The ability to move goods from one location to the other is an important key factor in any industry, it determines the success of each business as the timely arrival of goods and services could make or break the business. The Logistics System we have developed has that in mind whilst also ensuring that the key components in this are well taken care off to ensure the smooth flow of business. We ensure that the logistics side of the Business is speaking to the other major business processes where it may not be the business process itself. The system had to be a cross platform so that there is easy access to everyone in the business and can play a pivotal role that aids in the various business process that any company may have. On reading below you shall find that our system tells you a story about each situation. Our System comprises of the following major Modules that shall be discussed in detail; Order creation and Route Planning, Asset management and Maintenance, Accounting metrics
Order Creation and Route Planning (Origin)
This is where our story starts, this is the very first engagement for the business through an order to deliver good from one place to the other for a specific customer, this is what decides the route that a vehicle is supposed to take in fulfilling that Order, also which trucks/ vehicles get to be assigned to the order.
Some key Functionalities of that include:
- Route Planning, which routes are to be used by the vehicles
- Allocation of funds to drivers for expenses experienced during a trip
- Check Point Update of each vehicle to track order progress
- Realtime Upload of Data for Proof of Delivery and invoicing
- (Fuel Companies) insight of fuel losses and shortages during the trip
- Anticipation of potential orders and creates automatic cash disbursements for drivers
- Uses QR code authentication to confirm and authenticate orders upon offload and loading.
Key Reporting/Information
- You get a snapshot of what order each vehicle is attending to as well as which orders do not have full vehicle allocation
- You know how much was spent in fulfilling the order in the form of driver and vehicle expenses on the road
- Realtime data allows you to do invoicing faster to clients as proof of a delivery document is generated by driver upon arrival
- Monitor and track time taken to arrive at a destination and ascertain the reason as to why the vehicle took time to arrive at intended destination
Asset management
Now that the order has been created and both vehicle and driver have been allocated, the actual trip now begins, however during the trip, there are things that can happen to the vehicle such as break downs that need to be factored, these can also be checked for before the trip begins. This section of the system looks at the upkeep and maintenance of the vehicle, as they form part /core of the business and its key to have them performing at peak condition. We introduce departments such as the workshops and Stores that play a pivotal role in this by having the following functionality:
- Defects recording- this allows the realtime capturing of defects that have been experienced by a driver during a trip as and when they happen
- Every bit of information recorded a notification is sent back to the workshop. It allows them to prepare for the vehicle so as to ensure it does not spend too much time in the workshop as this results in loss of revenue when the vehicle is not out there moving
- Assignment of tasks and duties to the workshops workforce
- Gives a time estimate of how long a vehicle is supposed to stay in the workshop based on the tasks to be done and therefore can show users if a vehicle has stayed for too long in the workshop
- Connected to stores and spares and parts can be requested through the application after successful approval
- Tracking of items on the actual vehicle (you can track back which vehicle has what item attached to it)
- Connected to vehicle tracking services therefore system has the correct position and vehicle odometer reading
- The system can anticipate when the vehicle needs a certain type of service/maintenance stage by way of tracking the odometer, when it reaches a certain figure it can prompt the appropriate maintenance schedule
- Service tracking, using the odometer reading from the integrated to tracking systems we can prompt service being due by the time
Key reporting information
- Tracks the time duration that a vehicle spends in the workshops
- Gives reports of vehicles that spent way more time than normal in the workshop and data can be deduced
- Track Stores items to see where each item was allocated to a vehicle
- Frequency that a vehicle is admitted into the workshop
Accounting Metrics, this is usually the end of the whole process, where we start looking at the profitability of each truck. When the truck is assigned to an order we create a project for that order. It is in that project that we begin billing everything that is done to the vehicle against the expected amount that is supposed to be paid by a customer for the service. The following is what is deduced by this level of tracking:
- How much was spent on a truck during the process of fulfilling an order
- Full cost breakdown of everything from driver expenses allocation up to any costs of ensuring the vehicle is running to complete the order
Having these in place allows the business to have an idea of their position, which aids in making key decisions such as when to write off a vehicle and acquire a new one.
Future Concepts Introduction to Machine Learning / AI
As highlighted above the system gathers a lot of information that we can use for many different things. We are working on the system using the current defects feeds and workshops reports to:
- Prompt a shift or change in routes if a given route is causing way too many vehicle defects and break downs maybe due to poor conditioning
- Prompt when a certain driver and vehicle configuration has reported too many defects
- Note the most moving parts from stores and automatically prompt the items as first priority for restock
- Splitting of costs based on trip,(a scenario where service maybe prompted by the system but it intelligently removes some tasks and leaves some so as to spread the costs of repairing)
- Suggest workers to report to manager for task allocation based on efficiency ratings kept by the system.
- Suggest drivers and vehicle configurations based on the current setup of vehicle performance and driver handling
- Report on the deterioration of a vehicle based on certain set parameters such as the tasks that have been done during visit to the workshop
