Supply chain management (SCM) software provider Terra Technology last week added the Transportation Forecasting product to its portfolio, saying it fills some of the blind spots for manufacturers looking to optimize the distribution of their finished goods.
The offering aims to bring more discipline to the process of transportation planning by enlisting predictive analysis to parse such information as the manufacturer’s demand plan, shipping history, current orders, and, if possible, retailer data, including warehouse inventories/withdrawals and point-of-sale information.
Rob Byrne, CEO of Terra, likens the typical transportation planning process of consumer goods manufacturers to the movie Groundhog Day. “Every day, you’ve spent a day getting carriers for one more day worth of orders … And you come in the next day and you do it all over again. There’s no systematic visibility even into next week,” he told Managing Automation.
The Transportation Forecasting software pays particular attention to product promotions, making it ideal for consumer goods companies, according to Terra. With the visibility the system provides, transportation managers can proactively adjust warehouse staffing, for instance, and better manage dock scheduling when plans call for a surge in shipments to facilitate new product introductions or other promotional efforts.