SEARCH SITE BY TYPING (ESC TO CLOSE)

Skip to Content

Blog Archives

  • Tag for supply chain
Share
January1420220COMMENTS
Why It’s Important to Hire A Professional Logistics Consultant 2

By

in

The Passage

Why It’s Important to Hire A Professional Logistics Consultant

If you own or run a small or medium-sized enterprise and have difficulty managing containerized freight shipping, it might make sense to look externally for help. A reputable supply chain consulting firm can assist you with all the challenges.

From finding a suitable logistics partner to understanding costs, ensuring compliance, and training staff to become a freight shipping experts, professional consultants can aid and support you.

Along the way, they can help your organization gain the knowledge, skills, and expertise you need to enjoy more success with international trade by successfully navigating the complexities of international container-freight shipping.

Of course, you can always rely on external consultants as a long-term solution providing the cost would not be prohibitive. However, by enlisting help to evaluate your processes and relationships with logistics partners, optimize them and transfer knowledge to your team, that period of paid support should position you to ship international freight more successfully and with greater confidence in the future.

At Precision Global Logistics, we field an expert team of supply chain and logistics consultants, several of whom specialize in helping clients with container shipping.

An initial consultation call with one of those specialists will yield much success for your future logistical needs.

READ MORE
December3120210COMMENTS
Mobile Computing

By

in

The Passage

Mobile Computing – Time to Innovate in 2022

Technological innovations had come a long way since the 1970s when mainstream computing devices were first introduced. Similarly, mobile computing devices came into use in supply chain management during the late 1990s and have continued to evolve into all aspects of supply chain management. 

In the most basic sense, a supply chain consists of a supplier, manufacturer, warehouse, mode of transport, retailer, and final customer sections. Among these sections, there are three main flows; product flows, information flows, and financial flows. Satisfying customer demand largely depends on efficient and quick information exchange between these sections.

Considering the global disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with the growing usage of mobile internet-connected devices, supply chains have become more decentralized, more complex to manage and measure, and more vulnerable to risks of disruptions.

One of the most significant advantages of mobile computing is that it enables a ‘connected supply chain.’ By leveraging structured and unstructured data generated across the supply chain, mobile computing improves the connectivity of the network. This helps companies to connect with their suppliers, vendors, and customers better.

Mobile computing operates on a flexible, usage-based model. With mobile computing, businesses can manage their supply chain successfully, especially in a volatile market. It enables faster planning and execution resulting in reduced time to market, therefore adding value and lowering costs.

To remain competitive, firms must reimagine their business processes, in particular, their supply chains technology.

Amid the various technologies available today, mobile computing is a real game-changer for businesses to innovate. Mobile computing provides both a method of communication and a source of information to employees and business owners, facilitating business tactics, competitive initiatives, and dealing with uncertainty. This makes mobile computing an essential tool in the repertoire of the supply chain professionals of tomorrow.

Are you interested in learning more about transitioning your supply chain operations to mobile technologies? Get in touch with one of our team members today.

READ MORE
November2720210COMMENTS
How Data Can Speed Container Delivery

By

in

The Passage

How Data Can Speed Container Delivery

The Federal Maritime Commission is trying to pinpoint how data can help speed the flow of containers through the supply chain.

The multi-phased effort is proposing “recommendations for common data standards used by the international shipping supply chain, as well as access policies and protocols that would streamline information sharing across the ocean supply chain,” according to the FMC.

Initial findings are expected to be presented at a maritime data summit next spring.

“Events of the past year have proven the need for the United States to achieve more capacity from our cargo delivery system,” said FMC Chairman Dan Maffei. “Information sharing and additional transparency in how containers move is one way we can move more containers more efficiently.”

The initiative marks the latest effort by the FMC to address supply chain efficiency and congestion.

Given the immense national economic impact and our nation’s reliance on ocean shipping, sustained surges in cargo volumes, and other operational impacts caused by COVID-19, it is clear that there is a need to develop a stronger system of information for the shipping industry.

The agency will work with the transportation industry to boost transparency around international freight systems. US port gateway corridors are limited by physical constraints, and the best options for efficiencies lie with the greater utilization of information technologies and coordination between the different modes in the supply chain.

(Ref. American Shipper November 15, 2021)

READ MORE
November1920210COMMENTS
Congestion

By

in

The Passage

Congestion

Nearly all container shipping trades are hit by congestion.

Of all the trade lanes covered, most trades showed a significant increase in delays in September this year compared to a baseline of 2016 – 2019, indicating that the congestion problems leading to delays are indeed prevalent globally and not isolated to just a few significant vital trades.

In an update on its Fiscal Year 2021 Q2 initiatives, companies continued to see bottleneck constraints as a result of land-side labor shortages and high consumer and industrial demand for products.

Hundreds of ships waiting around the world at anchor is the “effect” (and not the “cause”) of such inland logistics bottlenecks backing up into the port infrastructure. The land-side supply chain challenges appear to be somewhat universal, but North America and Europe seem to be the most significantly impacted.

The industry saw an improvement in the first half of 2021 over the same period in 2020. It could have carried more cargo had it not been forced to pause Asia sailings due to heavily delayed vessels returning from elsewhere. As things stand in Q3 and Q4 2021, we see no major improvement in the current situation so far.

Shipping backups at big U.S. ports are not likely to resolve themselves until well into 2022, according to economists. Though, the problems should lessen after the holidays and Lunar New Year as container traffic backs off.

Companies have been left to find ways to keep their products moving amid the supply chain disruptions. Some of these solutions include services like the ones we at Precision Global Logistics offer.

Shipping a container through major U.S. ports now takes triple the time it usually does. President Joe Biden tried to fix the problem by ordering ports to stay open 24 hours, but it has only helped at the margins. Ongoing labor shortages and a lack of coordination among the multiple players in the U.S. supply chain blunt the effect of the move.

READ MORE