Real-Time Visibility in Supply Chain: Complete Implementation Guide 2024

Businesses that are associated with pickups and deliveries will know how difficult it is to get transparency in the supply chain process. However, recent technological developments have helped us overcome the challenge of not knowing whether the package has been delivered or not.

Have you been in the delivery industry for a while? Then, you may know that modern customers need full access to the delivery process and accurate information at their fingertips. Failing to do so can lead to existing customers churning out, eventually damaging your business reputation. 

Otherwise, your customers will not prefer your service in the future, and you might lose your competitive advantage in today’s marketplace. So, the reason is clear why you need real-time visibility in your supply chain management.

Without real-time visibility in your supply chain management, you risk losing customer preference in the future and compromising your competitive edge in today’s marketplace. The necessity for real-time visibility becomes evident.

Real-time visibility gives you a clear picture of ongoing operations so that you don’t need to continuously follow up with drivers. As a result, you can increase delivery efficiency and improve user experience without doing manual things. 

In this blog, we will explain real-time visibility and its increasing importance for delivery businesses. So, let’s begin with a definition.

What is Real Time Visibility?

Real-time visibility refers to the ability to track and trace delivery activities on the ground level, providing a clear picture of how the delivery process is taking place from the warehouse to the customer’s location. 

Having real-time visibility means having a virtual assistant that monitors the movement of your products and keeps you informed about whether the package has been released from the warehouse or not. This process enhances transparency in the supply chain, allowing you to take prompt action if anything goes wrong at any stage.

How it works?

At first glance, it may look like a complex process, but it is pretty simple to know how things are going on the field without interrupting it. Also, your buyers would know their order will be delivered on time.

The real-time visibility process is quite simple. It collects information from data-tracking devices, stores it on a cloud-based platform, and then transmits it to the web app, where you can access the real-time data remotely. Let us take an example to help you understand the process easily. 

Imagine you deliver shoes to the buyer. You can attach a GPS device to the truck’s container, which goes all the way to the buyer’s location. That’s how you can have real-time visibility of the journey of the purchased items. In short, you can view the delivery status of the package anytime, as real-time visibility will keep you posted with live updates. 

Why is Real Time Visibility So Important for Your Business?

Having real-time information on hand can significantly help your business operations run efficiently. It is an added advantage in surviving today’s cut-throat competition. Here is why your business needs real-time visibility. 

1. Minimized risks

Real time visibility can help you minimize risk factors such as operational risk in case of unforeseen events, as it allows you to check and confirm how big the issue is before it results in business loss. If you do not have full visibility of the ongoing process, then managing the delivery schedule is not that easy. All you have to do is plan routes manually from scratch and provide updates to your time. Ultimately, increasing customer waiting time can put your business at a reputation risk. 

2. Better decision-making

Real-time visibility offers detailed insights so that better decisions can lead to achieving business goals. You can ensure that the necessary laws and regulations are followed by your delivery team. By doing so, you can avoid hefty penalties and conduct smooth delivery operations. Since you get minute-by-minute updates on your screen, it is easy to make better decisions based on updated information. 

3. Enhanced user experience

When you do not offer any updates on product shipping, think how frustrating it would be for your customers to stay in the dark, having no idea whether the product is out for delivery or not. Real time shipment visibility wipes off such issues by letting modern buyers know how long their order will take to arrive at their location.

What Difficulties Do Businesses Face When They Lack Real-time Visibility?

If businesses lack real-time visibility in their logistics operations, they can encounter several bottlenecks in the supply chain. Let’s discuss what could be the major challenges.

1. Delivery delays

In case your business lacks real time visibility, communication gaps are more likely to interrupt the delivery process. It is obvious that you will find it difficult to track the shipping process and have no idea if the driver is going as per schedule or not. If there is an issue with the vehicle, you will take more time to figure out what’s actually happened, resulting in supply chain disruptions and delivery delays. Also, it will include taking follow-ups from drivers and manually creating an alternate route if needed. 

2. Lower customer retention rate

Keeping your existing customers in the dark while performing delivery can lead to business loss. This is because when you don’t provide customers with accurate details about the product delivery, chances are they may churn out. If the process continues for a long time, your business might take a hit and result in a poor customer retention rate. Eventually, you will fall short of business success.

3. Revenue loss

When you have drivers taking longer routes for deliveries, your financial plan might be affected. This is because of poorly planned routes, which let vehicles spend more time on the road and have higher fuel consumption. Thus, you need to spend more money on vehicle maintenance and fuel charges. All these factors can jointly contribute to unnecessary expenses resulting in revenue loss.

How to Use Real Time Visibility in Streamlining Supply Chain Management

As a business owner, if you are willing to adopt real time visibility, it’s crucial to approach it strategically. Firstly, you need reliable software that helps to manage things, streamline processes, and make operations easy. As a result, we can grow our business. Here is how you can make the most of real time visibility in the right way. 

1. Identify the supply chain process to identify loopholes that need to be fixed before adopting real-time visibility into your daily operations. By doing so, you will know where it can make the most significant impact. 

2. Once done, start analyzing how you will use real time visibility at various stages in your supply chain. At this point, consider inventory management, order fulfillment, and fleet management.

3. When you are ready with the new strategy, carefully choose the right software and tools as per your business requirements. You can get advanced software that helps you monitor the shipping process. Also, you must check if the chosen software can be integrated with your own system.

4. Depending on your needs, consider equipping your supply chains with tracking devices, such as GPS trackers for containers and RFID tags for items. These real time visibility tools enhance tracking capabilities.

5. Thereafter, start implementing real-time visibility throughout the supply chain process. Train your employees to track product shipments and manage fleets for efficient deliveries.

Get Real Time Visibility of Your Supply Chain with Upper

If you are facing difficulties in your supply chain operations, we recommend you try Upper to see the delivery progress in real time. Upper, a route optimization software, not only helps you get transparency throughout the delivery process but also keeps the routing chaos at bay.

Loaded with an advanced feature set, Upper helps you perform a fully automated delivery process without room for human errors. The best thing is that you get real-time updates on the product movement so that you can rest assured about timely delivery completion. On the other hand, you can even send customer notifications to keep your buyers posted throughout the entire process.

Here are some features offered by Upper that are worth having while performing multi-stop deliveries.

1. Real time driver tracker

Upper allows you to spot the driver’s location during the ongoing delivery process. In fact, you can send important instructions to your drivers on the go. This process helps reduce the communication gap, and drivers reach their destination faster. In case your drivers are idle for a long time, you can contact them immediately to find out if there is an issue with the vehicle.

2. Customer alerts

Upper solves your major issue of delivering customer updates. You read that right; the route scheduling software has a customized option for businesses to send automated delivery notifications so that your buyers can make themselves available to collect the parcel. It minimizes the fail or miss delivery chances and boosts your customer satisfaction rate.

3. Delivery proof

Nowadays, conducting multi-stop deliveries means a higher chance of customers complaining about undelivered items. But that won’t be the case when Upper helps you collect the proof of delivery through a signature or photos. Eventually, you can refute the false claims with proof of delivery once your driver has delivered the product successfully.

Final Words: Real-Time Visibility is Your Key to Competitive Advantage

Real-time visibility offers a bird’ s-eye view of the entire delivery process, which means you can identify the issue quickly if there are unexpected delays. At present, modern businesses have started implementing real-time visibility to get an edge in the competitive market. After all, it is worth investing in software as you get detailed insights about team performance, the scope of improvements, and, of course, better decision-making power. 

Whether you are in the logistics, pharmacy, or NEMT industry, real time visibility plays a vital role as far as pickups and deliveries are concerned. It transforms the way you manage deliveries and enhances customer satisfaction. In the end, it’s not just about getting real-time updates. 

What matters is taking advantage of opportunities that lead you to the desired business growth. On that note, you can give Upper a shot, as it offers real time visibility using its wide range of features. Get your hands on Upper with a 7 days free trial.