Technology in Logistics

Writer is Radhika from Logwiz Institute Chennai.

The retail and marketing is changing constantly due to trends in technology. Now it has conquered the Logistics Industry, revamping the way how we order and changing the way how the industry operates. This provides opportunities for any in many ways, thus increasing the efficiency among all parts of the industry.

The expectation of the customer:

There is an upcoming demand for the deliveries to be safe, faster and flexible with reduced shipping costs. Over the past 50 years, there were no greater changes. But after the advent of the internet, the changes became faster. This paved way to focus on the customer experience. The integral part of customer experience is shipping and handling. If the customer is satisfied with the package and delivery, he/she would obviously trust your service. This is called customer satisfaction. Growing the business by gaining trust.

E-commerce:

E-commerce is believed to be the backbone of the global shipping services. Companies like eBay, Amazon and Flipkart are increasing the demand by giving promises on delivery, packing and warehousing. In the competitive market, it is important that the customer believes in the service. So fulfilling the customer’s expectation is the major task to be followed by all the e-commerce.

All the e-commerce providers survive in the competition due to the promises that they keep up. Amazon and Flipkart offer many shipping options for the customers to choose from, like One-day delivery, two-day delivery and even the same day delivery. All this is possible by having a reliable logistics & shipping provider.

Trends in shipping:

We all know how a consignment is shipped from one place to other. The process starts from the base to the destination and then dropping it to the nearest distribution hub in the destination location. This is the process taking place for over a decade. The growth of technology has also impacted the Logistics Industry.

Live tracking of your orders and live notifications are the trends that are now prevailed in the logistics industry. A company in the UK is experimenting with various applications of tech in Logistics. They have come up with a working model. The idea is to track the shipments every second from the time of dispatch. Sensors are placed in the shipments and the street lights across the way the shipment travels also contains sensors. When the package crosses the street light, the place and time when it crossed are noted. This can be tracked by the customer and also the dealer. This helps to reduce the delivery time and also to know the traffic status of the place.

Freight forwarding:

Transport charges account for 84% of the total freight spending. The excess flow of money occurs when trucks drive empty to the next pickup spot and also due to time lost to search the next package. To overcome this excess flow technology is employed in the freight forwarding process. Online brokerages emerged to find market deals on the go. This helps to find the packages with ease.

The Digital Market:

An online marketplace to handle the freight forwarding process. This works fine for shippers who know what they want, have specific needs and have experience in this process. Normally large e-commerce markets have their own logistics team to handle the shipment process as they want. While moving cargoes from overseas, the shipping process takes place by airways or waterways. In both ways, the shipments must pass cross the customs check to reach the destination. It would be helpful if there is someone to guide on this process.

Better communication:

Compared to the past, the logistics industry has been improved in the medium of communication. The users can easily track their shipment, the location and time of the dispatch. The customer gets a notification when the product is dispatched and shipped.

On the other hand, the customers find it easy to order their desired products. E-commerce markets like Amazon and Flipkart have their own logistics team. They keep track of your orders, tell you the exact time of delivery. Why do they have their own logistics?? The answer is to save money and time. Outsourcing Logistics might be costly, the orders may not be frequent meaning that for every single order you need to call a truck. So by having an own logistics team, you can manage time and cost.

The emergence of technology in Logistics:

After the advent of the internet, the technology has grown to enable easy access to everything. The latest technology like IOT, AI and VR are reshaping every industry. In the Logistics Industry too, technology has begun to change the way we order and how our order gets processed.

E-commerce companies use RFID’s to track the package that they ship. Using this tag, the details of the sender and receiver can be easily be found. Another innovation in Logistics is IOT, technology experts are finding new ways to enable shipping goods from one place to other. An example of IoT is drones. Drones can be used to send packages from one place to other through the air. This reduces the time when a package is transported through roadways. Drones are still not popular among many, but major Logistics companies like FedEx and UPS are experimenting ideas like this to enable faster delivery.

Warehouse robot is another innovation by applying IOT. Human resources to handle the packages are replaced by robots. The robots track the packages and shift the packages within the warehouse. This reduces human labour and robots can work 24/7 which is not possible by employing humans.

The blockchain is the latest trend in technology, this is also being experimented with in the Logistics Industry. With the use of an application, a B2B connection can be implemented with the help of blockchain. This enables the responsible flow of goods from the warehouse to the destination, even when anything goes wrong in the middle. The technology emerged in order to reduce the overall cost of transportation and also to enhance the customer experience.

Radhika

Logwiz Institute Chennai.

GST in India and Its Significance in Warehousing Industry

GST is all set to swallow other indirect taxes in India and wipe off the unorganized warehouses. Here’s how the Goods and Service Tax gearing up for changes in taxation across the country.

Goods and Service Tax (GST) is an indirect tax collected by the government during the purchase or sale of goods but for you it can be a worthy taxation tool in short. How does one say whether it will help or not? It will replace the tax collected by the government as it is considered as the biggest reform in India’s indirect tax structure. Let’s figure out few facts about GST:

• GST is levied on manufacture, sale, consumption of goods and services in India.
• With the ratification of more than 50% of state legislatures, the Constitution Amendment Bill for Goods and Service Tax has been approved by the President of India in the Parliament.
• The endeavor is to replace all the indirect taxes imposed on goods and services by the Centre and States and implement GST by April, 2017.

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IoT presents a unique technology to beef up Logistics & Warehousing Industry

IoT creates opportunities, evoking new business models in logistics and warehousing. With lot of potential, IoT is to revolutionize business processes across the entire value chain.

We all know that the internet has undergone numerous stages of development from its inception but wait, the revolution is yet to be realized. What is Internet of Things (IOT) and why it is need of an hour? First and foremost, you need to perceive the current scenario of today’s livelihood that is smeared with latest technologies and internet undoubtedly.

Today, a quintessential part of our living is covered by internet and it is considered indispensable for its omnipresence in our daily life. The accelerating influence of internet in our work and communication is as transparent as glass. But how did the internet get so large so quickly?

Today’s internet evolved from ARPANET, the first TCP/IP network.  With this evolution, computers have also evolved remarkably from PCs to laptops, tablets, smartphones and more. The transition of internet and technologies has modified the system of send, receive and process to the devices.

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Data Modelling on Qlik- Part 2

Last time I mentioned in my blog “The only harm perhaps that synthetic keys cause is that they destroy the readability of your Data Model”. Some of the beginners did not quite understand this well enough and I realized this may need some elaboration.

My next exercise will just highlight the same.

In this exercise we will build on to the Data Model we had arrived on in Exercise 2, which is reproduced again below for the sake of continuity:

Exercise 3:

To the Data Model created in Exercise 2, add the following four tables. The tables are self-explanatory. You may note the following regarding the tables:

• Invoices table links to the Sales table.
• Similar to the Customer, SalesOrders and Invoices tables, for the incoming supply of goods the Suppliers, Purchases and Receipts tables have been added.

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Nuances of using Filters and Variables in NPrinting

About NPrinting

NPrinting is a product of Qlik to generate the reports from QlikView and Qlik Sense Applications. Reports can be created in various formats such as PDF, Excel, Word, PowerPoint and HTML and the distribution can be scheduled and automated. In this blog we shall cover the critical differences that exist in usage of filters and variables in NPrinting.

NPrinting Filter Fundamentals:

NPrinting supports three types of filters:

i) Task Level Filter –

This is a Global level filter and applies throughout the task for all recipients.

e.g.: If we have to generate a report for 100 recipients for a given Year-Month, then the Year-Month filter shall be defined as a Task Level filter.

ii) Recipient Level Filter –

This applies for a specific recipient only.

e.g.: for each Recipient, the customer name needs to be selected in the QlikView application so that relevant data of the given customer only gets sent to the respective recipient. The Customer filter will be set as Recipient Level Filter. Please note all recipients details will be maintained in an Excel file.

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