TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS

The top challenges faced by transportation and logistics companies worldwide are the management of costs and margins in a volatile and dynamic business landscape with rising fuel price and aggressive business competition. Utilization of predictive analysis in managing transport and logistics operations can be useful to make business transformations, specifically in terms of cost efficiency. For instance, road freight and transportation, fleets of vehicles are out-numbered, and it is a difficult job to monitor and maintain these vehicles despite the necessity of constant maintenance. The advanced analytics instead of preventive maintenance enables companies to perform predictive maintenance.

The predictive analytics solutions gather vehicle data from sensors, which is then examined to identify components that are most likely to break or underperform. Thus, allowing technicians to make necessary repair/replace decisions and avoid expensive post-damage repairs. , Furthermore, linking historical data with consumer profiles, economic indicators, and geo-localized market data, logistics and transportation providers can forecast demand with increasing accuracy. This helps in anticipating daily volumes, optimizing delivery routes, and allocation of resources to deliver the service efficiently, ultimately enhancing customer satisfaction. For instance, ArcelorMittal, a global steelmaker that operates as two interdependent companies, ArcelorMittal Mines Canada and ArcelorMittal Infrastructure Canada optimized its supply-chain logistics by implementing predictive analytics.

In order to remove the logistics bottlenecks and improve resiliency, ArcelorMittal used predictive analytics solution to transform and correlate data from its distinct systems for creating intelligent insights for the business decision making supporting both strategic decisions and everyday business decisions for augmenting the use of the company’s equipment and transportation infrastructure.

COMPETITIVE LEADERSHIP MAPPING TERMINOLOGY

The vendors of predictive analytics software in Transportation and Logistics are placed into 4 categories based on their performance in each criterion: “visionary leaders,” “innovators,” “dynamic differentiators,” and “emerging companies.” The top 23 vendors evaluated in the data quality tools market include Agilone, Alteryx, Inc, Angoss Software Corporation, Dataiku, Domino Data Lab, Exago, Inc., Fair Isaac Corporation (Fico), Good Data, Greenwave Systems, Inc, IBM Corporation, Information Builders, Inc., Knime Ag, Microsoft Corporation, Microstrategy Incorporated, NTT Data Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Qliktech, Inc., Rapidminer, Inc, SAP SE, SAS Institute Inc, Sisense, Tableau Software Inc and Teradata Corporation.

Use Cases of Predictive Analytics Software in Transportation and Logistics

Use Case #1: Optimize operations or reduce operational costs

Understanding variables such as weather and season which might influence preferred mode of public transportation, or traffic patterns and levels of congestion that influence cost of travel (cost of delay, cost extra fuel burnt, etc.) or fluctuations in fuel prices, workforce utilization, and more are key to optimal transport operations. With so many variables to factor in, predictive analytics could essentially empower transportation sector to enhance their capabilities in making intuitive decisions based on robust data and industry models for thorough forecasting while factoring in numerous possibilities simultaneously. Companies using the predictive analytics witness improved performance and productivity; thereby resulting in improved profit margins and top line revenue growth. With better planning using predictive analytics certain benefits such as –

  • Project optimization for reduction time, cost, and workloads
  • Increase employee retention to reduce cost of recruitment and training; or
  • Optimizing travel routes to reduce time which is proportional to costs

Use Case #2: Capture or address operational risks:

Predictive analytics solutions can help in avoiding potential incidents by analyzing factors such as:

  • Driving behavior & employee health and safety
  • Operational process/work flow (systems and resources)
  • Probable high accident routes and/or time of the day
  • Traffic congestion
  • Potential breakdown of vehicles from wear and tear
  • Regulatory compliance

Higher the availability of multiple variables that are specific to analyze the root cause of an incident, the easier it is to understand and prepare for the future that are inline with the reality using predictive analytics.

Use Case #3: Supply chain management

With dynamic patterns in consumer behavior predictive analytics solutions can help in optimally managing the supply chain in an effort to reflect higher degree of seamless collaboration between the various entities involved in the process, thereby potentially avoiding delays in delivery of goods or services, and reducing cost of storage and distribution, with just in time deliveries.

Use Case #4: Vehicle maintenance and inventory prediction

Using analytics predictive maintenance is applied to avoid breakdown of vehicles and redundant or unnecessary maintenance scheduling. Predictive analytics can help in initiating timely and necessary maintenance based on current information of leading indicators for breakdown.

Use Case #5: Customer analytics for enhanced customer service and experience

Predictive analytics of customer behavior for the travel industry helps in understanding the customer journey. Thus, transport companies can find opportunities to delight the customer with personalized service and relevant offers by combining different datasets and using historic and real-time information. This could include use of machine learning and techniques such as sentiment analysis, clustering, affinity analysis and propensity analysis to predict consumer’s behavioral patterns.

Use Case #6: Sales and Marketing

Use of real-time pricing solutions based predictive analytics of various variables such as customer information and competition, are widespread in the travel and transportation industry. It gives the companies a competitive edge by providing optimum price quotes while keeping in line with regulatory requirements.

Case Studies of Predictive Analytics Software in Transportation and Logistics 

Tableau

Tableau advanced analytics brought operational efficiencies for Tesla

Elon Musk’s goal to produce 1 million Tesla cars by 2020 failed to meet its projections more than 20 times in the past 5 years. As part of ongoing effort to tame chaos and improve manufacturing efficiency, Tesla turned to Tableau for advanced data analytics capabilities for root-cause investigation, quality defect tracking etc.

Business Outcome:

  • Tesla could easily trace back the production defects and rectify the same in no time
  • Improved operational efficiencies by predicting the production count and yield ratio

Lytx Inc

Case Study: Lytx Inc. helped USMC’s SWRFT Non-Tactical Vehicles dept. to address operational risks and optimize operational costs

Lytx helped United States Marine Corps’ (USMC) Southwest Region Fleet Transportation (SWRFT) Non-Tactical Vehicles department to address risky driving behavior using the DriveCam safety program’s analytics to proactively manage the fleet, fuel usage, and greenhouse emissions.

Business Outcome:

  • Increased safe driving practices by 40%
  • Increased durability of tires and brakes by 400%

SAS

Case Study: SAS helped NC DOT to optimize costs and operational risks of transportation projects

SAS helped North Carolina Department of Transportation (NC DOT) to optimize costs of transportation projects by using advanced data sources to predict most feasible choices for road corridors, thereby reducing cost of expensive soil surveys and assessment of impact on surrounding environment from the project, thus avoiding any environment regulatory compliance penalties.

Business Outcome:

  • Reduce time to select and plan of road projects by 20%
  • Cost savings to as high as USD 500,000 for each road project
     

IBM Corporation

Case Study: IBM helped Con-way Freight in efficient supply chain management

IBM helped Con-way Freight by providing predictive intelligence powered by IBM Netezza to analyze transaction-level details for deep customer understanding and data-driven business decisions. This enables the company to maintain high service levels over long periods in line with its commitments towards delivering guaranteed, day-definite regional and transcontinental service to more than 300 service centers in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

Business Outcome:

  • Being in production within three weeks of purchase
     

Dataiku

Case Study: Dataiku helped Chronopost to optimize operational costs

Dataiku worked with Chronopost to improve on-time deliveries during peak activity times, for which geo-aggregation of historical delivery and parcel retrieval data was done to develop an application that evaluates an ease-of-delivery score for each address. This score-based approach enabled Chronopost to predict risky deliveries and proactively flag them to meet delivery deadlines. Due to the increased operational efficiency of their network, Chronopost is able to decrease package delivery costs and develop new commercial offers.

Business Outcome:

  • Increased operational efficiency of the entire operational network
  • Significant reductions in delivery costs
  • Able to develop new commercial offers

TIBCO Software

Case Study: TIBCO helped TUI Group in analyzing its customers and enhancing sales & marketing

TIBCO helped TUI Group in analyzing customer journey and competitor pricing thereby enabling personalized customer service and smart/just-right/competitive pricing using business intelligence and predictive models.

Business Outcome:

  • Rapid increase in Net Promoter Score
  • Very competitive without giving up too much margin
  • Significant financial impact with €50 million in revenue per day being generated


BluePi

Case Study: BluePi helped Delhivery in supply chain management

BluePi’s analytical solution helped Delivery, one of fastest growing logistics company from India, to understand and optimize their ‘last-mile logistics’ machinery, by leveraging the predictive analytics powered by big data and real-time reports. It helps Delhivery to develop a scalable reporting system to track their logistical flow in real time.

Business Outcome:

  • Increased operational efficiency
  • On-time delivery with impeccable quality of service

 
FourKites

Case Study: FourKites helped US Foods in supply chain management for its logistics operations

FourKits’s real-time load tracking platform implemented by US Foods, one of the largest food distribution companies, helped their logistics operations in provisioning on-time and hassel-free deliveries. With the help of the platform US Foods’ customer service team can proactively manage exceptions and provide answers immediately, without calls to dispatchers or drivers, by leveraging the access to rich information across their carrier base.

Business Outcome:

  • Increased accuracy in real-time tracking of their logistics.
  • Reduce redundancies and streamline operations, for providing customer service efficiently.

FarEye

Case Study: FarEye’s helped Blue Dart to enhance customer experience and reduce operational risks from Carbon Footprint

Blue Dart’s partnership with FarEye enabled real-time visibility of each shipment and by using predictive model or algorithms, FarEye optimizes the work schedules and routes for each delivery personnel thereby reducing costs. The platform also tracks each delivery attempts with various unique and innovative features like caller ID functionality to identify customer call with docket number and other details. This enables to efficiently plan and schedule for re-attempt delivery options for undelivered products, thereby increasing workforce efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Business Outcome:

  • Value creation by provisioning personalized & seamless customer experience
  • Reduced cost and carbon footprint by optimizing delivery schedules

 

Predictive Analytics Software in Transportation and Logistics

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3.6 Online
The primary USP of IBM in Predictive Analytics Software is its ability to provide customers with advanced analytics capabilities and powerful insights which can help companies to make informed decisions and identify potential opportunities. IBM leverages its Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence solutions to provide customers with an integrated analytics platform to identify trends, uncover patterns, and predict customer behavior in order to drive process automation, increase efficiency, and improve customer experience. IBMs predictive analytics software platform provides customers with the ability to generate actionable insights faster, uncover hidden relationships within their data, and make smarter decisions quickly.
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The USP of RapidMiner Inc in predictive analytics software lies in its ease of use. RapidMiner enables users to easily build predictive models with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. It also provides powerful data preparation and visualization tools that empower users to quickly extract insights from existing datasets. Furthermore, RapidMiner also offers support for specialized use cases such as text mining and deep learning, making it an ideal choice for organizations seeking an all-in-one predictive analytics software.
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3.3
SAP Predictive Analytics software enables users to create, deploy and maintain various predictive models. These on-premise tools can help users anticipate future behavior and outcomes and better guide the decision-making ability to help grow the business. SAP Predictive Analytics Cloud works alongside the BI and planning tools to visualize, plan and predict context. The tool uses in-memory technology and machine learning to uncover relevant predictive insights in real-time.
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ORACLE Analytics Cloud’s Database Platform allows the use of seamless predictive analytics software within the platform, giving it an edge over other vendors. ORACLE Analytics Cloud helps mine various data types, eradicate movement of data, and deliver actionable insights. Application developers deploy this analytics model along with SQL and R functions. ORACLE Analytics Cloud helps predict the behavior of customers, the gap between the demand and supply, and make better marketing strategies.
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Angoss uses data and predictive modeling to present insights that help users make better decisions faster. It uses advanced statistical algorithms for the prediction of outcomes. These outcomes are generated across all stages of model cycles. It helps improving predictive analytics for organizations looking to monetize their data.
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SAS Advanced Analytics provides users with better response time and faster insights provided by its in-memory analytics. SAS Advanced Predictive Analytics software helps organize data in a structured manner, making it easy to understand and present. It enables the user to analyze past, present, and future models using quality-tested algorithms. Automation of large-scale forecasts is also possible without the need for high levels of technical knowledge.
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Use the full potential of information to unleash the capability of the human resources of an organization.
Information Builders WebFocus RStat is a cost-effective, robust, intuitive, and accurate predictive analytics software. WebFocus can help organizations by extracting meaningful insights from data of any kind. It creates interactive dashboards to consolidate information which increases the chances of actionable insights to be used in the everyday conduct of data-driven businesses.
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FICO Decision Management Suite is an integrated environment for development that is compatible with web as well as mobile applications. It is a platform that handles real-time streaming of data including its visualization, indexing, search, and pre-processing, based on rules that are defined in advance. The company's USP is the ability to provide models based on precise customer requirement to reduce time and cost.
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Alteryx provides information science that can viably and productively tap into a code-free and code-accommodating easy-to-use application. The predictive analytics software requires no coding, however, it is coding friendly for those interested. It has a fantastic interface without code for both analytics modelling and advanced modelling with code. It enables easy deployment and management of analytic models, flexibility, agility, and high speed. It supports visualization tools and all data sources. Alteryx helps find, manage, and understand all sort of analytic information of an organization at a high speed, thereby making better decisions and increasing productivity.
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MicroStrategy’s features and algorithms provide enterprises with advanced predictive analytics capabilities. MicroStrategy is useful for deploying models with governed data. It integrates seamlessly with R and can be connected to any source with the use of APIs. Some of its important features include: Scalable integration with R, incorporation of statistics, ARIMA, etc. and minimal IT support required
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2.7
Rapid assembling of predictive data that changes crude information into a business affecting service. This product has advantages for all types of users: analytics leaders, data scientists, IT professionals, and business analysts. It helps analytics leaders in terms of managing productivity, collaboration, coordination, and measuring team growth. Data scientists benefit in terms of automation, modelling, flexibility, and reproducibility. IT professionals gain advantages pertaining to scalability, code & integration, operationalization, and data governance; while business analysts obtain data access, preparation, exploration, and automated ML benefits.
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2.6
GoodData is a cloud-based platform with high SLA availability and maintenance. It allows for easy incorporation of already existing data warehouses. It allows the platform to be integrated into web or mobile applications. It is one of the most dominant cloud data warehouse that meets most versatile analytics platform requirements.
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Extensive set of cloud services that enables associations to address business problems, construct, oversee, and convey applications on a massive, worldwide system utilizing various tools and frameworks. Microsoft Azure ML Studio can be used to prepare and manage the data they need for machine learning. It can improve productivity through its powerful capabilities that can integrate the current model cycle with that of the app lifecycle.
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Natural language search and AI-powered bits of knowledge discovery make creating bits of knowledge a characteristic, instinctive, and intuitive experience. Spotfire has strong built-in predictive analytical methods that are smart, yet easy to use. Its intelligent data wrangling helps you clean and modify data, and auto-records it so you can edit it later as well. It is flexible and can scale secured documents as well.
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AXON Predict permits OEMs and enterprises to catch, screen, and break down information. AXON Predict is a product suitable for OEMs as well as large enterprises since it collates, scrutinizes, and analyzes data across networks and provide valuable visual analytical insights to users. This gives users real-time analytics to work with in order to enhance innovation and reduce costs.
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NTT Data offers effective solutions that supplement the decision-making process in an organization. This is possible across multiple business platforms and across different development and deployment capabilities. With the help of a comprehensive analytics and business insight methodology, NTT Analytics Solutions can change a client organization into an information-driven pioneer.
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Teradata predictive analytics software provides “Flip the Switch” analytics which allows on-the-fly switching of best campaign users from reverse modeling to forward prediction. Teradata Analytics for Enterprise Applications eradicates the complexity of enterprise application integration, delivers real-time access to integrated data from ERP and other enterprise applications, as well as provides transparency and visibility into business and customer insights.
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2.3
Qlik helps enterprises around the globe move quicker, work smarter, and provide a start-to-finish answer to get an incentive out of information. QlikView helps users compare different sets of data from multiple sources and locations to deliver the most value. Its main features include, interactive participation in session-sharing is possible across different groups which enables users to share their insights formally or informally. It is also possible to access and load data from different locations and from different deployment modes – cloud, on-premise, or big data sources.
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2.2
KNIME is an open source software and it helps create data science applications and services. Being open, intuitive, and able to integrate new developments, this platform makes reusable components accessible to all the users and helps understand data science workflows. The software provides actual data analysis as well as a number of processes and has productivity funtions to help operations.
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Sisense makes the analytics process easy for users right from the preparation of data to the creation of insights. Sisense is an intelligence software known for its agility and easy implementation. It can be used by varied companies. This platform offers a range of business analytics features. It is designed to make complex data preparation and visualizations simple to make better business decisions and intelligent strategies.
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Domino delivers predictive models using ML and AI techniques capturing all the dependencies of experiments. It is perfect for models across cloud databases as well as distributed systems. Powering model-driven organizations to rapidly create and convey models that drive business impact.
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Cloud-based Predictive Intelligence is used to generate insights into the behavior of customers and provides recommendations based on these insights to enhance revenue generation. Delivers reliable and customized experiences over each interaction point through a flexible, adaptable, and versatile stage that addresses enterprise needs.
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Harnessing advanced artificial intelligence/machine learning to deliver better experiences and enhance business execution at scale. Opera Solutions offers AI solutions is supported by a team of data scientists that are scalable, practical, and transformative. This solution serves various industries such as financial, hospitality, healthcare, travel, retail, and telecommunications. In addition, problems related with scaling Big Data analytics gets solved by the AI/ML platform provided by the company.
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