Clariant

Clariant, a Switzerland-based global specialty chemicals company, manages ocean shipments across business units worldwide — a logistics operation where delays and disruptions carry significant downstream consequences for industrial customers. Without real-time visibility, Clariant's logistics teams relied on manual tracking spread across multiple disconnected systems, forcing a reactive posture: teams could only respond to problems after they occurred rather than anticipating them. This fragmented approach created overhead costs, consumed staff time on low-value tracking tasks, and left internal stakeholders and customers without consistent, timely shipment data — eroding service quality and limiting Clariant's ability to differentiate on logistics reliability.

Clariant selected FourKites' supply chain visibility platform to consolidate ocean shipment tracking into a single, centralized interface accessible by all internal stakeholders across every business unit and by external customers. The platform applies machine learning and predictive analytics to generate dynamic, highly accurate estimated times of arrival (ETAs) that update continuously throughout transit — rather than relying on static carrier-reported milestones. FourKites integrates carrier data streams and freight event signals to produce automated critical alerts when disruptions are detected, enabling proactive intervention. The deployment was scoped globally from the outset, with the goal of tracking all of Clariant's ocean shipments through one connected system. OTIF metrics and carrier performance analytics were embedded into the platform to support ongoing operational measurement.

Within six weeks of go-live, Clariant reached its highest-ever tracking percentage for international ocean shipments — a record achieved faster than the company had previously managed with manual methods. Key outcomes included:

• Eliminated multiple legacy tracking systems, replacing fragmented tools with a single platform used across all business units
• Reduced manual tracking overhead, freeing logistics staff to focus on exception management rather than data gathering
• Improved customer experience through automated, real-time shipment updates delivered directly to Clariant's customers via the same platform
• Established OTIF and carrier performance baselines to drive continuous improvement across global logistics operations

• Six weeks is a realistic deployment horizon for ocean visibility platforms when implementation scope is well-defined — rapid time-to-value is achievable without a multi-year rollout.
• Platform-wide adoption matters: extending visibility access to both internal teams and external customers amplifies the business case beyond internal efficiency gains.
• Predictive ETAs require ML accuracy to generate trust — the willingness of stakeholders to act on automated alerts depends on the reliability of the underlying model.
• OTIF and carrier performance KPIs should be instrumented from day one, not treated as a phase-two addition, to enable immediate benchmarking and accountability.