Challenges
It’s no secret that supply-chain challenges have been prevalent. Especially in the last couple of years disruptions have increased but supply-chain issues present themselves even in the best of times. Weather, world events, and local politics can cause unforeseen disruptions in your supply chain management.
“The Canadian terrain is a supply chain issue in itself”
-Steve Banks, Trinsight
Mother Nature
Try as we might, supply chains are no match for Mother Nature. Weather events are some of the most prevalent threats to rail supply chain management with unpredictable outcomes and timing. Because of the size of the North American continent there often aren’t many routes to be taken if a whiteout or flood, of course redirects are possible, but they are lengthy and inconvenient causing congestion.
Take, for example, the Calgary flood in 2013; The Bonnybrook Bridge over the Bow River failed separating the CP Railyard from part of their track. The flood damage meant that all operations were reduced to a single track until the bridge was repaired in 2014.
World Events
In the past three years we have seen our fair share of world events and tragedies. COVID-19 caused massive supply-chain disruptions with workers out sick and social distancing measures meaning less staff. But consumer demands had also changed with the world turned on its head and predicting supply-chain dynamics became even more unpredictable.
Russia’s war with Ukraine has created political barriers in supply-chain management as transport of goods is often used as a tactic to discourage conflict. Though we can’t yet know the effects the war will have on the supply chain we do know that the political landscape can change quickly and without warning.
Local Challenges 
But abroad is not the only place where politics can affect supply-chain management. Protests and strikes are a reality of supply-chain disruption.
The CN Rail workers strike in November of 2019, for example, was estimated to have cost the Canadian economy up to three billion dollars due to disruptions. Product shipments of propane, fertilizers and grain were delayed costing industries millions of dollars.
Changes
Data is currency and everyone wants to know information at once including you, your customers, and others in your organization. As technology advances your customers’ expectations increase and they want to be able to track, visualize and report what is happening with their shipments.
Supply chain management is changing more rapidly every day yet there are still shipping companies resistant to changing their processes to match challenges. Implementing a supply chain visibility platform not only acts as a digital twin of your operations but it collects data so that you can plan for the future and be resilient as the world changes.
How Trinsight Creates Opportunities in Supply Chain Management
Trinsight Logistics Platform (formerly known as Quasar) is the solution for your supply-chain management challenges. Though it can’t change weather patterns or prevent global politics from interfering with your operations, Trinsight offers solutions that will help you identify problems and deal with challenges with a variety of helpful features:
Real-Time Data
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When hold-ups happen in the supply chain it can take too long for the information to get to you. With Trinsight you have real-time data empowering you to deal with challenges quickly. Their Shipment Management application tracks railcars within 15 feet anywhere in the world using Trinsight Lenz sensors. Know the location and current status of each railcar within 10 minutes while in transit with Trinsight's robust software application that takes rail asset visibility to the next level.
Dataverse
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If data is currency, then collecting it creates wealth. Using Trinsight's Dataverse you can quickly access information from more than 70 data connections, processed in the unified data processing pipeline, and create reports including maps and charts and analysis for dwell, cycle time, last location, ETA to destination, and corridors.
Activity-Based Costing
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Trinsight's Activity-Based Costing feature collects and creates supply chain costs in real-time. The more operational activity is captured an in-application rating engine calculates costs right away. This enables you to make cost-conscious operational decisions, automated freight audit and pay transactions, analyze routes and calculate commodity costs of the business.
Turn challenges into opportunities by taking the questions out of your process and let Trinsight’s cloud-based technology give you exactly the information you need when you need it.
