Two years after the Evergreen finally sailed out of the Suez Canal, freeing billions of dollars of goods to flow back into the global economy, and not much have changed in the way global supply chains react to major disruptions.
Due to extreme climate conditions water levels in the Panama Canal are extremely low, making the passage of large container vessels impossible.
Global shippers are waking up to a familiar reality - a major waterway blocked for traffic, leaving cargo owners and logistics providers scrambling to find and execute alternatives while filling in the gaps created in their supply chains.
In both cases, and in all major disruptions for that matter, everyone is asking themselves the same questions, in the same order -
Most companies can answer the first question.
Some companies can answer the second.
Very few can answer the third and forth without sending analysts on days and weeks of analysis, losing previous time where some action could still remedy the situation.
The challenge is always the same - the information needed to identify the issues, evaluate them and execute a solution is siloed, fragmented and spread across different teams and even companies.
Unity SCM was created to solve just that - give supply chain operators the information they need, when they need it, to make critical decisions.
Automated reports with an updated list of shipments that are supposed to go through the Panama Canal or have recently been re-routed
The shipments bound to the Canal will likely be routed in one of two ways, each with it’s own implications -
Cross-referencing Orders and Shipments is tricky - different systems, different parties, things don’t line up.
Unity collects and combines multiple datasets to present you the full picture of inventory-in-transit and where it’s headed.
With full visibility into the holes in your supply chain created by re-routing inventory you can now analyze the full impact and the costs of alternative solutions.
The job of supply chain leaders is to find solutions when reality doesn’t line up with the plan.
I was asked whether the Evergreen was a “once in a generation” disruption. Disruptions happen every day. Some are bigger than others. But they all have something in common - they require the right information to resolve successfully.