How will a tracking system help in correcting reports’ inconsistencies and errors in the Swift Services Company’s system?
2.4 Related Works
In 2019, the Roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) company was advised to implement a real-time tracking system (M’handa et al., 2019). This would replace its periodically updated tracking system. RoRo was experiencing problems similar to those that are currently being experienced by Swift Services Company. The two companies used staff to manually update the tracking system. However, RoRo transports cargo on the sea while Swift Services does not (M’handa et al., 2019). Real-time tracking would improve efficiency at RoRo because, previously, cargo details would only be updated at the port. This made it difficult to estimate cargo traffic and offloading, especially when ships arrived simultaneously. But with real-time tracking, the staff at the port would identify in advance the ship that would arrive first and its contents (M’handa et al., 2019). Making the process of offloading efficient.
A study conducted for a Swedish retailer that was not using real-time parcel tracking also indicated similar problems to those of Swift Services Company (Goll & Bolte, 2020). For the retailer, goods would be recorded on two different systems. One within the company and another at the point of switching the goods with a third party. When capturing details on the second system, some goods would be left out, making the services inefficient. The goods could be misplaced or completely lost (Goll & Bolte, 2020). This problem would be solved by real-time tracking. At Swift Services Company, receiving parcels between two offices would result in the same problem the Swedish retailer was experiencing (Swift Services, n.d.). Therefore, the same solution offered to the Swedish retailer would be suitable for Swift Services Company.
Research on the globalization of supply chain management indicates why real-time tracking is important (Kunnari, 2018). Logistics companies in different countries partner to ensure that customers receive their goods with convenience. Therefore, when using racking systems that are updated periodically, updates would be made when handing goods to the next logistics company for delivery to a different country. Such an update would be prone to errors (Kunnari, 2018). This is because the process would be tedious and time-consuming. It would also be difficult to estimate which goods would arrive first when more than one truck was involved (Kunnari, 2018). This study is similar to that made at Swift Services, and the proposed solution would be similar, too.
3. Research Methodology
3.1 Research Matters
The research part of this project would facilitate information collection and solution modeling. This would involve staff at the Swift Services Company and customers or staff who could pose as customers for system simulation purposes. An adequately conducted research methodology is important in arriving at an accurate solution. For example, some experiments conducted by Yoo et al. (2018) for real-time location tracking for healthcare proved important in simulating the proposed system. The research part of the real-time location tracking for healthcare included asking medical professionals some questions about their current system. Nurses mentioned they were responsible for some hospital equipment during their shifts. However, it was difficult to transfer the responsibility of the medical equipment to a nurse on the next shift without a real-time location tracking system. The study by Yoo et al. (2018) aimed to reduce administration errors that would reduce the time used to hand over medical equipment at the end of a shift. This research focuses on solving parcel transfer errors that lead to delays in parcel delivery, rendering the company inefficient. Real-time tracking systems have been proven to eradicate errors and improve a company’s performance, making it a good recommendation for Swift Services (Goll & Bolte, 2020; Kunnari, 2018; M’handa et al., 2019; Yoo et al., 2018).
3.2 Experiment Design
3.2.1 Experiment Requirements
To conduct an experiment on the proposed solution, 480 parcels would be tagged with a Radio Frequency Identification tag and sent out to the various destinations. This means that all other parcels in transit would be on the current system, manually updating the parcel’s location on the system. Swift Service Company operates in 48 states; therefore, parcels would be distributed equally for delivery: 10 parcels per state. The experiment will be conducted in three weeks to ensure that data is adequately collected. Feedback would be collected from customers who received parcels tracked in real-time. The staff at Swift Services Company, who were involved in the process of receiving the parcel from the sender and delivering the parcels to the receiver, woul