Digitalization Efforts you can count on

According to a recent report by MHI and Deloitte (1), 74% of leaders asked were looking to invest in supply chain technology and innovation. But how certain can you be about payback times, and how much disturbance will implementing these projects cause? Are there technologies that are easy to implement yet give instant ROI?

The report found that many companies were investing money in several areas of their supply chain operations, specifically warehouse and network optimization, sensors and automatic identification, robotics, and artificial intelligence. The desired outcomes are obvious; reduce costs, increase operational efficiency, improve customer experience, and as a result, reduce climate impact on receiving and delivering goods.
Digital transformation – what’s the problem?

One presumes that logistics managers see digital transformation as moving from analogue to the digital world to become more dynamic and adaptable to a fast-changing environment. But projects put logistics managers under pressure. The worst-case scenario is spending millions while not reducing expenses, gaining the expected efficiencies or reaching required revenue goals. For example, problems may be related to barriers against sharing data, the complexity of underlying processes and systems, conflicting interests or resistance to change.

Donald Houben, Head of Sales Europe at SiB Solutions, puts it like this, “Innovation projects add extra strain on workload for logistics managers especially when operations suffer from processes that are inadequate, or where change management is not properly in place. But there are digitalization projects that can quickly and easily harvest low-hanging fruit.”

His colleague Paul Bowes (pictured) , Technical Project Manager at SiB Solutions, agrees: “Lack of visual insights and visual proof hinder continuous improvements as the wanted KPIs and statistical measurements are difficult to quantify. Companies see this by using Intelligent Video and AI Services. In one instance these insights showed that up to 40% of assumed picking errors were not actually picking errors(2)”.

So how do you go about digitalization, and what do you want to achieve? One answer is to implement subscription services that can be ready in just a few weeks after commissioning. An example is Intelligent Video and AI Services that make it easy to visually search for goods and immediately see the answer to where they are and their condition in any situation.

The benefits of subscription-based Intelligent Video and AI Services

Subscription-based services help eliminate up-front costs, offer instant updates for upgrades, are often modular, enabling organizations to take what they need and add on later, and give companies complete financial control as fees are set.

When companies implement intelligent Video and AI Services, logistics professionals can quickly go back in time and see every event, from inbound, throughout the picking and packing process, to dispatch. Visual insights help to quickly resolve disputes by verifying claims and giving proof of exactly what was received, picked, packed and dispatched. The positive financial implications are obvious. So too are the positive effects on personnel.

Intelligent Video and AI Services are key to improved quality, less errors, happier customers, and ultimately higher margins. It protects companies from fraud related to inbound logistics and returns. In other words, a transformation project you can count on. Literally.
(1) The responsible supply chain: Transparency, Sustainability and the case for business. MHI and Deloitte.
(2)SiB Solutions: https://www.sibsolutions.com/save-money-by-getting-rid-of-pointless-claims-investigations/

5 Ways to more Sustainable Logistics

Modern, sustainable logistics services involve many stakeholders. When the right amount of goods doesn’t arrive at the right time, it creates irritation, reflects on customer service, and incurs cost. That cost is not just to the value chain, it’s to our wider environment. When more goods are shipped more often than they need, they use up more valuable resources.

In the supply chain, the only way you can really know what happened is to see what happened. Intelligent Video and AI Services give companies true insight and the ability to lead fact-based improvement initiatives which improve each company’s efforts to become more sustainable.

Innovating where it matters

Intelligent video and AI Services give you the benefits of fact-based visual insights combined with real-time assistance to enable flawless logistics. “We collaborate with cutting-edge technology players in the fields of video, Cloud computing, Edge computing and AI to enable logistics providers to make significant gains throughout their operations,” says Stefan Borg (pictured), CEO at SiB Solutions. “We identified the processes that benefit from flawless logistics and the savings to be made, namely picking, receiving, transport, loading and packing. We see that companies are investing more and more in logistics technologies to become leaner, and especially more sustainable.”

Five steps towards a sustainable supply chain through flawless logistics

Stefan outlines five ways flawless logistics can make a real difference to a company’s sustainability efforts.

1: Leave nothing behind and avoid unnecessary shipments

“Most picking assignments revolve around putting items out of conveyors and into boxes. But it’s easy for items to be left behind,” says Stefan. “By using intelligent video and AI in critical processes it’s possible to verify if the conveyor is empty or not and give operators a window of time to correct a fault.”

2: Check for faults in Human Machine Interaction to improve working conditions
“Hiccups in the way a machine is set up can cause humans to make errors. For instance operators may get delayed information due to seconds of lag. Similarly, there may be something missing or unclear in the interface design. If you visually search for behaviour patterns, you can find them. And come down on the side of humans!”

3: Strive for better fill rates and avoid shipping air
“A simple visual test to measure to what extent a box is filled – and then fill it, makes sure you’re not using fuel to ship air,” says Stefan. “Intelligent Video and AI Services verifies output and gives an opportunity to correct master data used earlier in the process, enabling continuous improvement to optimize fill rates.”

4: Use visual evidence to improve circular goods flows
“One way to achieve circular goods flows is through reusable pallets, but where are they exactly?” Asks Stefan. “RFID scanning lets you know that the pallets have passed a certain checkpoint, but adding visual evidence lets you know exactly where they are, or were, pre-or post scanning, safeguarding the movement of valuable assets – the pallets, or even the goods themselves.

5: Use intelligent video and AI services to cut down resource use
“Energy is scarce, and becoming more so as more people chase fewer resources. Using flawless logistics throughout the supply chain, from guiding operators to put the right goods on the right pallets, to shipping the right goods to cut down on returns, to ensuring goods don’t go missing in transit; all means less use of scarce resources,” comments Stefan.

Flawless logistics isn’t just good for your brand and your bottom line. It’s good for people, and especially good for the planet. Stefan Borg is co-founder and CEO of SiB Solutions, possessing over 30 years’ experience in logistics and energy at management level.

Save Money, Reduce Claims Investigations 40%

What if up to 50% of your registered picking errors, and up to 40% of your registered claims investigations, never happened? It would mean that you are taking the blame for someone else’s mistakes. And you’re most likely to pay the bill! According to Staffan Persson (pictured), Global Presales Director and Co-founder of Swedish logistics technology company SiB Solutions, this might be the case.

According to Persson, you can avoid paying those claims:

Q: Staffan, you make a bold statement by saying that up to 50% of a warehouse’s registered picking errors, and up to 40% of its registered claims could be someone else’s problem or even no problem at all?

Staffan Persson: “It´s bold, but it´s what our analysis of our customer base shows us. Errors often equal human mistakes, but we see that other things can, and often do, affect quality.”

Q: Investigating claims can feel like a costly, time consuming or pointless task. How does your services change this for a logistics manager?

Persson: “Today, many warehouse operations have to make intelligent guesses regarding what happened to goods that go missing or seem to have been picked incorrectly. The only way you can really know what happened is to see what happened. That’s what our Intelligent Video and AI Services give companies: true, visual insight into what happened to goods and the ability to lead fact-based improvement initiatives where they are needed. Modern logistics services involve many stakeholders. These include suppliers, transport companies, customers, warehouse staff, production and sales. In these situations, it’s hard to agree on who caused any discrepancy in goods delivered, and who should pay for it, especially when much of that blame game is based on guesswork. When you have searchable video, and ultimately hard facts, you see exactly what happened. You get the upper hand in negotiations with suppliers and customers, while having the right information to make ongoing improvements in the warehouse.”

Q: What does it mean for a warehouse operator?

Persson: “They don’t get blamed for errors that were not their fault. They also have a better incentive to accomplish their targets and KPIs if good quality is part of their salary makeup. You can show operatives potential for improvement in a constructive way by showing fact-based feedback and providing valuable input to continuously improve processes. Operators are also protected against false claims when they have done the right thing but someone else says it´s wrong.”

Q: What does it mean for a customer service agent?

Persson: “Agents can now give customers answers about their goods based on facts. All within minutes and without involving other departments. They can independently conduct meaningful investigations quickly, regardless of product value, and can turn difficult discussions with customers about goods into solutions and extra sales. And of course, their working environment is greatly improved.”

Q: Customers complaining want compensation, right? Is it smart business to validate all claims this way? Is there really a business case?

Persson: “Yes there is. As you can now search and see relevant video clips within seconds, you can quickly evaluate claims. At SiB Solutions we challenge the assumption that achieving 0% errors is too costly. It is no longer too time consuming or too costly to root out any remaining deviations and errors. Sometimes you might end up having to compensate for a claim that you are not responsible for, but you won’t waste time trying to improve a process that actually works, and your operators won’t be blamed for a mistake they didn’t make.”

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