A SHIPMENT leaving Cebu rarely makes just one trip. It may go by truck to the port, by roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) vessel or other ship across the water and by truck again to its destination. A delay at any point can push back the whole delivery.
That is the central operating problem for logistics providers in the province, said Bobby Lim, chief operating officer for transport operations at FAST Logistics Group. He cited port and terminal processes, road congestion, truck bans and vessel schedules as the main sources of disruption.
“Because shipments often involve multiple transport legs, a delay at one point can affect the entire delivery schedule,” Lim said.
He said FAST cannot fix those problems. “While logistics providers cannot control every external disruption,” Lim said, the company can help customers manage the impact through better shipment planning and closer coordination with businesses, transport partners and shipping lines.
That is where technology comes in, according to Anton Rafael Chiongbian, FAST’s assistant vice president for customer revenue strategy and digital transformation. He said the company is using artificial intelligence to speed up truckload planning and optimize routes across its transportation network.
Chiongbian described planning as one of the logistics processes that still relies on manual coordination, a challenge made harder in an archipelago where shipments may use several transport modes. He said the industry is moving from basic automation toward applications that use data and artificial intelligence (AI) to improve planning and anticipate operational needs.
“Technology should do more than automate existing tasks,” he said. “It should help us anticipate challenges, improve operational efficiency and deliver better service to our customers.”
New systems
In its warehouses, FAST uses Honeywell’s warehouse management system to handle inbound inventory, picking and outbound transactions and to give real-time visibility. In transport, it is moving from an in-house transport management system to an AI-delivery platform from FarEye, which it will use for planning, dispatch and end-to-end shipment visibility.
Chiongbian said the shift gives FAST more agility to adapt its transport operations as customer needs change.
FAST says its network gives it room to adjust. It works with more than 3,100 trucks, 14 shipping lines and two airline carriers. It and uses land, RoRo, sea and air links between Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Lim said those partnerships give the company options for coordinating shipments around customer requirements, delivery schedules and cost considerations.
It did not say how much its AI tools have cut delays or costs, or whether they have changed how it handles port congestion or truck-ban hours specifically. Chiongbian described the applications as ways to explore improvements in resource use and planning, not as results already achieved.
Lim said FAST’s aim is to help customers manage their cost to serve while keeping deliveries reliable and that it measures its work against targets set with each customer, such as on-time delivery rates. / MVG