International Transportation Management System lags

Technology Briefing 1/31/08 -- Supply Chain Management Review, 1/30/2008 6:00:00 AM

International transportation management is one of the few areas where companies can really differentiate themselves, but few companies have adopted the technology to gain visibility into their international transportation.

According to Ian Hobkirk, senior analyst of supply chain execution at Aberdeen Group:

• 58 percent of companies involved in global trading use warehouse management systems (WMS) but only
• 31 percent utilize transportation management systems (TMS) and a mere
• 21 percent use international transportation systems.

Hobkirk notes that Asia is a particularly difficult region for visibility.

“Most of the technology vendors have developed solutions geared toward Asia, because most of the big manufacturers are focused on Asia,” says Hobkirk.

Vendors have in fact created tools that offer visibility into Asia transportation, however, only the large, first-mover companies that have adopted these international transportation solutions so far.

According to Hobkirk, there are two main reasons it is difficult to gain visibility into transportation in Asia:

• The large number of players involved in moving goods globally, and
• The lagging technology adoption in Asia

The solution, according to Hobkirk, is to adopt transportation management systems that can monitor all stages of international transportation. Hobkirk talks further about international transportation in his report, “The International Transportation Management Report,” which is free to Supply Chain Management Review and Logistics Management readers.