Read this if you need visibility of the SKU’s in your ocean containers
Cargoo is an order execution platform for ocean freight transportation.
Today’s visibility platforms can offer you more accurate ETA estimates than ocean freight carriers, but they are unable to provide you with in-depth visibility of the SKUs in the container. This is where order execution platforms come in.
An ocean freight visibility platform uses supply chain data to estimate the location of containers and provide more precise ETA’s than the estimates provided by ocean freight carriers. This helps you to better understand where your container is on the vast blue sea, and to identify which containers are delayed.
However, the vast majority of ocean freight visibility tools do not report the items (SKU’s) in containers. They simply do not have the data to report how containers are stuffed.
An order execution platform is different
First of all, it is important to understand that an order execution platform is not a visibility tool for ocean transportation. Container visibility is just one of several KPI’s that are reported on a control tower dashboard.
An order execution platform is
- an OMS, DMS, TMS and control tower in one tool
- an end-to-end solution where you can plan your orders and invite supply chain partners to collaborate to purchase, execute and control your shipments
Cargoo is an order execution platform that covers the entire ocean transportation supply chain.
- The OMS captures purchase order information from your system via EDI or API to facilitate the automated transfer of data for vendor bookings, capacity planning and the shipping instructions.
- The DMS stores, shares, tracks and manages documents from all stakeholders along the ocean transportation chain. Cargoo’s DMS includes advanced features such as Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) which automatically extracts PO numbers and other key information from structured and unstructured documents, which means accurate data is transferred with fewer manual steps.
- The TMS manages and tracks shipments and optimises routes with fewer manual steps. With Cargoo, container stuffing instructions can be defined directly in the TMS which speeds up the creation of Shipping Instructions for carriers and freight forwarders.
What an order execution system does
- Combining RMS, OMS, DMS and TMS functionality into one platform enables you execute orders using accurate first-hand data and deliver your supply chain partners complete documentation, on time.
- Integrating these functionalities digitalises the supply chain, thus reducing emails and eliminating the need for you to chase spread sheet revisions.
- They provide visibility of the items (SKU’s) in the ocean container along with other control tower metrics such as CCU rate, allocation monitoring, D&D monitoring and ETA reports.
What a visibility platform does
- It uses supply your + 3rd party data to estimate the location of containers and provide more precise ETAs than what carriers provide. Good visibility platforms offer dynamically updated ETAs and actionable data about demurrage & detention fees.
- It tells you which containers are delayed. This saves you time when researching what items (SKU’s) are impacted, but the research is still manual work.
- A visibility tool rarely has access to instructions on how containers were stuffed and SKU level inventory in a container.
