Supply chain failures and logistics of product delivery are a growing problem for retailers, particularly those in e-commerce. Physical store merchants also suffer a lot.
In order to solve the supply chain problems, it is important that non-technical merchants and shippers adopt the newest tech-based platforms. Transparency will not be achieved if the necessary transparency is not maintained.
The number one challenge that e-commerce, traditional retailers and logistics providers face is finding technology to effectively manage warehouses and transportation as well as final-mile delivery on a national basis, said Doug Ladden. He’s the co-founder and CEO at Deliveright Logistics – an AI-powered platform for logistics and delivery.
It is important to streamline the shipping process by improving visibility and streamlining order, warehouse and transport management.
Deliveright released in April version 3.0 its Grasshopper flagship platform to bring this solution. It provides retailers, ecommerce and delivery companies with an enterprise-grade platform that manages complex logistics from dock to doorstep.
The Logistics Crisis is Growing
KPMG, a firm that provides audit, tax and advisory services, found 60% of organizations willing to invest in digital technologies to improve supply chain processes. PwC’s research found that 83% executives did not see the expected results from their investments in supply chain technology.
Not all technologies are created equal. To improve efficiency, a logistics platform needs to be able to manage every segment of supply chain. This requires communication between carriers starting from the first mile to the last.
In recent years, logistics companies have faced significant challenges, including labor shortages, cybercrime and disruptions in the supply chain. The pandemic caused supply to fluctuate due to fluctuations in purchasing.
Industry reports state that global political unrest has become a major cause of supply-chain issues. This leads to disruptions in the availability of materials and transportation.
Planning and manufacturing products becomes more difficult as these conditions persist. Similar logistics issues are caused by port congestion and container shortages worldwide.
What Grasshoppers Do
Grasshopper is a comprehensive solution that allows you to manage the entire logistics process from picking up items, to routing fleets, to invoicing and much more. It also provides real-time visibility, from dock to door, according to Ladden. His company specializes in logistics, including final-mile deliveries of large, bulky products.
The Grasshopper Platform combines an order management system, a warehouse and transportation management systems (TMS), for a complete visibility solution. It also reduces complexity and increases cost efficiency to improve the bottom line of customers.
Software provides real-time information and has an improved user interface to make it easier to adopt. Deliveright says the platform offers retailers and delivery firms a more customizable, streamlined shipping solution.
Examples of Cases
Clark’s White Glove Deliver shows how innovative technology can reduce the risks of OMS, WMS and TMS problems. Jim Clark, the founder of the company, recalled that his company only needed one truck in 1997 to handle its volume. It was not anticipated that logistics would be so critical and complex.
The company now has six locations, and makes over 250 deliveries per day. Clark’s technology to run every aspect of the business was not innovative enough to compete with this new and more demanding environment.
“Controlling costs is vital to survival. Grasshopper’s comprehensive technology allows for us to report delivery accuracy with confidence of 99%. Clark said that Grasshopper has all the tools we could possibly need for success without having to hire a large IT team or spend money on other resources.
A weather event forced RPM Expedited to shut down for 10 days. This caused a crowded dock and a record amount of freight at the warehouse. RPM CEO Eric Kunz said that this exposed the need to replace RPM’s manual processes.
Kunz, a CRM Buyer, said that “Grasshopper enables a streamlined information flow through its unique integrated WMS-TMS systems, allowing visibility throughout the shipping processes and reducing manual labor, human errors, and costly delays.”
Platform is highly customizable. RPM’s integrated scanner capability, which was once tailored to maximize efficiency and now allows constant inventory tracking, said he, is no longer tailored for maximum efficiency.
RPM has reduced the number of claims it receives from 300 to 67 in just six months after adopting Grasshopper. The platform reduced customer service calls per day by 83% and doubled the amount of trailers that were loaded and unloaded. According to Kunz, the platform reduced the overall damage rate of the company from an average of 1% to a lower 1% than the industry average.
Revamped Product Upgrade
Kunz said that RPM’s daily business operations have been optimized to achieve sweeping efficiency. A reliable and sophisticated scanning system replaced manual catalogues, which enabled the automated tracking of products and the loading and unloading inventory.
Kunz explained that RPM and Grasshopper worked together to develop an API that could pinpoint business issues by providing real-time profits and losses categorized by region, route, and partner.
No other system on the market today combines WMS with TMS like Grasshopper. “Grasshopper is the only solution that can solve problems in the supply chain and ultimately enable the delivery of products to customers on time,” said Kunz.
Ladden says that the new user interface makes it easier to adopt the Grasshopper Platform.
Over the course of many years and millions in deliveries, the user feedback has been invaluable. Ladden, who works for CRM Buyer, said that they spent a great deal of time and energy to create a design that was more efficient and intuitive for the consumers, shippers and carriers.
Unified Visibility Platform is Key to Consistency
Ladden explains that the most difficult part of integrating a WMS with a TMS on one platform is to have the fundamental skills necessary to create a sophisticated WMS. It’s easier to master one field than two.
“We spent years developing both features within the same platform of visibility — a key differentiator for Grasshopper. The users do not need to worry about maintaining consistency between the two systems, which can lead to errors. Grasshopper already contains both. “No manual reviews are needed, and there is no need to worry about integration issues,” said he.
Ladden shared that customers often mention how Grasshopper makes it easier for their teams to get work done, because Grasshopper gives them a complete overview and provides troubleshooting capabilities for all orders in the U.S. Grasshopper is comprehensive, which makes it easier for both customers and carriers.
A second point that is worth mentioning is the fact that his company has a team of global workers working on Grasshopper’s continued development. These workers have built large trading platforms that are used by some the largest financial service companies in the world.
Technology Missteps Affect Transparency
Ladden explains that the lack of transparency in the shipping process is due to the different technologies used by each player involved in the supply chain. The Amazon, FedEx and UPS worlds of fulfillment and transparency are familiar to most consumers.
He noted that while the processes of these companies are very effective, the large and bulky segment, such as appliances, furniture and so on, is more nuanced. Many players have been slower in adopting new technology.
By obscuring the visibility of that link, those who facilitate it are compromising the perception of performance for all other players. This in turn makes that part of the supply chain dark.
He said: “Unfortunately there are too many paper-based players in use today that compromise far too many shipments.”
Solution Awaiting Adopters
This is a problem that the technology industry has tried to solve, but their approach is misguided. Ladden says that many technology providers are pushing for visibility but their solutions include digitizing the input of paper-based businesses.
This approach duplicates errors that have already occurred in paper-based processes, and it introduces new errors to the process.
He believes the best way to approach this is to introduce tech-based solutions to these analog companies so that information can be automatically shared across the entire supply chain. It is important to note that the lack of visibility of companies using outdated methods reduces the value of companies who are more automated.
He added that “the transparency issue is a result of the shipping companies having limited technology in order to support visibility correctly.”
