Throughout ICON 2021, I had the pleasure to talk with Nestor del Rio, Logistics Director at TRAXION Logistics, a number one transportation and logistics firm primarily based in Mexico, throughout the session “E-Commerce-Calibre Providers and Digital Provide Chain Execution Options.” Here’s a recap of the important thing matters Nestor and I lined throughout the session.
The Subsequent Wave of Digital Transformation Initiatives
TRAXION may be very superior in leveraging logistics and provide chain applied sciences. Please inform us concerning the firm and what digital transformation initiatives you’ve gotten deliberate?
Nestor: TRAXION consists of various divisions. The Personnel and Scholar Transportation Division has round 5,800 energy models for personnel and college transportation. One other is the Freight Division the place we deal with logistics with 2,800 energy models devoted to shifting folks and issues from one place to a different, each domestically and internationally. Our latest division, Logistics and Know-how, is the place we developed and created a one-stop logistics resolution, integrating warehousing, distribution, and transportation for our 3PL and 4PL capabilities in Mexico. This division provides contract logistics, distribution companies, digital brokerage companies, parcel companies, and 4PL companies.
The corporate has invested closely in expertise as the principle functionality for our 3PL/4PL companies. With our provide chain accomplice Blue Yonder, our digital path contains:
- Cloud: Develop all the pieces within the cloud to permit for a digital transformation.
- Integration with Clients: Present prospects with the best solution to join into our community.
- Digital Buyer Engagement: Make it straightforward for purchasers to work together with us. Beforehand, interactions have been offline; digital permits prospects to really feel that we’re one entity.
- Aggregation: Associate with all of the transportation corporations that work with us on freight capability, warehouse capabilities, and customs capabilities.
- IoT: Digitalize our fleet and warehouse belongings as a lot as doable.
- Democratized Analytics: Have the power to supply information to prospects and companions to make fast and knowledgeable selections.
- Omni-channel Readiness: Be an enabler for omni-channel parcel, transportation, and warehouse techniques, in addition to a service for purchasers.
- Digital Provide Chain: Present prospects with end-to-end provide chain visibility. Luminate Management Tower has helped give prospects visibility into vans and freight lanes by a digital reference to us.
- Predictive AI: Plan to leverage Luminate Platform’s AI capabilities.
- Sustainable and Inexperienced Idea: Use the digital path to trace and leverage inexperienced and sustainable initiatives.
The Options
What has TRAXION been in a position to obtain because of Blue Yonder’s Transportation Administration System (TMS) that provides the staff the boldness to maneuver to the subsequent stage of the digital journey?
Nestor: After we determined to accomplice with Blue Yonder, we focused 5 goals to assist create the Logistics and Know-how Division:
- Buyer Centricity: Allow our gross sales power by the expertise.
- Vast Scope of Providers: Present extra superior digital capabilities.
- Visibility and Connectivity: Combine into one platform: carriers, warehouses, orders, shipments, GPS and safety.
- Disruption, Prediction, and Collaboration: Mix carriers and shippers into one platform for logistics assets with a service known as TRAXPORT.
- Omni-channel: Finish-to-end companies for storage, product transformation, distribution, and final mile.
With the Blue Yonder TMS, we acquired a platform that allows us to handle, management, work together, and develop to have the ability to brokerage companies, optimize hundreds, and optimize freight, making a seamless resolution for cross-border transportation between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Additionally, the end-to-end visibility it provides was the cherry on the cake.
Whereas many 3PLs use the Blue Yonder TMS, not many have an built-in resolution combining TMS and a management tower resolution. With this mix, we are able to create full collaboration and transparency with prospects, in addition to combine with carriers that assist us to promote the companies. We then discovered that the freight carriers like having extra interplay with us.
With the TMS provider companies, we are able to operate as digital brokers. Because of this, with the assistance of TMS and Luminate Management Tower, we are able to get right into a market that we didn’t anticipate to by way of TRAXPORT. As well as, these mixed Blue Yonder options have enabled us to supply end-to-end omni-channel companies.
We’re additionally in a position to provide Transportation Modeling and Community Design to allow our consultative promoting staff of engineers to design the fitting options for our prospects.
That could be a very complete footprint. Did Blue Yonder’s options offer you the boldness to take these new capabilities additional?
Nestor: It’s at all times tough to seek out the fitting accomplice. On this case, we selected Blue Yonder due to the corporate’s intensive expertise within the provide chain enterprise and TMS, in addition to the superb staff who assist us remedy many implementation challenges. Additionally, the options’ capabilities and the way they may assist us attain our future targets was one other key purpose we chosen Blue Yonder.
Blue Yonder’s TMS can also be a Chief within the Gartner Magic Quadrant for TMS. Nevertheless, extra importantly, the corporate’s credibility in implementation and in exceeding expectations was crucial as we would have liked to implement and deploy new enterprise quick. To do that we would have liked the fitting provide chain accomplice that understands our nation and geography. Due to our robust partnership, the staff broke a number of information on implementation!
I like to make use of the phrase from the Olympics: sooner, larger, stronger. In lots of instances working with a giant company, we observe bureaucratic and gradual habits. However we discovered Blue Yonder to be very agile with the aptitude to assist us deploy and ship rapidly and effectively. We now have a Ferrari (or a Land Rover!) that may do nearly all the pieces.
What’s Subsequent
What challenges and areas of enhancements are you tackling subsequent?
Nestor: The following wave is shifting sooner than what we anticipated. We believed the market was going to decelerate after the pandemic; nonetheless, it isn’t slowing down! The 3PL market in Mexico and Latin America are shifting sooner than earlier than. The expansion of the market might be 10-25% yearly. The purchasers are rising and reworking and needing us to develop and remodel. Final yr, with the pandemic, the e-commerce market in Mexico doubled in dimension and compressed three years into one yr. Now our challenges primarily come from the way to deploy sooner options to fulfill omni-channel wants and the way to assist prospects to do higher. We now have the problem of the way to allow new wave of applied sciences in lower than one yr and the way to practice the staff to make use of the applied sciences. That’s the place we need to go.
What recommendation would you want to present others on leveraging options to achieve success of their digital journey?
Nestor: What I’ve discovered:
- Implementing a brand new expertise platform takes time. In our case, it took two years.
- Deal with the answer as an MVP, minimal viable resolution, that you simply need to implement and begin to exploit the advantages immediately – even when it isn’t completely completely. This helped us to make superb developments, create new enterprise, allow new corporations, and obtain new income streams.
- Take a lean method of utilizing the instruments and let the staff innovate each month or few months.
- And, the perfect lesson discovered: Let the staff perceive the way to – and empower them to – construct extra options!
Be taught extra about Blue Yonder’s transportation administration and unified logistics. For extra insights from ICON 21, please go right here.