How Logmore is boosting quality assurance across retail supply chains
Quality assurance is one of the most important functions of any successful retail business. However, many find it difficult to achieve the transparency required to truly observe and preserve the quality of their goods while in transit along the supply chain.
Of course, this challenge was rendered even trickier than in the past by the dynamics of the Covid-19 pandemic, which created a perfect storm that disrupted supply chains across just about every conceivable vertical.
One industry that was particularly susceptible to these disruptions was retail, which struggled to keep up with wild fluctuations in demand that coincided with low inventory levels. Unfortunately, these instabilities have continued well into 2022.
As a result, many retailers unsuccessfully battled to maintain profitability while attempting to keep up with rising customer expectations.
Even now, the US Census Bureau estimates that retailers will need to spend $39 billion to return to pre-pandemic inventory levels, which signifies there are still fundamental shortfalls across global retail supply chains that need to be addressed.
Fortunately, Helsinki-based logistics company Logmore offers organisations a way to vastly improve the transparency of their cargo while in transit, giving valuable insight into the condition and location of their goods without needing to install any complex new infrastructure.
In turn, this allows retailers to make more informed decisions as they establish a more effective, streamlined, and efficient supply chain that prioritizes quality at every stage of the product journey.
How Logmore's product works
Logmore strives to give companies access to the vital data they need to find out the truth about their cargo, regardless of its position in the supply chain.
Rather than relying on industry-standard RFID technology, which is expensive and has reliability issues, Logmore has introduced dynamic QR codes as a way to sync data from tags that monitor various condition metrics regarding shipments along their journeys.
Using Logmore’s solution, the only thing supply chain handlers need is a standard-issue smartphone, and they can upload the latest package condition data. In this manner, key decision makers gain easy and low-latency access to important information about shipments remotely, using the secure Logmore web app.
As a result, any firm that depends on outbound logistics as part of their supply chain will be able to gather, sync, and analyze data on their cargo the the cloud, providing real-time updates on the status and welfare of their products while in transit.
Although many retail categories do not suffer from the same burden as the food and pharmaceutical industries, where handling perishable goods makes condition monitoring especially important, there are still plenty of issues that retailers have to overcome in order to ensure the quality of their products and the level of service they provide to the end consumer.
On that note, let's take a look at a few of the ways Logmore helps retailers overcome these concerns.
Improving end-to-end supply chain visibility
Startlingly few companies have managed to achieve full end-to-end supply chain visibility.
This means that the vast majority of businesses operate supply chains with significant blind spots, which could cause issues in warehouses or during transit, with major implications on the end consumer’s experience.
After all, if you cannot monitor the location and condition of a product from the manufacturing stage right through to the storage and delivery stages, you are leaving yourself exposed to quality issues that could have been prevented. In turn, this could result in an inadequate level of service being provided to partners and customers.
Logmore's solution assists stakeholders in overcoming these challenges by providing a cost-effective and dependable means for tracking shipments and ensuring product quality along the supply chain. Decision makers may view events in real-time and respond accordingly, rather than looking for information reactively.
For example, suppose an electronics retailer can see that a cargo palette has been exposed to excessive shocks in transit. In that case, they can quickly replace the shipment or at least inform the end consumer that there will be delays in delivery.
A focus on forecasting
It's fair to say that the ability to see the future is a gift all business owners would wish to possess.
Of course, this is something that is not possible in the real world, but you can certainly get close if you have access to accurate data that can be used for forecasting and analysis.
Thanks to Logmore's ability to capture data right along the supply chain and its simple API integration with existing analytics platforms, businesses are able to make predictions based on numerous variables and calculations, enabling real-time decision-making and the detection of early warning signs.
Furthermore, this data allows retailers to foresee bottlenecks, deviations, and trends along the supply chain before they cause issues, allowing them to compensate for issues proactively rather than reactively.
The more package-level data you have at your fingertips, the better decisions you can make about partners to rely on, and the more you can leverage machine learning to recognize patterns as they emerge.
Advanced data monitoring with IoT
Even though the majority of retail products are non-perishable, businesses must take precautions to guarantee the proper storage and distribution of their goods so they do not degrade or impair the product's quality in any manner.
However, retailers may find it challenging to do this when supply networks become more complex and overburdened.
In light of this, Logmore's QR loggers have been designed to collect and log up to 2,000 data points each time they are scanned. When combined with the appropriate data analysis solutions, these devices allow merchants to:
● Detect potential flaws in shipping and storing processes
● Track down and verify the time and cause of damage to determine the responsible party
● Ensure quality all the way to the end user with alerts
Retailers may even use Logmore's QR data logger light sensor to seal containers to ensure they haven't been opened throughout their voyage, which is as close to ensuring a product's quality as you can get.
In summary
There's no denying that retailers are currently in a difficult predicament. On the one hand, they are fortunate to be experiencing higher demand than ever before.
However, this is a double edged sword, as rising consumer expectations are making it increasingly difficult to meet this demand adequately, without sacrificing quality.
For better or for worse, corporations like Amazon have set extraordinarily high standards for quality assurance and customer benefits such as next-day delivery and free returns.
Furthermore, 84 percent of consumers say they will not return to a brand after just one bad delivery experience, raising the stakes even higher for retailers to ensure the quality of their products across the supply chain.
Logmore's innovative QR logger technology proves that there are solutions out there, and they don't cost an arm and a leg to implement either.
Using these low cost tag devices and the accompanying software, retailers can drastically improve their end-to-end supply chain visibility, giving them the power to exercise more control over the quality of their products while delivering on the high demands set by today's consumers.
