Business Case

While the Internet makes it much easier for sophisticated and unsophisticated firms and agencies to communicate, glaring gaps remain in supply chain related data quality—its timeliness, accuracy and completeness—and data availability.   For example, less than half the firms in a large industry survey update even half of their supply chain data in a very generous definition of “near real-time:” 24 hours or less. Further, data update performance is worse near the beginning of the supply chain than near the end.  

Therefore, most organizations that exchange information in support of commercial freight movement can benefit from adopting EFM. While focused on supply chains that originate and/or have destinations in the U.S., EFM is applicable in any geography, having been designed from an international and cross-border perspective.

The EFM design is guided by several principles that create value for potential adopters and that were successfully tested in the CEFM deployment test and are further described in the documents available on the Program Documents tab:

  • An open and neutral platform, driven by emerging international standards for business data exchanges;

  • Free and publicly available web services describing common supply chain functions, transacted among supply chain partners in a service-oriented architecture. 21 web services were used in CEFM;

  • Tools and a basic architectural approach that allow connection into the EFM environment to be done in a relatively low-cost manner for supply chain partners regardless of whether the partner has an existing IT infrastructure;

  • An approach that is supportive, not disruptive, of organizations' existing IT investments, thus minimizing the investment required for adoption while facilitating the use of Internet technologies as an improvement over today's paper- or proprietary electronic-based approaches.  One partner integrated CEFM results with its existing IT systems; others provided status data automatically from existing systems.

Click here to learn more about the CEFM deployment test architecture and results.  Other relevant EFM documents are available on the Program Documents tab.

For private sector organizations, implementing FIH can:

  • Improve the efficiency of the physical movement of freight throughout the transportation supply chain;

  • Position organizations for emerging IT environments in which expensive value-added networks continue to be supplemented by open, Internet solutions;

  • Offer cost avoidance by eliminating low-value data entry tasks and by reducing errors associated with manual operations ;

  • For asset-based transport providers, EFM can improve asset performance by providing better information about shipments that can help optimize resources;

  • Equipped with more accurate, more timely, and near real-time data about shipments, organizations of all types can make better operating decisions that directly or indirectly affects profitability and success in the market.

Click here to learn more about the EFM value proposition for the private sector.

Click here for additional information about business benefits achieved by the private sector from implementing visibility software systems.

The EFM design and the CEFM deployment test have been led by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), but with an active public-private relationship that has led to strong industry participation and guidance on requirements. That public-private relationship is promoted by the Intermodal Freight Technology Working Group (IFTWG) where results and progress are presented semi-annually.  While the EFM is an initiative that is being adopted by the commercial sector, its design has been sponsored by DOT because it is an important component of DOT's mission to address efficiency, safety, security in the nation's freight transportation networks.

Click here to learn more about EFM's public benefits or click here to see a recent status presentation from the Nov. 2008 IFTWG workshop. .