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In a transparent supply chain, every link has access to relevant information on the origins and status of products. Transparency underpins consumer trust—a key relationship at a time when the safety of food supply chains is coming under intense scrutiny.

It's not surprising, then, that achieving supply chain transparency has become a hot-button issue in the food and beverage industry.

Critical Ingredient: Communications

An important feature of transparency is that it depends, to a large extent, on a company's ability to exchange information with partners. It can't be achieved in isolation. Visibility, on the other hand, is less dependent on communication across the supply chain.

Shay Scott, executive director of the Global Supply Chain Institute at the University of Tennessee, makes this clear in the trade journal Inbound Logistics. "Visibility provides a company with knowledge of activities across its supply chain; transparency is what and how it communicates that knowledge to customers, partners, and stakeholders."

Transportation Challenges

There are many ways in which you can enhance supply chain transparency. A notable example is addressing information black holes in transportation legs, where gaps in visibility can lead to transparency issues and loss of sleep for shippers.

For instance, rising less-than-truckload (LTL) and small parcel volumes make it more difficult for shippers to track product flows. An informal survey carried out by Penske Transportation Solutions for our customers in the food and beverage industry indicates that there are five LTL shipments for every single truckload shipment; a ratio that is reflective of the industry as a whole.

There are several reasons for soaring LTL volumes. The incursion of e-commerce into the food and beverage business is one driver. Catering to online buyers requires food companies to ship in smaller quantities. Other drivers include increasing demand for niche products and a general tendency for companies to ignore manufacturers' minimum buy quantities in a volatile competitive environment.

LTL tends to increase shipping touchpoints and cross-docks, reducing supply chain visibility in the process.

Another pain point is mismatches between requested delivery and appointment dates. A company requests a date for the delivery of a shipment, but the receiving dock sets a different date. This mismatch can even occur within the same organization, remaining undetected until a truck turns up at a dock and can't be loaded or unloaded because it's not on the facility's schedule.

A critical area where food supply chains can become opaque is in lot control visibility. This is a major issue in the transportation of products, such as fresh produce, that are supplied by countless growers and prone to bacterial infections. Each batch of product has a lot control number, and failure to keep track of these numbers creates dangerous visibility gaps.

You can play a critical role in addressing transportation visibility issues. You can deploy technology such as transportation management systems to track shipments and disseminate information, analyze freight networks and help shippers identify exceptions and information disconnects. Predictive analytics is one of the tools beneficial when trying to anticipate and avoid problems.

Innovations Ahead

The pressure to deliver improved transparency in food and beverage supply chains is unlikely to abate. Consumers are demanding more information on the foods they buy in retail stores and service outlets. High-profile cases of foodborne illness outbreaks have ratcheted up these demands. In response, regulators are introducing tighter food safety rules. Moreover, shippers need to respond to increasing supply chain complexity with innovative approaches to raising the efficiency bar.

But new tools and methods are emerging. Innovative technologies can provide a wide range of new data on truck performance. Vehicle automation is another source of operational data being mined. More sophisticated modeling that uses technologies such as machine learning is turning this data into actionable intelligence. Blockchain-based solutions are at an early stage of development but could facilitate the flow of information between stakeholders.

We continue to enhance our technology platform while also building industry partnerships. Our expertise and the technologies we employ can help you improve transparency within the cold chain by closing the loop with business analytics and ensuring that information is not lost or overlooked.