DHL’s cloud-based risk management provider DHL Resilience360 uses weather tracking data to help companies avert supply chain disruptions from hurricanes ahead of the 2019 hurricane season.
The future of logistics?
The DHL Resilience360 team are launching an improved weather shape tracking and alerting capability. The algorithm analyses the projected path of a hurricane or cyclone and notifies businesses of possible impacts on their specific supply chains. This will allow companies to identify affected locations and assess what this means for the their ability to produce and deliver goods to customers. For instance, if a seller deploys this tool to their logistics infrastructure, mitigating weather disruptions would be beneficial during peak – especially as peak seasons vary for different merchants
Improvements in meteorological forecasts now allow scientists to predict a hurricane’s path three to five days in advance. This gives businesses some time to respond before disruptions occur.
Despite the difficulty of predicting exactly when and where storms will hit, businesses can take short- and long-term precautionary measures to mitigate the impact. In the short-term, companies should create continuity plans, stock up on essential materials, and ensure methods of communication are available in the case of power outages.
In the longer term, visibility tools, diversifying the company’s network, and establishing long-term partnerships with logistics suppliers can strongly influence how seriously a supply chain is affected by a hurricane.
DHL say that their risk management experts use advanced mapping techniques, near real-time information from meteorological organisations, and the visibility and risk management tool Resilience360 to identify potential storms and disruptions for specific customer supply chains.
