One year after its authorization in October 2022, ASTM’s digital information in the supply chain committee (F49) has formalized its leadership and is calling for participation in new work items.
F49 is targeting the technical gaps and inconsistencies in the goods movement process. Shippers, carriers brokers, and other supply chain actors will align on goods movement status updates to communicate data precisely within the supply chain while ensuring data sovereignty. Harmonizing the industry lexicon, promoting interoperability, and harnessing enabling technology in a tech-neutral manner will improve efficiency in the goods movement process.
Furthermore, F49 will build on existing global standards work to promote adoption and minimize duplication and inconsistency in global transport and logistics contexts.
Jeff Weiss of Steptoe & Johnson LLP has been designated as the executive committee chair of committee F49. Jack Crumbly, professor at Tuskegee University, will serve as the Vice-Chair, accompanied by Drew Zabrocki as membership chair, and Robert Handfield as recording secretary.
Weiss notes that all supply chain stakeholders will benefit from the improvements F49 can provide, through a better understanding of key questions such as “where’s my stuff, what’s its condition, and when will it get there?”
“The current end-to-end transport processes are failing to meet the business needs of the supply chains they are supposed to support, which causes substantial disruptions, congestion and costs for those supply chains,” says Weiss. “A key issue is the current lack of exchange of data that is critical to improve efficiency and even effectiveness of the transport processes. The current exchanges are best characterized by ‘too little, too late.’”
Their efforts relate to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals #17 on sustainable development, #13 on climate action, and #4 on quality education.
F49 is seeking participation from all industry stakeholders. Practitioners in supply chain and logistics as well as researchers with knowledge or experience in the industry and who are willing to voluntarily contribute to the development work are very welcome to join in F49’s work. For more information, please contact staff manager Jennifer Tursi (jtursi@astm.org). To follow F49’s activities, click here to find its LinkedIn group.
Media Inquiries: Gavin O’Reilly, tel +1.610.832.9602; dbergels@astm.org
Committee Contact: Jennifer Tursi, tel +1.610.832.9653; jtursi@astm.org
Release #11740
###