Rates, assignments, statuses and evidence live in separate exchanges.
Shipper guide
Regain control of transport purchased, planned and actually executed
Connect order, transport need, sourcing, assignment, tracking, evidence, cost and service quality.
For: Shipper-side transport, purchasing, logistics, customer service and finance leadersWhat to clarify before discussing a solution
How can plan, carrier commitment and execution be compared without reconstructing the file afterwards?
The answer does not lie in an isolated feature: it is built by connecting rules, actors, data and evidence.A unified transport file with assignment rules, expected events and service control.
Four decisions to make before configuration
These decisions make the scope testable and prevent structural choices from being discovered during the project.
Define assignment rules by flow
The decision must specify the rule, its owner, the required data and the evidence used to accept it.
Formalise expected carrier events
The decision must specify the rule, its owner, the required data and the evidence used to accept it.
Structure variance reasons and ownership
The decision must specify the rule, its owner, the required data and the evidence used to accept it.
Connect POD, reservations and service control
The decision must specify the rule, its owner, the required data and the evidence used to accept it.
A readable end-to-end flow
Scope is not a list of modules. It is a chain of events, ownership and decisions.
1Transport need
2Sourcing and assignment
3Commitment tracking
4Exception and customer service
5Evidence and control
In the first scoping
- One representative flow and its useful variants
- Authoritative events and minimum data
- Roles, decisions and escalation times
- Acceptance criteria and baseline measurement
To sequence in waves
- Additional sites, activities or populations
- Rare variants that do not condition the pilot
- Automations whose rule is not yet stable
- Advanced dashboards after source reliability
To decide explicitly
- Define assignment rules by flow
- Formalise expected carrier events
- Structure variance reasons and ownership
- Connect POD, reservations and service control
From direction to measured improvement
- 1Navigator
- 2Personalised review
- 3Scoping workshop
- 4Wave-based deployment
- 5KPI measurement
Each stage produces a decision or evidence reusable in the next. Deployment remains business-led and verifiable.
Measure to decide, not to fill a dashboard
Every KPI needs a definition, a source, a cadence and an associated decision.
KPIFormulaSourceDecision
OTIFOn-time, in-full deliveries ÷ total deliveriesOrders, shipments and proof of deliveryPrioritise the causes that weaken the customer promise
Transport cost per unitConsolidated transport costs ÷ units deliveredServices, kilometres, charges and invoicingArbitrate transport plan, utilisation and providers
Complete delivery evidenceDeliveries with usable evidence ÷ closed deliveriesPOD, statuses, reservations and documentsReduce disputes and accelerate closure
Decision lead timeDecision date − signal dateAlerts, decisions and actionsShorten the path from signal to action
06 · Business scenario
A shipment tracked through control
- Situation
- The shipper has the plan and invoice, but intermediate execution is hard to evidence.
- Approach
- Scoping follows one file, defines commitment, events, evidence and variance rules, then aligns operations, purchasing and finance.
- Target outcome
- Carrier performance becomes comparable on the service actually delivered.
Useful answers before the first discussion
01Where should we start in practical terms?
Choose a representative scope spanning “Transport need” and “Sourcing and assignment”, then document one normal case and one frequent exception. The first flow should be important enough to matter but contained enough to observe end to end.
02Do all existing systems need replacing?
No. Scoping starts with decisions, authoritative events and ownership. It then determines what should be retained, integrated, replaced or simply better governed, wave by wave.
03What data should be prepared before a workshop?
Prepare a few real cases, the volumes shaping the operation, the main variance reasons and the sources used to measure OTIF. The quality of examples matters more than the quantity of documents.
04How should the right pilot scope be chosen?
Choose a scope with an available owner, accessible data, a meaningful exception and a measurable outcome. Avoid both an overly simple case that proves nothing and an overly broad scope that dilutes learning.
05How can scope changes during the project be limited?
Make assumptions, interfaces, variants, exceptions and acceptance criteria explicit. Every new request can then be classified: essential to the wave, suitable for a later wave, or outside the objective. Discussion focuses on impact rather than intuition.
Next step
Turn this guide into a personalised review
Complete Navigator to position your context, then use the review as the starting point for a scoping workshop.
- 1Navigator
- 2Personalised review
- 3Scoping workshop
- 4Wave-based deployment
- 5KPI measurement
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