As we enter 2024, the logistics industry is preparing for another global trade and commerce, changing in tech advancements, consumer behaviors, and in how the industry itself addresses environmental concerns.
Some fleet managers might not keep up with these trends, but this becomes problematic in the long term. While competitors can take advantage of the transformations made in the industry and staying behind will only give them a competitive advantage over you.
In this article, we will dive deeper into learning more about the key trends in logistics, and what every fleet manager should embrace in 2024.
Spare parts inventory management software
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Well-managed parts inventories allow fleets to complete service tasks without long wait times and high shipping costs of ordering components when they are needed immediately. This not only saves costs, but also increases operational efficiency in logistics.
A good spare parts inventory management system allows you to not fall into problems like overstocking, exceeding demand rates. They maintain stock levels and make sure they are well-organized. In order to effectively optimize your inventory management system, you should follow these practices:
- Keep track of overstocking and understocking: Effective inventory management requires all parts and consumables to be accounted for at all times. If datasets are out-of-date, or incomplete, it’ll make it difficult to know which data you can rely on, and what should be disregarded. Documenting every component may take some effort, but doing so will pay off in the long term. This helps avoid common issues like overstocking, or understocking.
- Train your employees: Since many employees are interacting with the organization’s parts inventory, it’s important to train them on the importance of it. Especially when you are onboarding new hires, fleets should strive to educate new hires on security protocols and the type of inventory management software they should use.
- Set minimum stock quantities: Running low on stock quantity differs for each part. In order to avoid these issues, fleet managers need to set minimum stock levels for each part based on how often they need them.
Running low on stock quantity isn’t something pleasant in logistics, but it’s important to use the right inventory management software and make sure that you are always alerted when it does happen.
Additionally, make sure that your employees know how to update stock levels as well.
Implementing privacy notices
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The purpose of privacy notices is to protect consumers’ data. This document outlines an organization’s practices on how it should safeguard personal data. In other words, it serves as a transparent communication channel between individuals and organizations based on the data it processes. Privacy notices describe the following:
- How data is used
- How data is shared with third parties
- The measures taken to protect data from unauthorized access
- The purpose of collecting data
- The type of information that is collected
Whenever you create a privacy notice, it’s important that it’s written in a clear way, ensuring that it’s easily accessible to individuals. The privacy notice will allow customers to clearly understand how their data is used and if customers have any questions, they can ask them directly.
Moreover, let’s not forget that privacy notices allow you to comply with global data privacy regulators like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
These data privacy regulators are important since they allow you to stay updated on recent privacy regulations and consider that customers are gaining more freedom in managing the way they handle data.
Using battery intelligence software for Electric vehicles (EVs)
Fleet managers are facing new challenges now in logistics since they need to keep up with innovations made in the battery industry. Many modern-day vehicles are becoming electrical and controlled by intelligent battery software
In fact, the European parliament only recently voted to ban selling diesel and petrol vehicles starting from 2035. Electric vehicles are only becoming better and lasting longer over time. Intelligent battery software is responsible for monitoring all features within an electric vehicle and making sure that the battery lasts as long as possible.
For instance, Elysia, Fortescue’s battery intelligence software possesses many powerful BMS algorithms that are compatible with low-cost compute platforms. They can be integrated in the existing software stacks, increasing the lifetime, safety, and performance of the battery system.
It’s important for fleet managers to stay updated with battery trends and to make sure that the health of their electric vehicles last as long as possible. While electric vehicles do operate quite differently from traditional diesel and petrol vehicles, there are a number of factors that can affect their long-term health.
Intelligent battery software like Elysia can give you a picture of how many years your electric vehicle will last, and what reduces its performance. Extreme hot and cold temperatures can significantly impact the life of the battery. All batteries that are at risk will automatically be flagged by the software, generating recommendations for each vehicle.
The current labor shortage
According to recent statistics, the logistics industry suffered a labor talent shortage by 56%. This is driving fleet managers to adapt to new technologies, making them optimize their resources for solving the labor shortage issues.
Businesses that can’t combate this skill shortage will impact their manufacturing output and service delivery. In order to make sure this doesn’t happen to your business, you can implement the following practices:
- Don’t allow workers to do repetitive tasks. Use tools that will do the work for you, and let workers complete more complex roles.
- Focus on employee well-being and retaining your current talents.
- Offer flexible working schedules to attract top talents.
- Try collaborating with universities, and schools to create a program for training unskilled workers to become skilled in the future.
There are plenty of great practices you can follow for combating the trending labor shortage. It’s not only in the logistics industry, but is becoming a global issue.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)
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AI is currently becoming an influential innovation and is bringing significant changes to every industry. Both AI and ML algorithms can analyze big real-time data, identify patterns, trends, and generate predictions through chatbots. Logistic technology can significantly help in the decision-making process and improve operational efficiency.
Statistics show that AI and ML technology can cut supply chain costs by 15%, reduce inventory by 35%, and improve operational efficiency by up to 65%. As automation technologies continue to evolve and bring new business opportunities, the logistics industry undergoes a transformation.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer behavior has changed significantly and logistics businesses have adapted to demand changes and expectations. Moreover, AI and ML logistics-oriented practices focus on streamlining the following activities:
- Inventory management: ML algorithms can utilize market trends, and historical data for solving the problem of either understocking or overstocking issues.
- Route optimization: ML optimizes delivery routes in real-time, and analyzes traffic, making sure that it reduces delivery times and fuel costs.
- Warehouse management: Helps improve product placement and reduces fulfillment times.
- Risk management: ML assesses all supply chain risks by gathering important data from different sources, and measuring the risk score.
- Sustainability for the environment: ML can reduce carbon footprints by recommending new routes and avoiding crowded traffic areas. This is seen as a more eco-friendly option and is better for the environment.
- Predictive maintenance: ML can closely monitor all vehicles and predict maintenance requirements, reducing downtime and overall costs.
- Quality control: ML can detect real-time issues during the manufacturing and shipping process, making sure that product quality is at its highest level.
Operational efficiency is highly dependable on logistics data and physical assets. By using the advantages of machine learning, businesses can optimize routes, promote a greener environment, encourage scalability and adaptability, reduce costs, and make sure that the customer experience is at its highest level.
Always keep up with the latest business trends in the logistics industry
The world of logistics is changing at such a fast pace, to a point where it’s becoming exciting to pay close attention to. We spoke about battery intelligent software, spare parts inventory management, AI and ML capabilities, the challenges of labor shortage, and why you need privacy notices.
These current logistics trends will define the industry in 2024. Therefore, considering you are a fleet manager who wants to keep up with logistics trends, it’s important to take action as soon as you are done reading the article.
If there’s one thing the digital world has taught us, it’s to take action as soon as possible because tomorrow, you may never know what new trend is coming.
Delve deeper into the details of our Top 10 Logistic Software to get more information.
