Tag: transportation software
SAP software, as most of us know, is a tool used to control all aspects of critical business functions specifically. It integrates and automates key processes, ultimately helping organizations run smoothly and effectively. It has improved and streamlined Transportation Management for many businesses as well. This article will discuss how it has done so and how you can implement it for your business.
Before we explore SAP Transportation Management, let us familiarize ourselves with what is involved in Transportation Management.
Understanding Transportation Management
Transportation management is a vital aspect of a business’s supply chain. As the name suggests, at its core, transportation management involves the transport of goods in an efficient manner. This would include a host of tasks, which include ensuring that the right suppliers are selected, planning the logistical networks, analyzing the flow of goods, knowing what needs to be replenished and when, route and location planning, invoice processing, and much more.
Throughout these processes, the goal of transportation management must be cost optimization and ensuring a streamlined supply chain.
Read more: SAP Customer Experience: Creating Omni-channel Experiences.
Challenges In Transportation And Logistics Management
Throughout the supply chain, the goal of transportation management must be cost optimization and ensuring a streamlined supply chain. This is easier said than done, however. Here are a few challenges to efficient transportation management and logistics:
1. Cost Control
According to the 2019 Annual State of Logistics report, transportation alone costs US businesses over $1.04 trillion (or 10.4% of total revenue). Skyrocketing fuel prices, costs of raw materials and labor, and shipping and freight charges make it imperative for businesses to explore and employ strategies that will ensure cost efficiencies.
2. Data Management
Global supply chains have multiple data points. It is essential that data is synced accurately and collaboration across the data points is streamlined.
3. Higher expectations from customers
Customer expectations have shifted in this competitive market. They demand better service quality, delivery times, access to tracking information on their shipment, real-time updates, options to expedite delivery, and easy returns.
4. Demand Forecasting
Changing market trends, unexpected world events, and growing competition have made it difficult to predict demand and supply, which affects inventory management and logistics.
Overcoming Challenges with a Transportation Management System
As the name suggests, a transportation management system is specialized software that plays an integral part in the supply chain in industries. It is used to plan, execute, and optimize the transportation of goods. Users mainly perform three tasks with the help of TMS:
- Explore and compare the prices of carriers available for shipment,
- book the desired shipment,
- and track its movement until delivery.
Transportation Management Software is also often used by logistics and supply chain management professionals serving manufacturers, distributors, and other industries.
Key Objectives and Benefits of Transportation Management Software
TMS’s fundamental and foundational objectives are to transport goods with maximum efficiency. Its developing objective, however, is the overall improvement in visibility and security in transit. Some of the benefits of TMS are –
1. Reduce Freight Expenses
Expense is one of the top considerations when running a business. Cutting costs wherever possible is an intelligent decision and would greatly benefit your organization. An appropriate transportation management system will be able to analyze the financial aspects of the consignment by obtaining user-based suggestions for reducing charges in specific areas. Sometimes, these areas include fuel consumption, driver overtime, analytics, and optimization.
2. Track Deliveries In Real Time
A Transportation Management System allows tracking of where drives and shipments are in real-time. This informs the company about the amount of time a specific route takes and, in turn, creates more efficient route schedules. With this system, you can easily keep a tab on all your shipments at any time you wish.
3. Improve Warehouse Efficiency And Productivity
An efficient warehouse is key in any goods provider’s business, especially considering the constant flow of incoming and outgoing inventory. In this particular area, Transportation Management Software has gained exceptional functionality. When using this software, you do not have to worry about extensive expenses, which ultimately means that you can focus more time and energy on other tasks around the warehouse. TMS, when integrated into your other systems, will automate the data entry process and thus completely eradicate human error.
4. Increase Supply Chain Efficiency
Client satisfaction is the biggest priority in any organization. With the help of Transportation Management Software, logistical managers can detect and act on issues more efficiently. Transparency across the whole supply chain will greatly benefit the overall productivity of your employees. In addition to this, being able to access and incorporate real-time data analysis makes even mundane tasks exciting.
SAP Transportation Management: An Overview
A SAP ERP module called SAP Transportation Management integrates fleet and logistics management across a user’s network to lessen the complexity of transportation. Essentially, SAP Transportation Management is an easy tool that utilizes analytical logistics to carry out a variety of tasks associated with the actual transfer of commodities from one area to another.
Core Components Of SAP Transportation Management
1. Freight order management
With SAP TM, you can use the forwarding order management tool to create, edit, and verify orders from your incoming parties. You can also create forwarding quotations, transportation routes, and transportation charges.
2. Transportation Planning And Optimization
Planning is the first step in any successful organization. A transportation plan can be created based on previous orders. This task can either be performed manually or automated with the help of advanced planning algorithms to boost optimization.
3. Carrier Selection And Booking
With SAP TM, the user can use the carrier selection tool to pick an appropriate carrier for their business documents manually or automatically. The general aim here is to choose the carrier with the lowest costs under constraints.
4. Freight Cost Management
With SAP TM, the cost of transportation management is top-notch. It moderates all processes involved in storage and transportation seamlessly. It uses standardized monitoring and active control to curb processing costs incurred during transit.
5. Track And Trace
A very alluring aspect of SAP TM is its ability to track and trace the movement of goods in real-time, whether they are shipped by land, sea, or air. TMS software also improves the client experience through this process and simplifies the billing and payment processes.
Implementation And Deployment Options
The SAP S/4HANA solution, which houses the SAP Transportation Management Module, has options for deployment in a public cloud, a private cloud, or on-premise to cater to customer needs. The vast ocean of pre-delivered business applications and processes helps clients organize supply chains, networks, customers, employees, and core processes.
Fundamentally, there is only one major difference between cloud-based deployment and on-premise deployment: where they reside. Cloud software is housed on the vendor’s server and accessed through a web browser, while on-premise software is downloaded locally on business computers and servers.
Read more: How Transportation Management Systems Benefit Third-Party Logistics (3PL) Service Providers.
Best Practices When Implementing The SAP Transportation Management Module
. Listed below are some best practices that can improve your implementation process and the user experience while implementing the SAP S/4HANA solution:
1. Analysis of Business Processes For Various Industries
Do considerable research and try to analyze how other businesses with the same solution have progressed and how they utilize the solution.
2. Configuring S/4HANA
This step takes immense precision, so it is best to trust a professional with this task. Make sure that whoever you partner with is experienced and compatible with you.
3. Data Migration
It is very important to ensure that all of your important company data is safely migrated into the new solution and that none of that delicate information is lost in the process. This is another reason why hiring professional help during implantation is vital.
4. Integration With Cloud Solutions Like SAP Ariba Or Successfactors
Alongside SAP TM module implementation, include the integration of other modules to help your company move further along at a faster pace.
5. Calculate The Total Cost Of Ownership
This simply refers to summing the overall purchase price of your SAP module with the cost of operating or managing it. TCO helps you take a bigger picture of your asset and how its value will differ over time while considering the cost implications of such modules.
Industry Use Cases of SAP Transportation Management
It is not surprising that nearly every industry has already found ways to integrate SAP TM into their business plans, from construction to life sciences, using a transportation management system. Listed below are some of the industries that are most impacted by this module of SAP:
1. Retail And Consumer Goods
In retail businesses, SAP TM streamlines business processes, enhances data analysis and reporting capabilities and centralizes data from different sources to avoid scattered data storage.
2. Manufacturing And Distribution
SAP TM helps synchronize data across the company, allows everyone involved in the project to access data quickly, and reduces the time taken to market the product.
3. Automotive And Transportation Services
Here, the SAP solution consistently updates the employees about any engineering changes, optimizes resources, minimizes downtime, and addresses process inadequacies.
4. Pharmaceuticals And Healthcare
In this industry, SAP TM can assist with tracking unique products across the globe, managing the supply chain, and providing various product serial number data to verify regulatory reporting.
How Fingent Can Help
Fingent is one of the world’s leading technology solution providers, with clients from over four different continents.
As a client-centered service with open lines of contact, Fingent offers qualified professionals. To make your SAP S/4HANA deployment process simple and perfect, our specialists use the most recent and rapidly developing innovative technology. We are readily available at every stage of the implementation process and also offer top-notch post-implementation assistance by keeping track of performance, responding to user comments, and making any necessary fixes.
Reach out to us, and let’s discuss what we can do for your business.
Logistics is of critical importance in today’s highly competitive world. The success of an enterprise largely depends on its internal efficiency and the extent to which it can delight its customers. A well-oiled supply chain and seamless logistics are essential to realizing both these objectives, and this by and largely depends on deploying the right logistics management software.
Good Logistics Software Solutions Gets the Basics Right
The basic function of any logistics management software is productivity and efficiency enhancement, in warehouse operations, aimed at saving money and improving customer satisfaction. A comprehensive suite covers everything from supply chain planning to control of inventory, and from the refining of warehouse functions such as picking, packing, slotting and shipping, to streamlining transportation routines, and much more. Side by side, it co-opts logistics tracking software to improve transparency and enforce greater control over operations.
Some of the basic features include:
- Multi-client architecture to support more than one customer
- Efficient costing and invoicing control functionality to process and apply service contract policies in real-time, to facilitate prompt invoicing
- Real-time inventory control and visibility, to nip issues in the bud
- Automated vendor-managed inventory management, to processes and record replenishment requests, aimed at speeding up the supply chain and minimize stock-out situations
- Logistics tracking software, which automatically sends and receive shipping data, to improve accuracy and offering unbridled transparency into cargo movements
- Comprehensive reporting capabilities, with key data such as inventory figures, product histories and shipment records are all accessible remotely at the swipe of a finger or the click of a button, and more.
Smart enterprises go in for inherently customizable and scalable solutions in software and data depositories. While this screams out “cloud,” not all cloud-based tools are equal. Smart players opt for packages or solutions with the right chain management architecture, rather than satisfying themselves with a simple multi-client deployment model.
Good Logistics Management Software Facilitates Seamless Integration
While there are several stand-alone and off-the-shelf software for essential functions related to logistics, today’s highly competitive and integrated business ecosystem requires either a single comprehensive suite covering all these activities or seamless integration between the various stand-alone suites.
The requirements of integration extend to the ecosystem. There would hardly be any enterprise handling the entire gamut of its logistics operations, end-to-end. Outsourcing is the norm, and striking strategic alliances with competent partners is an established industry best practice and a source of competitive advantage. Many enterprises partner with 3PL companies, who in turn work closely with mainstream parcel carriers such as FedEx and UPS. The smoother the interactions with such partners, the more productive the business.
The best logistics management software requires the capability to tap into the software of all these 3PL and other partners, draw critical information from it, subject it to analytics, and present it to the stakeholders in the form of actionable information.
For instance, seamless logistics requires smooth integration of the software managing warehouse operations and logistics tracking software to the ERP suite of the enterprise, enabling decision-makers and managers to sync and plan inventory and product movement between the warehouse and the store. State-of-the-art automated logistic management software automates such a function, scheduling warehoused dispatches in sync with the movement of the cargo through the supply chain, to avoid stock-out situations. Likewise, it may schedule a slowdown of production if the cargo is blocked at some point in the supply chain, to reduce inventory glut or warehouse over-capacity situations.
Success, however, depends on a caveat. Businesses would need to resolve the traditional aversion many businesses have, to share too much information with third-party providers, regardless of whether they are business partners in noncompeting businesses and part of the same supply chain or not.
Logistics Tracking Software Goes Beyond Offering Visibility to Aid Tactical Planning
The core of any logistics software is warehouse operations management. Likewise, logistics tracking software offers visibility and helps maintain control of the supply chain. Success depends on a well-integrated logistics software solution, integrating all these critical solutions, and deliverable to the right stakeholders in easy to use dashboards, preferably through mobile apps that facilitate anywhere, anytime access.
However, mere visibility is no longer enough in today’s hyper-competitive age. Visibility must be combined with insights on what to do next, and here Big Data analytics step in. Embedded analytics is much in demand among today’s successful logistics players.
As the business becomes more complex, the nature of the data also becomes more complex, necessitating the deployment of advanced analytical tools. The best analytics tool separates the wheat from the chaff, to pick out the relevant and timely information from the data corpus, subjects it to analytics, and presents it to the stakeholders in the form of actionable information. For instance, a consistent delay in shipment delivery over a period may be a signal to change the logistics route, or the logistics partner. An ordinary logistics tracking solution would make explicit the delay, but integration with the analytical solution would enrich the insight with possible solutions, such as quotes from other providers, alternative viable routes, or any other solution. Today’ system goes beyond ironing out chinks in the armor but also become a valuable tool in tactical planning.
Good Logistics Software Solutions do not Rock the Boat
Logistics providers would do themselves a favor by having clear-cut objectives when implementing their logistics management software. Legacy providers would do well to devise a system least disruptive to their existing operations, for otherwise they would be saddled with the additional headache of managing resistance to change, a situation underestimated by most enterprises. Always review each feature of functionality in terms of why it is needed, the benefits it brings to the table, and the issues or problems it would solve. Also, have a blueprint of how the new system of functionality will gel in with the logistics operations.
Several off-the-shelf software offers valuable add-ons, such as industry research and peer-to-peer events. Nothing prevents custom software developers to co-opt such features, but the keywords are relevance. The hallmark of a good software is not an extended bucket list of features or functionality, but the extent to which the relevant features are co-opted, and implemented in a non-obtrusive way to the smooth functioning of the enterprise.
Developing and deploying a robust logistics management software is well-nigh impossible in-house for logistics firms, as their core competence and focus are elsewhere. Implementing a brand-new logistics system isn’t a cheap affair either. To get maximum bang for the buck, logistics firms are better off roping in the services of a reliable and competent tech partner who has experience in delivering cutting edge solutions.