Data scrubbing: It's the next big thing in logistics

By Jeff Berman, Senior Editor -- Logistics Management, 5/1/2007

DEDHAM, Mass.—While there have been many notable achievements in the logistics field—such as the evolution of the standard shipping container which helped spur global trade—the “next big thing” in logistics may be a bit harder to define, according to a recent report by Adrian Gonzalez, director of the Logistics Executive Council at ARC Advisory Group.

In his report, The Next Big Thing In Logistics, Gonzalez said that when he was recently asked what exciting developments were coming down the pike, his short answer was: “I don’t know.”

In the report, Gonzalez hypothesizes the world in the year 2035, and describes what he sees as “the emergence of standards-based logistics communication and process execution networks—a fancy way of describing the 'logistics utilities’ that virtually every company uses to exchange electronic information and exchange business processes with their trading partners, customs, and regulatory agencies.”

Gonzalez notes that over his eight years at ARC, the one constant theme he’s heard is that collecting and cleaning data—a step critical in achieving his vision—is the most difficult and time-consuming step.

While data cleaning and collecting may not be viewed as sexy, Gonzalez said if it were addressed by shippers and logistics service providers in a standardized manner it could, in fact, be the “next big thing” in logistics technology.

Gonzalez told LM that data cleaning and collecting processes should receive far more attention than they’re getting today. “Data quality—collecting and cleaning up data—is the number one issue [shippers and logistics service providers] are facing, and it’s only getting worse,” he says. “It’s more of a roll up the sleeves, blue collar-type of thing, and companies just don’t have it prioritized as well as they should,” he adds.

Along with giving the issue more attention, another way to improve data cleaning and capturing processes is to work on a standards-based platform, he adds. Gonzalez likened a standards-based approach to the shipping container in the sense that the container brought value to all industry parties because it was a standard physical unit to build processes around.

“It doesn’t have to be a single set of standards used across all industries,” says. Gonzalez. “It could be industry-specific, and if each company in a specific industry agrees to adhere to specific standards for things like messages and documents it will help to alleviate many of the data quality problems that are occurring.”

He adds that making the internal investment—perhaps via the futuristic “logistics utilities”—may be the optimal way to go about this.