30 production sites and 2,000 loads moved from Italy to over 120 countries via road and ocean shipments. Barilla, the world leader in pasta production, has a complex supply chain that requires high level of visibility.
‘We react before an issue escalates into a major problem, which saves time while reducing transportation costs and fines. This, in turn, improves our relationships with carriers and customers,” says Davide Busato, Logistic Competence Centre Innovation Project Manager at Barilla. The Italian company uses FourKite’s technology to enable better visibility and incorporates AI into the way shipments are monitored.
‘Retailers and manufacturers must have the ability to push allocation decision-making as close as possible to the final destination,’ adds Seth Frederickson, Vice President, Product Management at FourKites.
Ocean shipments are an important part of Barilla’s logistics operation and equal about 10% of its market. “Freight forwarders had overseen Barilla’s ocean shipments, but it was costly and time-consuming because we had to manually check with carriers on the location of shipments,” continues Busato.
Lessons learnt
Of course, smaller businesses with fewer facilities will have a harder time pivoting. Their only options may be to flex employment capacity, or else learn lessons that will help them plan better for next time. But for larger companies with more distribution centers, rerouting these goods — even when it’s a more costly option, such as air freight — might be worth it to meet customer expectations or keep factories humming.
“Our goals in 2024 are to track 90% of our shipments, reduce penalties with carriers by 5% and decrease inefficient communication with partners by 10-15%. We’re currently well on our way to meeting these metrics,” Busato says.
