information effectively and efficiently via radio waves.

 

Convergence of “Freight Life Cycle Management(sm)” and “Wireless Technology”

The convergence of wireless technology and Freight Life Cycle Management(sm) joins two (2) highly influential and dynamic business methods and functions that significantly improves the speed, quality, quantity and type of data that can be collected, processed and converted to information.   

 

Wireless technology significantly improves the efficiency and effectiveness of transporting “freight” data that are collected from the transaction stream.  As you will see from the new definition of “freight” below, there could be an infinite number of “physical stops” in addition to “virtual stops” at which data can and should be collected.  When wireless technology is coupled with “Freight Life Cycle Management(sm)” (FLCM), the needs of industry can be properly addressed far more effectively because of the ability to deliver a meaningful real-time flow of information.  The inherent capabilities of wireless communications and FLCM make a significant contribution to improved corporate performance through timely and accurate decisions. 

 

Yesterday’s Freight Transportation Paradigm

Yesterday’s view of “freight transportation” limited its understanding, function and purpose.  However, this limited understanding reasonably satisfied and addressed the singular objective of delivering products and goods to new and more distant markets, simultaneously achieving appropriate levels of customer satisfaction.  Freight transportation in the United States underwent its most dramatic change in 1995 with the enactment of several congressional promulgations that eliminated transportation regulation.  Notwithstanding this major change, carriers, shippers and receivers have not yet begun to exploit the potential opportunities that this shift from a government regulated system to market driven system is capable of.  Initial response to financial deregulation was focused on pricing and a minor movement to outsourcing some transportation management services to 3PL’s.  This traditional view continues and is evidenced by the constant increase in the numbers of companies becoming freight transportation carriers.  This view is reinforced by the traditionalists; they deem their mission as successful if they continue to drive down freight costs by the penny through leveraged negotiations.  This attitude is supported by the corresponding and habitual response from the carriers.  

 

At the outset, freight transportation was understood as a means whose purpose was to move products or goods, in a vehicle, vessel or container from one point to another, typically over public and private rights of way.  Its function was to bring goods from their point of manufacture, growth or assembly to a point of secondary distribution, such as a retail outlet or for further processing.  It is not unreasonable to believe that, at least, one of the purposes for freight transportation was to move products beyond its current distribution market, perhaps because the original markets became saturated. Therefore transportation was also looked upon as a market expansion tool.   These basic tenets of freight transportation have remained as the focus. 

 

Recognition by astute carriers, shippers and receivers that, “looking at each other as adversaries in the post 1995 era” was not only counterproductive, it denied the benefits that symbiotic partnerships are capable of.  This recognition was the first and necessary cultural step in the process to maximize transportation and logistics opportunities.   Next, understanding the similarities between transportation and communications further improved the carrier/shipper relationship.  This important relationship continues to grow and develop through the use of “electronic connections” and shared technology.  

 

Yesterday’s freight paradigm, described as, “price negotiation driven, and limited to the belief that “freight” is only a product whose initial recognition begins when it is placed in a shipping container, of any kind, and loses its identity as “freight” when it leaves the container”.  This paradigm is on the threshold of change.   Such change is about to make as significant an impact on industry as the deregulation process and the elimination of regulation should have realized in 1995.

 

Today’s Freight Transportation Paradigm

The new freight transportation paradigm views the entire life cycle of “freight” beginning with its first recognition, simply as an entity and continuing through description, identification and ultimate consumption.  Essentially, FLCM is the management of pre-shipment, in-transit and post-shipment freight and related activity.  This new definition of “freight” is the basis upon which today’s freight transportation paradigm resides! 

 

The importance of “Freight Life Cycle Management(sm)” as a component of the supply chain is so critical, that without which there is no supply chain!  By improving and better utilizing the micrologistics element, “transportation”, and managing it effectively through a meaningful, high level integrated macrologistics strategy, today’s paradigm will continue to evolve thus reinforcing the corporate significance of “convergence”.

 

Today’s freight transportation paradigm, FLCM(sm), offers boundless opportunities.  These opportunities will be enabled by the convergence process and driven by the economic demands placed on the carrier, shipper and receiver; all of which will achieve better utilization of talent, capital and assets.  These shared needs have in common a prolific amount of excellent universal data that is produced by the freight transportation process.  A convergence work group that includes transportation and logistics professionals is specifically empowered through their unique perspectives.  Additionally, the convergence work group’s ability to exploit the corporate knowledgebase offers limitless opportunities.  

 

Transportation and Communications Technology, an Historic Relationship

Freight transportation has long been recognized, albeit by only a few, as a driver and an innovator for industry.  The Transportation Data Coordinating Committee (TDCC), in the early 1960’s was the first group in the world to create communication standards. Further, the similarities between transportation and communications are numerous; therefore it is fitting that supply chain management would become an early benefactor of converging communications technology and micrologistics. The new freight transportation paradigm continues to draw upon this historic relationship and firm platform as it moves ever forward to provide process improvement, performance, and new paradigms. 

 

A Beneficial Application Resulting from Convergence

Soon after establishing the Dichotomy of Logistics, it became clear to the “convergence work group” that the capabilities of MML allowed them to begin to appreciate, understand and respect the enormous potential of convergence. As an example, they recognized that certain micrologistics components could be redefined.  Specifically, yesterday’s view of “freight transportation” limited its function and purpose to picking up products or goods from one point and delivering them to another point.  However, when “transportation” is recognized as a micrologistics component, and considered through the MML process and perspective, it was realized that a new definition of “freight” could be significantly important. 

 

As stated above, yesterday’s paradigm viewed “freight” or “transportation” singularly as an already established “silo” whose birth occurred at the point in time when the product moved from the shipping facilities’ dock to the consignees’ dock.  Its life cycle was only as long as it remained in transit. 

 

The new “freight” paradigm, FLCM, views the entire life cycle of “freight” beginning the instant the “entity” is first recorded and continues through description, identification and ultimate consumption.  This total view of “freight” coupled with the understanding that more and improved information would allow for more accurate and timely decisions, became the basis of a new product known as TRaIDS.  By recording the continuous movement of goods together with the associated and attendant data, TRaIDS uniquely presents new metrics for improved management decisions.  Information regarding the entire freight life cycle, beginning with the internal flow of material within the shippers’ facilities, continuing the data collection during the in-transit activity and concluding with final placement of the material, management now has complete information.  Once FLCM is understood and embraced, the practitioner can visualize the inherent freight enterprise component and utilize those strengths and advantages to drive new opportunities.  As examples of the data that TRaIDS can collect and process from the “freight enterprise” consider warehouse location and bin assignment, picker and packer identification, product, carrier and shipment date, along with initial consignee and final consumer.  These data can be “sliced and diced” and presented in a manner that is capable of providing new insights.  Competitive picking and packing cycles for warehouse analysis and comparison or “enterprise, throughput performance are just a two (2) of the significant insights that are the ultimate result of the convergence process.

 

The convergence work group that created TRaIDS was comprised of the following disciplines:  Transportation; Warehousing; Inventory; Purchasing; Accounting; IT; Engineering; and Operations Management.   Bringing their knowledge bases and skill sets to the group, and driven by customer need, the overall objective was understood.  Each member already understood and appreciated their colleagues’ knowledge and as it related to the objective.  With each member responsible for delivering their specific knowledge in a manner that would allow an effective “handoff” to the group, the group was able to work as one.  This process allowed ideas to flow, tasks to be performed efficiently in a manner that facilitated pursuit of the objective.

 

Academia and Business, another Dimension of Convergence

Academia has long been known to initiate and explore intellectual pursuits that affect everything, not the least of which is industry and commerce.  Similarly, industry is driven by a like purpose and additionally by competition and profit.

 

In their individual pursuits it is not unusual or unreasonable to find that academia has developed something for which there is no commercial or industrial application.  On the other hand, commerce and industry’s needs sometimes never see an effective solution because the fertile environment and culture necessary for ideas to flourish may not exist within the industrial boundaries. 

 

Imagine a forum that encouraged the convergence of industry and academia, on the highest level where this power of two could realize the fertile and intellectual prowess on the one hand and satisfy the industrial and commercial needs on the other.  The Center of Excellence at SUNY-Stony Brook, amongst many things, is such a forum.  Pragmatism and pure intellectual pursuit are two of the operating forces that naturally come together in this forum.  Those combined resources must continue to address and satisfy the convergence of these powerful forces. They are shaping and molding the intellectual and industrial pursuits placing their benefactors at the forefront and positioning them to achieve world class excellence. 

 

TransportGistics, working closely with the Center of Excellence accepted the homeland security challenge from the  Department of Transportation to present a white paper that would address the need to “Improve The Security And Reduce The Vulnerability Of Transportation Services To Accidental Or Intentional Disruption”.  TransportGistics is a global, multi-product / service company that provides market-leading solutions for transportation management functions within the supply chain.  Under the Center of Excellence umbrella, SUNY-Stony Brook delivered their project from their Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Departments.

 

Appropriate members from each team formed the “convergence work group” which was comprised of various experts in transportation, logistics, applied mathematics, engineering, biometric sciences, psychology, software and systems. 

 

The convergence work group immediately identified five (5) key areas of importance: 

 

1.      The material that is being transported – i.e. the freight.

2.      The vehicle transporting and/or containing the freight, such as the tractor/trailer.

3.      The human factor, such as the driver, the dispatcher/planner, etc.

4.      The infrastructure – the roads, bridges, tunnels, and strategic locations such as power stations and government buildings, etc.  

5.       The alerting and dispatch of properly equipped response teams.

 

The convergence work group developed each of these key areas; integrated them into a process; developed individual performance tasks; and then combined all into a complete system.  The white paper was selected by the Department of Transportation.  The advantage of convergence in this example was the ability to rapidly respond with a comprehensive solution in very short time.  The paper was requested by the DOT within two (2) weeks of 9/11 and the Convergence Work Group delivered a completed paper, together with a financial assessment and full test program in three (3) weeks.  

 

Conclusion

In one of our previous papers, “Logistics, the Beginning of the New Potential” we identified that logistics is a highly robust business discipline capable of providing industry with important tools and a new corporate knowledgebase.  That it’s proven ability to manage and operate complex relationships simultaneously has been demonstrated to be highly effective.  Incorporating that portion of the logistics discipline that is responsible for the management and operation of complex relationships into the “convergence practice” is another readily available skill that is an important dimension of the transportation and logistics professional. “The Beginning of the New Potential” is being realized on many fronts and those that will evolve with the convergence practice may be the most fruitful. 

 

The practice of convergence as an operating process, if properly respected and whose work groups are properly assembled will provide levels of achievement that are yet to be imagined.

 

Transportation, logistics and convergence are highly influential factors in winning the challenges that lie ahead; this combination can offer industry boundless opportunities.  The “convergence practice” should be recognized as an evolving process, appropriately amorphous today, sustaining flexibility and making necessary adjustments to meet the challenges, goals and objectives of tomorrow. 

 

Companies that understand and appreciate the value of convergence will be rewarded with efficiency, profitability, performance and overall success.

 

About TransportGistics, Inc.

TransportGistics is a global, multi-product and services company that provides market leading, simple, incremental solutions for transportation management and logistics functions within the supply chain.

 

TransportGistics commitment to education is portrayed through its advancement of professional logistics and transportation programs.  Its white paper site presents important and timely transportation and logistics subjects each month, and is regularly visited by more than 30,000 companies in the private and public sectors, universities and governments, worldwide. It is an active partner at the Center of Excellence in Wireless Internet and Information Technology at the State University of New York-Stony Brook.

 

Continuation

Please consider this white paper as a continuum in this subject area, succeeding white papers will address common issues and address them with common solutions.  We encourage our readers to direct any specific questions or comments to papers@transportgistics.com.

 

Disclaimer

The information presented herein neither represents the opinion of the author, but not necessarily the opinion of TransportGistics, Inc. This white paper is it presented as a legal position or opinion.

 

“Freight Life Cycle Management”(sm) is a sales mark of TransportGistics, Inc.

 

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