The supply chain is a vast, complex and necessary fact of the industrial economy. It is a common understanding that moving goods from one place to another is one of the most expensive and difficult facets of any enterprise that does it. AT&T is trying to make that anecdotal truth a thing of the past with its newly announced Cargo View solution.
Cargo View with Flight Safe is a cargo tracking system built upon AT&T’s powerful cellular and wireless networks around the globe. Sensors are attached to containers or embedded in the goods themselves. When the products are shipped with this system in place, companies can monitor them carefully for condition, temperature and other factors. This data makes it possible to mitigate losses, prevent problems and predict arrivals. AT&T said this is a truly global solution that can operate everywhere from North Africa to North Dakota. Everywhere AT&T is, so can Cargo View operate.
“AT&T has made a huge commitment to the IoT,” said Mobeen Khan, executive director of industrial IoT, AT&T. “We have made one of the best IoT transport programs and we designed it to help our customers create end-to-end IoT solutions.”
Maintaining asset integrity is an age-old challenge in supply chain risk management, and this technology is giving companies more visibility and control. Businesses, especially those transporting high value items need to and now are able to monitor cargo on land and in the air with greater ease and visibility.
AT&T cited a recent survey of shipping companies about their views on cargo monitoring that showed that 88 percent of them want greater insight, end-to-end visibility, better prevention of loss, theft and damage, and availability of temperature and other sensors.
Several of AT&T’s customers are already tapping into the tracking data now available within this system. Crane Worldwide Logistics, a multi-national logistics provider, uses Cargo View at its Dallas, Texas facility to transports shipments of high-value electronics, apparel and purses to destinations in the U.S. Crane tracks locations of goods real-time and detects whether the packages have been tampered with and if they have been exposed to extreme temperatures, shock or light.
Racine Berkow Associates, which provides international transport of artwork for museums, galleries and private collectors, and so requires the most cautious handling of goods, uses trackers inside select crates to monitor the location, temperature, light exposure and shock of each shipment to monitor the security and integrity of the assets.
“If you’re in the business of shipping physical goods, you need visibility to make sure your goods arrive in the right place at the right time and in the right condition,” Khan said. “If cargo isn’t in the desired condition, you need enough time to make a corrective action. It figures into your revenue system.”
Edited by
Maurice Nagle
