Product Development · Logistics
The spreadsheet wasn’t the problem. Everything around it was.
Give dispatch and operations a shared workflow for managing shipment exceptions, ownership, and customer communication.
Discuss a similar challenge01 / The challenge
Where the work began.
A logistics operator managed shipment exceptions through spreadsheets, email and phone calls. A delayed pickup appeared in one system, a revised appointment in another, and a customer update in someone’s inbox.
Reconstructing the current situation often took longer than recording the original problem. Dispatchers needed a clear view of who owned an exception, which conversations had taken place and what needed to happen next.
02 / The approach
What we did.
An RFA product lead, workflow designer and full stack engineer worked with dispatch and operations to define a focused product for exception management. The first release centered on a shared exception record linked to a shipment reference.
Each record brought together the exception type, operational status, owner, next action, timestamps and communication history. The workflow distinguished an acknowledged issue from one awaiting carrier confirmation or customer input.
The integration design covered updates from a transportation management system through an API or webhook where access was available. It specified external event identifiers and duplicate checks, with separate timestamps for when an event occurred and when the update arrived.
Permissions based on role controlled edits, and an audit trail preserved changes to ownership and status. The test scope covered incomplete shipment references, duplicate events, reopened incidents and reassignment between shifts.
03 / The scope
What the work covered.
- Shared exception record and workflow
- Conditional transportation system integration
- Permissions and audit trail
- Operational test and measurement plan
04 / The outcome
What the work established
The work established a defined exception record, distinct waiting states and a shared history of ownership and communication. The scope also covered integration safeguards and the operational situations the product needed to handle.
The evaluation plan specified time to assign an owner, exception aging, resolution time and the effort needed to reconstruct an incident.
The difficult part wasn’t recording a shipment problem. It was figuring out who had called the customer and what needed to happen next.