Kuehne+Nagel Buyers' Guide profile

Logistics services provider Kuehne + Nagel (KN) has launched two new platforms this month that is said would let its customers manage their global ocean-bound supply chains more effectively.

The KN ESP supply chain management system lets customers connect with their own vendors, buyers and sellers, and cargo flows, as well as KN’s physical assets and experts.

“With predictive analytics and artificial intelligence, KN ESP optimises orders and prioritises transportation decisions based on a set of customer-defined business rules, cost and service options,” said the company in a statement.

The new system will eliminate “communication frictions” no matter how many systems or players are involved, said Otto Schacht, KN management board member responsible for sea freight.

KN ESP was launched to coincide with the Trans Pacific Maritime Annual Conference held at Long Beach, California, in early March.

The company has also announced a sea freight digital platform providing an overview of more than 3,000 vessels and 750 direct weekly services for container shipments across its network. Called Sea Explorer, it ranks sea freight services by smart indicators, based on big data technology, including a dynamic reliability indicator (DRI), emission score, nominal carrying capacity and realistic transit times.

“High levels of data transparency are of utmost importance in logistics,” said Schacht. “Through Sea Explorer, our customers will be able to access the world’s largest portfolio of sea freight service offerings. Thus they can base their respective decisions not just on transit time parameters but also on sophisticated comparative data such as service reliability and emission rating.”