Shining a spotlight on Supply Chain Obstacles

With various major factors in the supply chain out of our control, like unstable international trade relationships and catastrophic weather events, it’s absolutely imperative that we have an efficient rapid response on the ready.

We invested heavily in our suite of technology products, SV3, to ensure both our team and our customers are empowered with the information needed to understand all of our options in the event of a supply chain disaster. Geopolitical issues and weather events may be out of our control but as a global company with sophisticated supply chains, it’s imperative that we understand how we’re exposed and how to adjust immediately if disaster strikes. 

We’re no stranger to obstacles. Supply chains can be a complex web where a failure at any segment can cause an ensuing ripple effect along the chain. We’ve always had an expert team to mitigate any risks but it’s only in recent times that technology has enabled us with full visibility of the supply chain and interconnectedness with partners and customers to share data in real-time. This allows us to mitigate obstacles along the supply chain and make decisions in real-time in alignment with all parties. 

While there are still some factors out of our control, we’re now much better positioned to deal with changing operations in response to emergency situations because of the real-time actionable data we have at our fingertips.
We can make immediate and informed decisions based on costs, transit times, service performance and other variables. The key to resolving challenges is having a robust and modern logistics system and processes in place to stay one step ahead.  

Proper forecasting and smart planning is the only surefire way to ready your business to combat the unpredictable. Don’t lose any sleep over this, because we’ll do that for you, but here are some of the factors we can’t directly control but in most instances, we can mitigate the impact:-

Inclement weather – As a company transporting items around the globe, a major weather event on international shores,  like a tsunami or hurricane, is likely to impact some segment of our supply chain. These events are unavoidable but we can use weather forecasting to anticipate and plan around extreme weather in advance.

Cybersecurity – Cyber-attacks on transportation modes will always be a threat but cybersecurity is incorporated into our risk management procedures so that we can respond to any threats timely and effectively, and have instant communication with all relevant parties. We also train our staff in identifying suspicious emails, have strong user access controls on our platforms, do regular backups, and keep our software up to date.

Infrastructure – Unfortunately we’re reliant on the government to arrange and fund infrastructures such as roads, airports, railways and ports.  Currently, there are some inadequacies but the Federal Govt has committed to 70 billion AUD on infrastructure over the next 10 years.

Economic changes – Rising fuel prices and increasing compliance regulations also impact on the supply chain.  While fuel costs are a permanent part of the logistics industry we take measures to reduce our fuel consumption where possible and the flow-on costs to our customers. Again, The Transport & Logistics industry will always be governed by legislation and regulations due to the potentially serious consequences of any system failure, but we work hard to have processes in place to streamline operations while remaining 100% compliant.

Geopolitical Risks – Global political events and trade tensions between global superpowers can also spell disruption for supply chains.  It’s yet another reason we need to be cognisant of the environment around us, identify the warning signs of impending political unrest, and have coping strategies to limit disruption, all of which is possible with our world-class technology.

We work in a challenging and rapidly-evolving industry that requires us to be rigorous in our attention at all times. While we’ve always been great at what we do,  SV3 has made us better. When circumstances out of our control impact on our supply chain, we have robust systems in place to mitigate risk and get our goods back on the right track to the right people at the right time.

To learn more about SV3 head to our website www.sila.net.au or get in touch with our friendly teams in Australia or New Zealand:

Australia
Email sales@sila.net.au
Phone +61 7 3908 1690

New Zealand
Email sales@sila.net.nz
Phone +64 9 390 7942