Reimagining Supply Chain Data Sharing for Enhanced Coordination and Resilience

Transport and logistics have long depended on seamless coordination among a complex web of actors, including shippers, freight forwarders, carriers, terminal operators, port authorities, customs officials, warehouse operators, and various delivery providers. Traditionally, each participant managed their role in isolation, sharing information primarily through bilateral channels only when necessary. This method, albeit effective for decades, increasingly reveals its limitations in today's volatile world, where disruptions have become commonplace.

The need for a fundamental reimagining of how supply chain data is organized and shared is evident. The solution lies not just in technological upgrades but in creating a collaborative data-sharing regime. This framework would provide shared visibility and situational awareness across the entire ecosystem, empowering actors to convert raw data into strategic insight and thus enhancing coordination, resilience, and performance.

One initiative pursuing this approach is the Virtual Watch Tower (VWT), a multi-stakeholder community co-creating a digital, federated architecture and solution as a public good aimed at improving disruption and carbon footprint management.

The Inherent Limits of Traditional Data Sharing

In traditional supply chain models, data exchanges are typically direct and narrowly focused, confined to transactions between two actors. This approach results in three critical shortcomings: fragmentation, inefficiency, and latency. Each participant sees only a sliver of the entire operation, leading to isolated snapshots rather than a cohesive panorama. Data redundancy across numerous bilateral links leads to duplication and discrepancies. In the face of disruptions, such as natural disasters or geopolitical shocks, actors struggle to access timely and comprehensive data, hampering coordinated responses.

Embracing a Collaborative Data Sharing Regime

A transformative alternative is the Collaborative Decision-Making (CDM) approach. Here, instead of separate updates, data enters a shared, trusted pool accessible to all authorized participants. This shift enables real-time shared visibility, fostering unified situational awareness and scalability. It also enhances resilience through early detection and coordinated response to disruptions while maintaining trust and sovereignty, allowing each actor to control their data within an interoperable framework.

A Four-Layer Framework to Bring Order and Insight

Central to this new regime is a systematic model that organizes fragmented information into three interlocking layers, wrapped within a fourth evolutionary layer for secure and trusted ecosystem-wide data sharing. Each layer enriches data with context and purpose, turning raw signals into orchestrated decisions. The framework relies on establishing common semantics at each layer, ensuring coherent and interpretable data across the supply chain.

"The collaborative four-layer model achieves this by: Aligning plans: sharing intentions. Anchoring progress: documenting reality. Extracting meaning: illuminating insight. Enabling trust: facilitating secure, sovereign data sharing across the ecosystem."

How the Layers Synchronize: From Fragmentation to Elegance

Imagine a container moving from a factory in Asia to a warehouse in Europe. The planning layer captures the intended shipping schedule. As the shipment proceeds, the progress layer records the container’s loading onto a vessel and subsequent real-world events. The analysis layer continuously compares the shipping plan against actual progress, predicting delays and recalculating arrival times. Throughout this cycle, the data-sharing ecosystem secures and governs the data flow, ensuring authorized actors access timely and accurate information.

Trust Reinforced by Data Sovereignty

Data sovereignty concerns have long stifled sharing. This regime addresses such concerns by preserving sovereignty, allowing each actor to define what to share, with whom, and under which conditions. Trust flourishes when fairness and transparency underpin data governance, supported by distributed platforms like federated systems and blockchain.

Why Action Is More Urgent Than Ever

Today's supply chains generate unprecedented data volumes. However, without structure, this mass manifests merely as noise. Global volatility demands swift, coordinated reactions. The solution is not more data but smarter, better-organized data. The four-layer framework provides a roadmap, turning disjointed signals into shared understanding and transforming data chaos into resilient coordination.

Aligning Incentives for Sustainable Data Sharing

For this model to succeed, incentives must align across participants. The logical starting point is the shipper, whose inputs anchor the shared structure. Operators, terminals, and carriers contribute data as part of service fulfillment, creating mutual value. Over time, structured data-sharing will evolve from a competitive advantage to an industry imperative.

Conclusion: From Data Fragmentation to Meaningful Coordination

The logistics sector has historically amassed an abundance of data but suffered from a lack of shared understanding. Traditional fragmented approaches yield isolated signals that obscure the bigger picture. A fundamentally new way to structure, interpret, and act on existing data is required to transcend fragmented data and achieve meaningful coordination. The message is clear: collaboration is not optional; it is essential. By moving data towards a public good, initiatives like VWT translate data-sharing into solutions that benefit all.

This article is based on a piece originally published on Maritime Executive and was written by Mikael Lind, Wolfgang Lehmacher, Sandra Haraldson, Ernst Hoestra, Boris Kriuk, Richard van der Meulen, and Mark Scheerlinck. Find the original article here: https://maritime-executive.com/editorials/towards-a-new-data-sharing-regime-structuring-supply-chain-data