Predict & Optimize Container Needs for Inbound Shipping
- Leading branded fashion accessories, footwear, and apparel company
- Designs, develops, markets and sells array of owned & licensed brands
- Focuses on expanding category penetration and global reach
The Problem
- Centric's products are manufactured in factories in Asia
- Shipping capacity from Asian ports to USA is often in short supply
- Late requests often result in non-availability of container space
- This delays dispatch from factory/port
- This in turn leads to delayed availability of goods at the place of demand and often results in lost sales
- Even when container space is available, last minute booking is prohibitively expensive
Container Projection solution has been valuable to us for several reasons. It helps optimize use of container capacities by reducing Less than Container Load (LCL) shipments. Visibility into ex-factory and production delays results in better fulfillment planning; and past container usage helps us negotiate better future shipping contracts.
-Manager, Business Analysis Group
The Solution & Impact
- OpsVeda helps project weekly container requirements for each trade lane over 2 rolling quarters
- Open PO quantities, ex-factory date from the manufacturer, past on-time vendor performance and load space requirements are used to predict the requirements
- Consolidations at the level of manufacturing vendor or forwarding agent is also considered
- The logistics manager gets to see the latest projected container space requirements as well as the changes to the estimates from week to week
- This allows for continuous review and update to inbound plans
Improved Productivity. Improved Stock Availability. Reduced Freight Costs.
Solution
- Container Projection
Objective
- Improve Capacity Utilization
- Improve Inbound Visibility
- Negotiate better shipping contracts
Relevance
- Fashion, Retail
- CPG, Food & Beverage
- Hi-Tech Industries