GLOBAL FINISHED VEHICLE LOGISTICS ( FACTORY TO CONSUMER)

We are in the midst of probably one of the most prolific periods of change in the automotive industry for generations. Disruption is everywhere, often unpredictable and impacting every facet of automotive, not least the vehicle supply chain. ProAct understands that finished vehicle supply chains are inherently and increasingly complex, dynamic and unique, that decision-making is driven by countless variable parameters and that vehicle logistics has a myriad of nuances not seen in most other types of supply chains. Only a highly-flexible, highly configurable solution, built specifically for the industry can address these global, multi-modal challenges, both today or in the future and deliver true end-to-end visibility.

Even today, those that can claim true factory-to-dealer visibility and control are still rare and progress towards that end remains slow. The looming problem for many OEMs and LLPs is that whilst they continue to play catchup, the landscape has changed, indeed the world has changed. A rapid increase in online ordering and direct consumer deliveries is one consequence of this.

With that will come a host of logistical and management changes. With a diminishing dealer network or even dealer-less OEMs coming to the market, the traditional physical and administrational activities carried out by the dealer (eg. finance, accessories, tax, insurance, PDI, warranty, service, repair etc) will likely be pushed back up into the supply chain. The biggest impact may however be on transportation with a move away from large car transporters (carrying typically up to 12 vehicles at a time) to single delivery vehicles capable of operating in residential areas. Dealing directly with the consumer also presents further customer service and training challenges. But in a world where most OEMs still struggle to provide supply chain visibility to the dealer, how do we then deal with this step change to a new world of logistics, one more complex and more cyclic in nature.

Without technologies such as ProAct, that manages the supply chain as a single holistic entity (from factory to consumer), we can never attain end-to-end control and we can never give the consumer visibility and reliability. The term ‘Digitalization’ is today frequently held up as the solution to all problems, but digitalization is ultimately only a means of extracting, collection and consuming data from real-world sources. In the absence of a technology that can make sense of it, both in isolation and in the context of the whole, such data is relatively worthless.

For ProAct, process digitalisation means a technology that provides a single, seamless, overarching view of the supply chain from production order to consumer delivery and indeed on into aftermarket. It means not tying the business to an oversimplified, inflexible, vanilla supply chain process that misses many of the key stages of control. It means being in control of every service provider in that supply chain, notifying them of their tasks, schedules and obligations and receiving back real-time updates that automatically reproject and re-predict the life of the vehicle.

It means technology that can be rapidly configured and then perpetually reconfigured to deal with and manage every conceivable process and activity that future supply chains may throw at us without be inhibited by complexity. It is a seamless platform to receive and transmit real-time information to or from any type of data source or device though any method. It means leveraging the power of connected vehicles and real-world devices, through use of telematics to gain real-time information and status of the vehicle.