Digitalisation is sweeping through many of the industries around the world and bringing the world closer than ever before..
No organisation or industry can escape its effects and impact..
The dramatic reductions in the cost of obtaining, processing, and transmitting data achieved and the benefits of digitalisation is changing the way we do business globally..
Digitalisation has and is changing the way in which industries and companies operate as it reshapes the value it has created for all stakeholders..
The value that a company creates, is measured by the amount that buyers are willing to pay for a product or service and a business will be profitable if the value it creates exceeds the cost of performing these activities..
To gain competitive advantage a company must either perform these activities at a lower cost or perform them in a way that leads to differentiation and a premium price (more value)..
This value creation and the need for competitive advantage is all the more important in industries like the Timber Industry as these companies navigate COVID-19-driven volatility and adapt to better tools to remain profitable in a challenging market..
Timber is one of the most popular and common forestry products shipped around the world in various forms, using general-purpose ships, specialised log carriers, and also in containers..
The global export value of just Sawn Timber Softwoods is reported to be around $22 billion out of a total forest product export value of around $270 billion..
For many customers, the shipment of timber products can be as problematic as it is valuable as it requires close coordination between the various parties from the live-loading of the cargo into the container, the carriers, the entities fumigating the containers, and the documentation team that prepares all the pre-shipment and shipment documentation..
Speed to market is quite crucial in this business, as is slow steaming or longer transit, to avoid tariff increases in some cases or to adjust the delivery schedules to suit the customer’s requirement..
All these factors together determine the actions that the timber companies must take in order to have a competitive advantage in the market..
Centersource Technologies, an independent digital marketplace and supply-chain automation platform has released a White Paper that provides answers to these questions..
This White Paper explains “How to achieve competitive advantage in timber supply chain through digitalisation”
