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Companies are often hesitant to share data to other parties. This hesitancy is also the case in logistics, where companies think that sharing the information will give other companies an edge over them. But when combining all the available data, logistic processes could be organized faster, more efficient and more sustainable for all parties.

Different companies and organizations are trying to combine the data of companies and show them their advantages. This data comes from a number of different type of sources: Browsing patterns, business forecasts, traffic and weather data, and the traditional data from operational system. The challenge is here to combine and analyze large streams of data that are ever increasing (Lebied 2017).

A great example where sharing information can be profitable is the container shipping industry. A shipping company will use data analytics to predict the arrival of a container in the port. This arrival time is constantly updated, as ships are several days late on a regular basis. If this information is shared with a transport company, the trucks will be waiting in the port at the right time.

Another example is the last mile delivery of a supply chain. It is known to be a very inefficient process, where people are often not home, homes are difficult to reach, and the number of packages has increased a lot since the start of the corona crisis. An example that could improve the process is better tracking of the package. Customer will know very detailed when the package arrives, and the company can use it to optimize delivery strategies (Lebied, 2017).

The advantages of data driven logistics is better efficiency and less costs. The amount of kilometers driven is decreasing due to better capacity planning, which makes logistics also more sustainable (TNO, n.d.). Besides, the data and its analysis can be sold to other companies in the supply chain, who are willing to pay for it.

The amount of data that is used in supply chains is increasing constantly. This data is valuable, and I think that with the examples provided, logistics can be optimized a lot further. Especially the sustainable savings with less emissions is now very relevant. Decisions will be more and more based on more and more data, and companies will have to manage all the incoming streams of data. Companies that will use this data effectively and efficiently, will have a significant competitive advantage over the others.

References:

Anon, Data Driven Logistics: De Toekomst Van Logistiek. TNO. Available at: https://www.tno.nl/nl/aandachtsgebieden/mobiliteit-logistiek/roadmaps/smart-and-safe-traffic-and-transport/smart-mobility-and-logistics/data-driven-logistics/ [Accessed October 10, 2021].

Lebied, M., 2017. 5 examples of how big data in logistics transforms the supply chain. Datapine. Available at: https://www.datapine.com/blog/how-big-data-logistics-transform-supply-chain/ [Accessed October 10, 2021].

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In the last year, the cloud-workspace or work-from-home has hugely risen in popularity. Due to COVID-19 most employees had to work from home, which required a safe and flexible workspace. Organizations were forced to become flexible and change their way of working. A lot of organizations have decided to embrace the flexible working spaces with the thought that employees will be more productive, motivated and committed.

It did not take long, after people realized that working from home had a lot of advantages. The flexible working environment allows employees to vary their hours or days. People have more flexibility in their days off, work locations, but also work itself has changed due to working online.

Effectivity: Where a lot of travel time to and from work is saved. Additionally, employees can choose their own working hours, which give them freedom to balance work and family. Important family priorities could now be taken care of during the week, and work could be completed in the evening. Flex work made it easy to have meetings during the whole week, where evening hours and weekends were first not possible, now a quick meeting can be done anytime through digital environments such as Zoom of Microsoft teams. Where otherwise, long travel times were needed, to meet a number of people.

Efficiency: working online can reduce operational costs, because less work spaces are needed. Research has shown, that if American federal officials work from home half the time, 25% less office space is needed (Van der Werff, 2021).

Empowerment: the flexibility that is offered can lead to more motivated employees, which will help the companies to improve their operations. It makes it also easier to hire people as a company, as they are more appealing, and can provide jobs for people hours away.

Next to personal advantages, working from home is also influenced by the climate discussion. More and more people are realizing that concessions must be made, to reduce the emissions and save the world. Where the lockdown reduced the emissions of CO2 with 20 percent, company’s realized that a lot of work could be done at home. In new Zealand, flexible work has become the norm in the public sector. Where every job can be done as flexible work, unless there is a good reason not to (Van der Werf, 2021).

It is expected that also after the corona crisis, working from home and flexible work hours will be desired. 26% of the company’s want to focus on implementing flexible working hours even further (Min Infra en Waterstaat, 2021). Although company’s will not switch completely to a full home office, they are thinking about a 2 or 3 day  alternative for employees. COVID-19 has forced company’s the way they work, and the long lasting effects will be visible in the working conditions in the future.

References:

Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat. (2021, 19 juli). Onderzoek wijst uit: thuiswerken is een blijvertje. Nieuwsbericht | Rijksoverheid.nl. https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/actueel/nieuws/2021/07/14/onderzoek-wijst-uit-thuiswerken-is-een-blijvertje

Van der Werf, K. (2021, 21 juli). Overheidstrends 2021: locatievrijheid. Deloitte Netherlands. https://www2.deloitte.com/nl/nl/pages/publieke-sector/articles/overheidtrends-2021-locatievrijheid.html