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With fuel prices at an all time high and more demanding customers (with respect to decreased delivery time, better on-time delivery, quality assurance and security) transportation and travel companies need to rethink their business strategies and make their supply chain more agile, flexible and cost effective.
Third party logistic service providers (3PL) need to optimize their transportation network in order to reduce costs and offer better service to the customers. Fleet utilization, scheduling and route optimization are some of the common ways of achieving this. Also with the use of multi modal transport and growing exports the complexity of the supply chain has increased manifold. Aqua MCG, with the help of its vast experience of its practitioners offers solutions some of these key issues.
There is a lack of visibility into the movement of goods, especially in developing countries like India. As a result most of the decisions tend to be reactive and sub-optimal. RFIDs are being increasingly used to increase supply chain visibility and security. This real-time visibility helps in proactive decision making by performing “what-if” analyses. This also requires an integrated information technology system for proper co-ordination and planning. This IT system is the key enabler in seamless integration of all the services of the firm, which gives a supply chain visibility to all the members across the chain. The availability of better and real-time information makes the decision making process more effective, and hence increases customer satisfaction tremendously.
An area of concern in exports by the marine route is the high transportation time from the Indian ports. Some of the main reasons are 1) major ports in India have high congestion rate and 2) efficiency of major ports is low – pre-berthing time and turnaround time of vessels are very high (Major ports in India have turnaround times in days compared to hours for Singapore). Also there is a major capacity constraint at the major ports in India. Hinterland connectivity with the north and western India is getting better due to the Dedicated Freight Corridors and other measures being taken by the Government and private parties. In order to offer competitive lead times to their export customers, firms need to optimize their transportation network in terms of choosing which port to route from, ideal location of warehouses and ICDs etc.
Transportation and logistics is one of the most booming sectors especially in the Indian subcontinent. However, there are some critical challenges that firms in this industry need to overcome to achieve sustained long term growth. Aqua MCG through its customized range of solutions for the transportation and travel industry helps clients increase efficiency and achieve profitable growth.
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