E-Logistics: High tech! High touch?

(Vietnam Logistics Review) High tech developments seem to make ICT the dominant factor for managing Logistics and SCM. Truck drivers are expected to have board computers for ‘24/7’ tracing and tracking, scanners should be used by order pickers to avoid making mistakes when picking, partners in the supply chain should communicate in real time with alerts, continuously, as Quick Response downstream (but also upstream) in the supply chain is required. But, as experts in PR/Marketing say, what about ‘high touch’?

That is a question we often face now we are developing a new service for sellers, LSPs and buyers: “E-Passport” for monitoring and controlling shipments of food products in supply chains (also those which cross the borders of Vietnam).

IT staff is talking about blockchain, SaaS, PaaS and IaaS, but workers at a farm do not speak English nor do they have experience in or enjoy all administration resulting from HACCP, GlobalGap or ISO22000. That is why a workers-friendly GUI is needed and hardware developers should develop FOOL-proof devices.

Who will benefit from that E-Passport? Think of those transport companies, warehouses and freight forwarders, which claim offering above average quality logistic services. Their offer could be linked to shipments of higher than average quality of food products from farmers.

During our recent visit to The Netherlands an importer showed a shipment of Hoa Loc mangoes which had arrived in his warehouse 48 hours after the fruits were pricked from the tree in Thailand. The importer has paid VND 260,000 per kg, CNF, fresh fruit, so transport by air.

For other food products, transport by sea in reefer containers could becoming a more profitable and increasing business for freight forwarders, who seem better equipped than the average transport company.

High tech, with or without high touch, the ICT-chains of the future are already roaming at the fence of most farms. However, we do not only need PaaS in the cloud, but also platforms in real life where experts, students and employees from LSPs can meet and exchange knowledge, experience and suggestions about the future of Logistics and SCM.

Funds provided by the national government to support farmers to increase quality of their food products so more of the harvest could be exported, should be facilitated in an improved infrastructure (= more highways, wider and deeper canals and rivers) but also a more effective ICT infrastructure, enabling pre-arrival inspection of food which is on its way to the buyer.

DR. BART VAN AHEE - Dutch consultant and IT service provider