3 Key Points to Transform Logistics in Latin America

Logistics in all businesses and marketplaces necessitates an extensive worldwide network and infrastructure. Undoubtedly, technology has played an important part in navigating this ever-changing globalized society.

Technology enables end-to-end visibility and reliability, allowing businesses to stay ahead of the curve, satisfy demand swiftly, and compete. According to a Cleo report on Global Supply Chains, 50% of senior executives reported that investing in technology and integrating it into their supply chains improved business agility and increased revenue by over $1 million from 2022.

A unified platform for data integration.

Having all of your data unified allows you to have the immediacy of it without relying on an intermediary, which frequently involves different actors in the chain (the shipping company, the land transport provider, etc.), resulting in communication inefficiencies, slowing down the process, disrupting flows, and creating delays.

According to a KPMG study titled "Supply chain visibility in the digital age," only 13% of executives indicated total visibility across the whole supply chain. As the world continues to evolve around digitalization, visibility is one of the most important components in the technical world of logistics. Transparency improves decision-making agility, responds quickly to disruptions, and allocates resources optimally. It also improves collaboration and trust with your partners, resulting in a cohesive network that responds to partners' and market demands.

On the other hand, having a single platform for integrated information allows you to control all stakeholders and provide a single point of contact for your cargo from start to finish. The information will be updated on a single platform and tracked chronologically at each control point. In this case, a single information platform becomes a critical component for integrating your logistics network.

Flexibility: A Competitive Advantage

Flexibility is defined as the ability to adjust and adapt to new events at the lowest cost in terms of time, effort, and/or potential loss of outcomes.

Logistics can be complex. Changing customer demands, weather conditions, geopolitical interferences, and other interruptions necessitate an extensive network of supply chain players and alternatives in order to serve your main operational markets efficiently and effectively.

Other external variables and problems may also have an impact on the journey and, as a result, affect how to proceed. Here are several examples:

• In certain places, there is excess inventory as a result of declining demand (the COVID-19 epidemic is one example of this).

• Unexpected spikes in demand for developing markets that are difficult to cover because they lack established channels or services.
  

• Modifications to country-specific procedures and customs laws may result in delays and, ultimately, unsatisfied clients.

• Main routes may be impacted by external factors like weather and geopolitical situations, and your logistics provider may not have any alternative options for moving freight to the required location.

Ability to anticipate customer trends quickly and adjust inventory

Any organization must have a flexible supply chain in order to stay abreast of market trends, as was covered in the previous section. Being able to quickly anticipate and comprehend these shifts in demand has the potential to be revolutionary.

An integrated supply chain improves your capacity to anticipate changes and act swiftly upon them. Having strong partnerships that improve visibility and connect data enables you to manage your inventory and optimize your supply chain in response to changes in the market.

The capacity to see products all the way from the origin center to the store is known as supply chain traceability.

There are several things that can affect how your products travel. While end-to-end visibility won't stop you from experiencing these setbacks, it will enable you to respond and take appropriate action as soon as feasible. But visibility depends on more than just you—it also depends on the technology and logistical partners you work with.

It will be impossible for you to respond in time if those players are unable to provide you enough visibility.

End-to-end visibility is compromised when you collaborate with numerous logistics suppliers because you have to rely on various systems, timeframes, and technologies to deliver relevant, actionable data. The best course of action is to combine the complete chain through a single logistics provider that has the technological capacity to integrate systems, data, and processes to cover your process' whole path from beginning to end.