According to research and studies, it has been confirmed that transport management plays an important role in the present day context of Sri Lanka, particularly when the government has made significant advancements in terms of investment in physical infrastructure in the domain of transport and logistics.
Efficient management of transport and logistics systems by the relevant service providers leads the nation to effectively realise the objectives of such large scale investment effort, namely becoming a regional transport and logistics hub.
It is within this context that costly transportation, which has hit the bottom line of organizations engaged in manufacturing and logistics, has attracted the attention of corporates, which look for way of minimising such costs through the adoption of ICT and outsourcing to third-party service providers.
This interest is mirrored by the increasing trend towards outsourcing of warehousing and distribution functions by manufacturers, importers and exporters in Sri Lanka to 3PL service providers. This has also led to an increased number of 3PL service providers even in our case to focus on transportation products and attracting an increased spectrum of customers.
Advantis 3PL Plus, a third party logistics service provider in the country started the inventive effort in view of development and implementation of PinPointer undertaken in early 2015.
By at the end of 2015, the company completed the development of a web-based (SaaS) PinPointer - an Extended Transport Management System which enables transport requesters to highlight their requirements including pick-up points, delivery points, vehicle types and request time. Main functional characteristics of the newly developed PinPointer are shown in the illustration.
The system provides a dashboard of transport requests made to the transport coordinators of the 3PL service provider which would notify the details of the specific vehicles in the fleet assigned for a particular job to the client who originally made the request.
The client in turn could view the vehicle allocations through the integrated Geographic Positioning System (GPS) Email alerts are sent by PinPointer to defined parties specifying the status of the delivery through geo-fencing, and the system dashboard is also updated accordingly.
The PinPointer was launched in September, 2015, after tracking and the post-implementation performance was tracked for a period of nine months, it was observed that almost all objectives set at the project initiation, including automation of communication and report-generation, elimination of manual communication used in transport coordination within the supply chain, have been achieved. The new system has enabled increased information visibility for all parties involved in the process in terms of traceability of information and accountability of cargo. A customer survey conducted revealed that they are highly satisfied with regard to the system functionality and to the extended level of information visibility.
The system captures the cost details of each delivery and automatically produces the monthly billing report, which enhances cost efficacy and minimises payment defaults. The PinPointer system-driven process has minimised human errors, enhancing the effectiveness and punctuality of operations and the accuracy of data and information.
The project has proved that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) could play a significant role in creating and innovating more efficient and customer-friendly solutions for the 3PL industry in Sri Lanka.
Sent by Sumeera Madurapperuma of Advantis 3PL Plus