In today’s fast-moving market, companies are seeking a crystal-clear view into their supply chains. It’s an era where emerging technologies take center stage, revolutionizing the supply chain visibility process to gain both insight and oversight from the first order to the final delivery. This article is a comprehensive examination of innovative tools and strategies that are transforming how logistics organizations achieve visibility, analyze operations, and manage supply chains. Without a doubt, emerging visibility tech is now more critical than ever, empowering supply chains to optimize efficiency, enhance reliability, and outpace the competition.

Indeed, this article will look at much more than just how tracking technology can improve supply chain visibility. Achieving true visibility requires more than simply collecting tracking data. That’s merely the starting point. It also involves: 1) integrating data, 2) transmitting meaningful data among logistics partners, 3) analyzing data to extract actionable insights, and 4) fostering trust through digital identity solutions. Moreover, an exciting frontier is emerging as technologies like Decision Intelligence begin to enhance complex decision-making processes. Ready to learn more? Join me as I look at seven emerging technological innovations that are pushing supply chain visibility to new heights and beyond.

1. Tracking Technologies: New Innovations Converging to Further Magnify Supply Chain Visibility.

Over the years tracking technologies have undergone a transformative evolution. As a result, there are now many cutting-edge innovations that converge to offer unprecedented supply chain visibility. At the same time, every business may not have a use case for all of these tracking technologies. Further, tracking technologies are just the starting point for supply chain visibility. Later in this article I’ll detail other needed technologies to achieve total visibility, 

So, each supply chain operation requires at least one tracking solution, often more, to fulfill basic visibility needs. Furthermore, it is critical to select the right tracking solution that can provide substantial value as well as a reasonable return on investment (ROI). Below is a list of eight key tracking technologies and their applications, serving as a foundation for enhancing the visibility of both assets and operational events.

Tracking Technologies and Use Cases

9 Logistics Tracking Technology Trends: The Best Tech For Better Visibility And Traceability

• 2D And QR Barcodes: Able to store more data and increased interoperability than just traditional 1D barcodes.
• Global Positioning System (GPS): Provides real-time tracking.
• 5G Broadband Cellular: Provides low-cost, highly compatible communications technology for real-time tracking.
• Augmented Reality (AR): Enables context for better tracking of asset status and visibility.
• Drones Technology: For final-mile delivery and inventory visibility.
• Blockchain: In specific use cases, provides traceability technology for supply chains.
• Cloud-based Platforms: Enable easier integration for supply chain visibility.

For more details on these cutting-edge tracking technologies, see my article, Logistics Tracking Technology Trends: The Best Tech For Better Visibility And Traceability. In addition, this article includes examples that will show you how to apply these technologies to your supply chains to enhance visibility and traceability like never before. Also, below I’ll highlight another tracking technology, Internet of Things (IoT), as it has the potential to fundamentally transform both the breath and depth of supply chain visibility.

2. Internet of Things (IoT) Devices: Providing Deeper Visibility of Objects and Environmental Details.

IoT technology deserves special mention as IoT devices are becoming a major data source for supply chain visibility event data. Examples of IoT devices include RFID tags, GPS trackers, sensors, smart shelves, and wearables to name a few. Indeed, these devices enable real-time insights into the status and condition of goods in transit and at rest. Supply chains have used IoT technology for several decades, but due to cost and compatibility challenges this technology was not widely deployed. Now, things have changed. Below is a list of reasons why most, if not all, businesses should consider deploying IoT technology within their supply chains.

Advantages of IoT Tech

Internet Of Things Examples – Hidden Technology Automating Logistics

• Lower Costs. The costs are decreasing for this technology such as with passive RFID tags that now can cost just a few cents for each tag.
• Improved Interoperability. IoT device interoperability continues to improve in terms of open standards and compatibility with a wide range of communications technologies.
• Collects and Monitors A Wide Range of Data Points. This includes a wide variety of environmental characteristics such as temperature and motion. 
• IoT Software Adds Visibility To All Functions Of The Supply Chain. This includes fleet management, shared micromobility solutions, warehouse management, asset tracking, worker safety, and predictive maintenance to name a few., 

So, imagine a world intertwined with smart devices everywhere, seamlessly providing total visibility to every logistics event as well as the status of every supply chain asset. Indeed, this is quickly becoming a reality. For more details on IoT supply chain visibility, see Internet Of Things Examples – Hidden Technology Automating Logistics. In this article, I offer insights on how IoT tech is empowering logistics operations. Moreover, I’ll showcase six Internet of Things examples on ways IoT is transforming the supply chain industry.

3. Data Integration Tools: Increases Access to Data and Enables Rapid Supply Chain Visibility.

The Best Ways To Access Data – Tech Solutions To Unlock Your Data Silos

Because supply chain data and events are dispersed over wide geographic areas and systems, accessibility is both critical and challenging to achieve. Data integration tools are key to unlocking this potential to seamlessly combine these disparate data sources for enhanced real-time visibility. So, data integration tools are needed to facilitate the aggregation and synchronization of disparate data sources. As a result, this ensures a cohesive and accessible supply chain information environment. 

Indeed, there are a wide range of tech solutions that can help businesses to seamlessly access data. To determine which data integration tool is best for a visibility project will depend on various factors like data set size, diverse data sources, in-house IT expertise, and budget limitations. While many projects can be handled internally, some might demand advanced cloud integration tools or skilled third-party vendors for success. Below are the top 7 data integration solutions designed to unlock data to enable visibility across the supply chain and its systems.

Top Data Integration Solutions

1. Basic File Transfer: To access data.
2. Extract, Transform, Load (ETL): To integrate data.
3. Extract, Load, Transform (ELT): For big data. 
4. Data Replication: To Sync And Access Data. 
5. Data Streaming: To Continuously Access Data. 
6. Application Programming Interface (API): Automated data request and response,
7. Data Virtualization: For On-Demand, Real-Time Data Access. 

For details on different types of data integration tools available, see my article, The Best Ways To Access Data – Tech Solutions To Unlock Your Data Silos.

4. Interoperability Standards and Tools: Enables Meaningful Data Sharing at the Right Time and Place.

Let’s Breakthrough The Data Interoperability Nightmare: It Is The Best Way To Unlock Supply Chain Innovation

Indeed, supply chain visibility is more than just getting visibility data to the right place and time. So, just integrating systems together to share data is not enough. This is because the data also needs to be meaningful to the end user and receiving system. For example, if data for a package delivery event has a date timestamp, what does this date actually mean? Is it the time the event data was created, the time the data was transmitted, or the time the delivery occurred? This is where data interoperability standards and tools are critical to transmit meaningful data and achieve superior supply chain visibility. So, data interoperability goes beyond data sharing and integrating. Below is a data interoperability definition:

“… the ability to access and process data from multiple sources without losing meaning and then integrate that data for mapping, visualization, and other forms of representation and analysis.”

Global Partnership For Sustainable Development Data

Data interoperability poses a significant challenge to supply chain visibility. So, to enhance the context of supply chain visibility data, we can employ a combination of solutions alongside previously mentioned integration tools and tracking technologies. These include:

Data Interoperability Solutions

1. Leverage Standardized Data Formats for Increased Compatibility.
2. Take Advantage Of Collaborative Data Sharing Platforms That Are Independent Of Software. 
3. Use Automation Such As Robotic Process Automation (RPA) And AI to Streamline Processes.
4. Take Advantage Of Strategic Partner Collaboration Platforms. 
5. Leverage Cloud-Based Solutions for Improved Accessibility. 
6. Use A High-Tech 3rd Party Logistics (3PL) Provider To Digitize Your Supply Chain.

These types of interoperability solutions listed above go a long way for improving supply chain visibility. For more information on data interoperability and these solutions, see my article, Let’s Breakthrough The Data Interoperability Nightmare: It Is The Best Way To Unlock Supply Chain Innovation.

5. Digital Identity Technology: Enables Trust Between Supply Chain Visibility Partners.

Trust is paramount in the interconnected world of supply chain operations. This is especially true in trusting supply chain visibility information. This is where digital identity technology comes in – it ensures the authenticity and accountability. Indeed, this is critical for gaining trust with the suppliers of supply chain visibility information. Further, digital identity tech is not only for people who need these digital identities, but also systems, autonomous software agents, smart robots, products and physical objects. Basically, digital identity technology assigns unique identifiers to products, objects, and legal entities. Hence, this enables precise tracking and authentication of every supply chain event.

Best Use Of Digital Identity Technology In The Supply Chain

Without trusted digital identities, supply chain event data is not credible, and, just as worse, supply chain systems are completely open to fraud. Also for supply chains with its many stakeholders, products, and assets, advanced supply chain visibility is an incredible challenge to positively identify these countless entities.

To achieve trust in a digital supply chain, there is a need to leverage digital identity technology. To do this, supply chain leaders need to know the fundamentals of digital identity technology. With this knowledge, they can be actively engaged in creating secure, efficient, and usable digital supply chain policies. For more details on leveraging digital identity technology within the supply chain, see Best Use Of Digital Identity Technology In The Supply Chain. In this article, the following digital identity technology fundamentals are covered:

Digital Identity Technology Fundamentals

1. Three Types Of Digital Identity System Architectures.
2. Digital Identity Standards And Systems: Top International Systems In Use Today.
3. Verification Methods: What Countries Do Today For Identity Verification.
4. Authentication: Methods Of Challenging Digital Identities.
5. Authentication Approaches For A Secure Digital Identity System.

6. Data Analytics: Makes Supply Chain Visibility Data Actionable.

Without a doubt, data analytics is essential for achieving supply chain visibility, particularly in today’s era of “Big Data”. This is because analytics can transform overwhelming amounts of raw data from supply chain operations into actionable insights. Indeed, these insights are critical for driving strategic decisions, planning, and operational improvements. Merely collecting data through tracking technologies and IoT devices will not suffice for visibility. Indeed with the rapid growth of ecommerce, supply chain leaders frequently find themselves overloaded with data. In fact, the true challenge with supply chain visibility lies in effectively leveraging data to extract meaningful insights that enable informed decision-making.

Thanks to advancements in data analytics and information technologies, there are now many ways to extract insights. Indeed, data analytics is not just exclusively for Business Intelligence (BI) dashboards, but can be used for real-time insights and much more. So to detail, there are six distinct types of data analytics used by businesses. These data analytics types are:

A Data Analytics Perspective To Better Empower Supply Chain Managers

Data Analytics Types

1. Descriptive Data Analytics: What Happened?
2. Diagnostic Data Analytics: Why This Happen?
3. Predictive Data Analytics: What Is Most Likely To Happen?
4. Prescriptive Data Analytics: What Action Should We Take?  
5. Real-Time Analytics: What Do I Do Now?
6. Cognitive AI Analytics: What Questions Did I Not Know to Ask?

So, through these six types of data analytics, supply chain leaders can gain not only visibility, but actionable insights. For more details on how supply chains can leverage data analytics, see A Data Analytics Perspective To Better Empower Supply Chain Managers.

7. Decision Intelligence: Leveraging Supply Chain Visibility Data To Enable Better, Agile Decision-Making.

A direct extension of supply chain visibility is decision intelligence technology. With elevated visibility and data capture from logistics networks, businesses dramatically increase opportunities to improve, and even automate their decision flows. With unprecedented situational awareness, decision-makers now have the agility to act faster and better than their competition. Further, both planners and operators are now able to engineer automated responses to changing market demands and operational anomalies. To better understand what decision intelligence is, below is a definition for decision intelligence:

This Is What Decision Intelligence Technology Is And Know What Its Not

“Decision intelligence is a practical domain framing a wide range of decision-making techniques bringing multiple traditional and advanced disciplines together to design, model, align, execute, monitor and tune decision models and processes.” 

Gartner

So, imagine a world where business decisions don’t just become faster—they transform from good to exceptional. Indeed, this is what is possible with superior situational awareness coupled with decision intelligence technology. Specifically, decision intelligence harnesses AI and data-driven models to predict outcomes and optimize supply chain decisions in complex scenarios. Further, DI platforms leverage existing and emerging technologies to include: knowledge graphs, advanced analytics, AI, robotic process automation (RPA), and digital twin solutions to name a few. For a detailed explanation of decision intelligence technology, see my article, This Is What Decision Intelligence Technology Is And Know What Its Not.

“Why is visibility so hard? The factors are many: alignment, data latency, supply network latency, semantic reconciliation, and channel translation latency.”

Lora Cecere

Conclusion.

So, there is much more to supply chain visibility than implementing tracking tech to generate visibility data. To summarize, below are the types of technologies and capabilities to achieve total supply chain visibility:

1. Tracking and IoT Tech to generate visibility data.
2. Data Integration to share data between systems.
3. Interoperability to transmit meaningful data among logistics partners.
4. Data Analytics that yields actionable insights.
5. Digital Identity Tech that builds trust in data and between supply chain partners.
6. Decision Intelligence Tech that enables agile decision-making and even automate decision flows.

For more reference and perspectives on supply chain visibility, see ARC Advisory Group’s Supply Chain Visibility Seeing New Technology Investments Towards End-To-End Visibility. This article takes more of a software-centric approach and has case studies that focused on Control Tower solutions. Also, see Propel Software’s 7 Supply Chain Technologies for Better Supply Chain Management. This article takes more of a manufacturing and product perspective with supply chain visibility touching on additional topics such as Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Product Value Management (PVM).

Lastly, see my article, Supply Chain Visibility Of Cargo: Know Your Need And The Surprising Challenge To Secure It on the advantages of supply chain visibility, types of supply chain visibility, and overcoming the challenges of implementing supply chain visibility.

Supply Chain Visibility Of Cargo: Know Your Need And The Surprising Challenge To Secure It

For more from SC Tech Insights, see the latest on these topics: Data, Interoperability, and Supply Chains.