Initially, their imported cargo arrived from Asia to two main destinations - Costa Rica and Guatemala. From there the cargo would then be distributed to other countries in Central America. While this plan was suitable for those two countries, re-exporting to other countries was cost-prohibitive.
The Challenge
The need of the hour was to optimise their supply chain with a solution that helped reduce their export costs, and at the same time make it flexible enough to match the supply & demand across all the stores.
Cross-docking strategy
A multi-destination container was used, where the cargos were sorted and directly delivered to their intended countries
After months of data gathering and analysis, and extended discussions, the decision was to use a cross-docking strategy through a tax-free warehouse in Panama. From Panama, a multi-destination container was used, where the cargos were sorted and directly delivered to their intended countries.
A dedicated development team was created to implement various solutions that aligned with the customer’s best practices. In the first year of implementation, we ensured continuous improvements to find the right balance. The solutions include:
- Consolidated reporting using the visibility tool my Maersk
- Dedicated development teams around the DC solution
- Key Performance Indicators (KPI)
- Detailed standard operations procedures (SOP) from origin to the final destination
- Cargo tracking using the visibility tool myMaersk
Reduces lead time and cost of re-export
Although this was a major structural change in Maersk's customer’s supply chain, they recognised the possibilities in the solution. After several months of operations, the materialised benefits from the customer’s perspective were:
- A major decrease in the cost of re-export
- The lead time was reduced by 8 days
- Better container utilisation especially for Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador
- Increase in single country containers arriving in Costa Rica and Guatemala
