A core aspect of a supply chain is the transportation of parts or completed product from one location to another. As a leading location platform, HERE Technologies is committed to providing routing intelligence to improve the overall efficiency of a supply chain.

Supply chains can be very complex. In this post, we want to introduce a simple scenario that centers around the “last mile” – a term that typically refers to the journey of a deliverable on it’s final leg of the journey.

Last Mile Scenario

To help developers understand the technologies and services that can enable location intelligence in supply chains, we have created a simple scenario to showcase methods of implementation. It all centers around a company that offers delivery of goods ultimately to the consumer’s address. Here is a list of the roles that will be involved:

• Retailer – Provider of product
• Distribution Center – Where product is located
• Consumer – The one who orders product and is last destination of supply chain
• Delivery Company – Company that delivers products from many retailers
• Delivery Operator – An individual delivery operator/vehicle of the delivery company

The interaction of the above roles form the basis of our “last mile” scenario. When a consumer orders a product from the retailer, the retailer engages with the delivery company to have the product shipped to the consumer. The retailer provides the delivery company the address of where to pick up the product (the distribution center) and the address of the consumer. The delivery company determines the most efficient option among available delivery operators and commissions transport to pick up product and deliver to consumer.

Location Services by HERE

The scenario will be implemented in a series of apps – all which will be web based. For apps that use interactive maps, we will use Maps API for JavaScript 3.1 .  To enable location intelligence, we will incorporate RESTful APIs delivered via serverless architecture (see below)

Developer Resources by AWS

The AWS Serverless Application Repository  houses many of HERE Technologies’ core location service APIs – such as routing, map images, and isolines. AWS IoT will be used to provide MQTT communications among the various roles implemented in the supply chain.  

AWS Connections – Supply Chain series

We are excited to announce we are providing a series of episodes that will walk through each aspect of the scenario! You can join us at http://twitch.tv/heredev to watch live episodes or stay tuned to this blog for a detailed blog on each episode. The first episode is available to watch below!