1) David Hesketh is leading a four-year project to demonstrate that improved supply chain visibility can help British businesses save money, be more responsive to markets, and increase innovation through greater confidence. 2) Currently, international supply chains often lack accurate and timely data about goods as they move through complex global systems, resulting in uncertainties and increased costs for businesses. 3) Hesketh's project is piloting a system to capture supply chain data at key points like the Port of Felixstowe to create an integrated electronic pipeline, with the goal of increasing visibility, control, and trust within supply chains.

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Supply chain visibility
David Hesketh, head of Customs research and development at HMRC and CORE, Work Package
10 Leader, is part-way through a four-year project to prove that good supply chain visibility
can help British businesses save money, react faster to market conditions and give them the
confidence to deliver innovation and quality
International supply chains are often
complex, unpredictable and difficult to
control. Expert David Hesketh is on a
mission to show British businesses how
they can benefit from better supply
chain management and visibility.
It’s a simple analogy and one that
many of us can relate to. Check in at
the airport, and one of the many ques-
tions you are likely to be asked is, ‘did
you pack this bag yourself?’ There are
strong similarities between this and
how we manage information about
cargo being moved in the international
supply chain. And it’s the international
supply chain that is crucial to so many
businesses in the UK.
I have spent 40 years working in all
areas of international supply chains, and
despite major advances in technology
and communications, quite often a UK
buyer does not know what their order
contains until the container arrives and
it is unloaded. And, all of that is down to
the lack of good quality data.
I am part-way through a four-year
project to prove that good supply chain
visibility can help British businesses
save money, react faster to market con-
ditions and give them the confidence to
deliver innovation and quality.
In the past, the international trade
process was relatively simple. The
buyer would travel to another country,
identify the goods they wanted, pay for
them, load them onto a ship, return to
their own country, unload them, pay the
Customs duty and sell them.
When the buyer stopped travelling
to buy the goods and there was no
face-to-face transaction, international
commerce became more complicated.
Communication became more difficult;
trust and agreements were replaced
by contracts, jurisdictions, different
currencies, systems of payment and dif-
ferent languages.
Coupled with the fact that globali-
sation during the last 30 years has seen
many companies put productivity into
developing economies, and supply
chains have increasingly lacked cer-
tainty and clarity from a security, legal
and commercial point of view.
Historically, sea and air cargo carri-
ers have been the main data collection
points in the supply chain, but this infor-
mation focuses on limiting liabilities
and defining roles rather than ensuring
an accurate description of the goods
and the people involved.
With this lack of accurate data, the
regulatory authorities do not get the
information they need to carry out the
risk assessments and create efficien-
cies. This lack of visibility makes supply
chain costs unclear, profit margins
unpredictable and the price to the end
consumer ambiguous. Research has
shown that data inaccuracy among the
UK’s top five retailers and their suppli-
ers is costing as much as £1.4billion a
year.
For major multi-national brands that
can afford to implement their own in-
house quality control procedures, these
risks can be mitigated, but for other
national UK retailers and SMEs without
those levels of resource, the losses can
be significant.
So how can we make things better?
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The most important part of the supply
chain is the understanding between the
‘buyer’ and the ‘seller’, and to keep the
items safe in the supply chain.
To minimise risk in the supply chain,
we need a seamless integrated data
pipeline based on a global standard.
Detailed information about all aspects
of the transaction between buyer and
seller is required, including describing
the goods being exchanged, their value,
and all elements of the logistics process
and those involved. Real-time accurate
data must be assured from the begin-
ning, updated as the goods move, and
shared among the relevant parties.
With more accurate information and
higher levels of visibility, there can be
greater control of costs and timings
leading to better product planning
for businesses. And, with greater trust
and security, challenges can be swiftly
overcome.
Going back to my airport analogy at
the beginning of the blog, we need to
start by asking the people who packed
the container to input accurate infor-
mation and make them accountable.
So, how can we make this happen?
As part of my work, we are pilot-
ing a project to capture consignment
data from UK trade through the Port of
Felixstowe. Working alongside three,
end-to-end UK supply chain manage-
ment companies, Warrant Group,
Uniserve and Metro Shipping, we are
working on developing a ‘single window’
seamless electronic data pipeline to
conform to standards set by the United
Nations, the World Customs Organisa-
tion and the European Commission.
My work with Warrant Group in
particular, has shown how I am not
alone in my quest for reducing risk in
the supply chain and delivering a pro-
active approach to planning and data
management. The company is already
demonstrating to its clients how sup-
ply chain certainty and exact data can
deliver accurate forecasting to cre-
ate a whole range of benefits, from
improving warehouse operations to
avoiding unnecessary costs such as
wasted labour, detention and demur-
rage fees.
Warrant Group’s IT director, David
Roff, pointed out that while supply
chains are complex, their IT product,
the Ingot Portal, provides a simplified
‘courier style’ user experience allow-
ing the customer to focus on ‘exception
management’ and in-depth analysis as
required.
Irrespective of shipment volume,
major advances in data quality provide
true end-to-end visibility from purchase
order placement through to distribu-
tion centre arrival, ensuring that clients
know what they are receiving exactly
matches their order book in advance,
removing risk, and helping them deliver
a competitive edge.
Thanks to this commercial exper-
tise, I am pleased to report that we are
now successfully supplying live data
into the pipeline at four key waypoints.
Although there’s still a lot of work to
be done, our progress, with the inter-
est of ‘One Government at the Border’,
is already shining a light on the huge
benefits companies of all shapes and
sizes could enjoy.
Growing the UK economy through
international trade is essential and this
new approach could make a real dif-
ference. The key is to capture the right
data, at the right time, from the right
source at the right price.
David Hesketh is leading the UK Dem-
onstrator Work Package 10 for CORE,
which seeks to demonstrate inter-
national supply chain visibility and
security, centred initially on UK trade
through the Port of Felixstowe. The
project is funded under the European
Commission Framework Programme 7.
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David Hesketh