A NUMBER of priority areas for “rapid action” have been identified in this week’s Australian Logistics Council 2019 Supply Chain Technology & Data Summit in Melbourne.

Held on Tuesday 19 November, the summit featured presentations, demonstrations and panel discussions with prominent designers and providers of technology systems, researchers, regulatory and policy-making bodies and industry participants from across the supply chain.

As well as examining the potential of technology solutions now on offer, summit participants also explored some of the regulatory barriers, market hesitations and infrastructure impediments inhibiting the uptake of technology by some supply chain participants.

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According to organisers, the overarching theme to emerge from the Summit was “the need for a more proactive embrace of technology, using it to identify business opportunities, manage performance and control safety risks”.

“Industry will be far better served if it uses technology to identify problems and prevent safety incidents before they emerge, rather than using data and technology as a reactive tool to determine why initiatives fail, or why accidents occur,” a concluding statement read.

Some key issues and areas in which to pursue action were:

  • Agreeing a single data standard for use in Australia is central to unlocking productivity benefits for the industry
  • Pursuing enhanced supply chain visibility and international competitiveness in Australia by encouraging supply chain participants to adopt the use of global data standards (GDS) in their day-to-day operations.
  • Adopting a proactive rather than reactive approach to the use of technology and data sharing in logistics operations
  • Highlighting the major advances that technology can bring to industry safety
  • Overcoming industry reluctance around data sharing by ensuring there is a rigorous framework in place that protects privacy and commerciality of data
  • Demonstrating the commercial benefits of supply chain technology more clearly, particularly opportunities to reduce administrative costs and red-tape through the introduction of systems that eliminate duplication of tasks and the risk of errors through manual data entry and paper-based systems;

Helping the freight logistics industry to understand what it wants to achieve though the use of technologies like blockchain or policy initiatives such as the National Freight Data Hub.