Being part of the FourKites network means innovators from all walks of the supply chain, from healthcare, manufacturing, retail, food production, and beyond, have opportunities to come together and find creative ways to make a significant, positive impact on their respective businesses and industries.
One recent example is the in-person customer roundtable hosted by Bridgestone Americas, Inc., where we shared the latest FourKites innovations and enhancements inspired by customers and gave attendees the opportunity to learn from their peers. The energy in the room was electric as participants collaborated, shared best practices, and learned from other industry experts.
Roundtable attendees helped us curate the agenda by providing their areas of interest and what they hoped to glean from the event. Here’s a summary of what we discussed and learned:
Bridgestone Americas, Inc. walked us through the creative ways their team uses data to power significant insights throughout their organization and ultimately improve efficiency. With the help of FourKites Data Connector, they can use a centralized repository to create custom analyses, combining supply chain visibility with important internal data to glean valuable insights, whether it’s carrier performance or streamlining financials. These insights pave the way for their organization to improve on-time performance and customer experience. Through visibility tools they have eliminated over 60,000 emails annually and are confident that number will only continue to rise.
With so much technology at our disposal, you would think we have all become masters of change management and implementing new solutions, but that is not always the case. One of the world’s largest beverage manufacturers walked us through the importance of doing your due diligence and taking the right steps to not only launch a technology quickly but with clear change management. They stressed the importance of having support from a subject matter expert and cross-functional steering committee to ensure full organizational buy-in and commitment to change. With such guidance and commitment, their team – and a dedicated FourKites team – had their integration up and running with 13,000 of their annual loads live, all in a matter of 5 days!
A global healthcare and nutrition leader walked us through the business value that international and ocean visibility provides. Like many, their way of operating had worked for years until COVID exposed gaps in their visibility and processes. This organization needed to find ways to improve international visibility to make their global supply chains more efficient and less fragile. They walked us through what steps they took to evaluate their process, where innovation was needed, and what technologies would be needed to get there. Ultimately, they identified that FourKites Connected Visibility allowed for greater insight into their shipments and their supplies through the use of global tracking and Network Visibility. As a result, they saw a 50% increase in visibility and a 44% reduction in delivery inquiry lead time. While discussing this journey, they helped others in the room determine how to navigate similar opportunities and conversations within their respective organizations.
An ever-present question in logistics is “when will my truck arrive?”. One of the nation’s large retailers explained how being able to quickly and accurately answer this question impacts their customers. With 16,000 stores nationwide, this is no small question. They outlined the steps they took to not only improve their tracking visibility but how they used that information to bring delivery notifications to their customers – ensuring their employees are maximizing their time on the store floor while also keeping their complex network of store deliveries on time and moving efficiently. While many organizations are familiar with this planning strategy, it’s tough to perfect, especially as you try to meet the needs of the organization, the drivers, and those unloading the truck.
To round out the event, we ended the day with small group discussions to allow everyone to dig deeper into the presentations and expand on personal use cases, providing more granularity on the various organizations and their business. What stuck with me the most from our event was the room’s drive to help others be successful. Throughout the discussions, people helped create business cases to empower others to take learnings back to their teams and drive change and value. Being able to come together and mindshare between 25 different organizations was a powerful experience.
If you’re a FourKites customer, we encourage you to join our next Roundtable and to keep the networking and sharing going by logging on to our Community forum. New to FourKites? Learn more.
