Poor strategic fit with your logistics provider is a recipe for disaster. As much as they want to, your logistics partner sometimes just doesn’t have the right services, expertise and contracts in place to meet your needs. If your origin ports, modes and destinations don’t align with their coverage, they can’t provide an optimal service. In other words, they just can’t do what you keep asking them to do. It’s simply a bad match between your business goals and the operational competencies of your logistics partner.
How will I know the right match when I see it?
Medium-sized businesses with Australian-based decision-making often find the best strategic fit with a medium-sized, Australian based forwarder who understands local and regional conditions and can advise on creative solutions to their shipping and logistics needs.
Successful logistics leaders understand the true value of a common goal that drives supply chain transformation and overall business success. Moreover, they understand how to align their partners with their business objectives.
A compatible partner can collaborate with you to unlock real benefits.
Air Freight
Competing in fast-moving environments can be challenging to those who don’t have a supply chain that supports speed to market. Air Freight done well is fast, consistent and reliable. So much so, businesses should be able to depend on forwarders meeting fast turnaround delivery commitments, so they can confidently plan their operations.
Sea freight Consolidations
Many Australian businesses manage vast networks of international suppliers so they can offer a broad product range to their customers. This brings its own headaches as they try to manage the multitude of shipments needed to get those products from the factories into their customers’ hands. Through the use of consolidations, you can get the benefits of full container load shipping and maintain the flexibility to ship when you need to.
Visibility and Control
Access to timely and relevant information about shipments is critical to your supply chain. Too often there is frustration over the gap in the visibility you need vs what you’re getting. Up-to-the-minute access to shipment milestones, arrival dates, in-store required dates, container availabilities, and other important consignment information, puts you in the driver’s seat when it comes to control over your supply chain.
Australian Trusted Trader
By providing preferential treatment to businesses who meet supply chain security and trade standards ATT incentivises quality systems and compliance. Businesses accredited under the program receive a considerable array of tangible financial and time-saving benefits including reduced supply chain costs, improved lead times, and reduced audits, as well as more predictable customs processes and outcomes.
Risk Audits
One of the many challenges importers face is the frequency with which customs regulations change. The complexities of national and international legislation are hard to navigate. Moreover, a lack of time or expertise may result in unnecessary overpayment of customs duty or excise, or costly delays in clearing goods. By identifying and understanding your areas of risk and developing an improved compliance framework your business can save on customs duty and other taxes.
3PL
Last but not least, introducing a new supplier or retailer into your supply chain is as time-consuming and expensive as it is vital to your growth. Constantly being pulled away to troubleshoot a delivery or warehouse problem when you’re trying to focus on building your business is a huge frustration for many. And putting a true cost on these functions can feel almost impossible. And so, by outsourcing your logistics function either at origin or locally you free up your working capital, better control your cash flow and forecasting, and get your time back to focus on sales and the strategic direction of your business.
Are you being heard?
Take our online logistics stress test to see how the service you receive measures up. Having a good strategic fit with your logistics partner actually takes the stress out of your supply chain.
Magellan collaborates with our clients and partners get the best value out of their supply chains through our Value Chain Analysis process. If you want to discuss how this might work for you, get in touch with us on 1300 651 888 or via bernadette@maglog.com.au
Links: https://www.magellanlogistics.com.au/collaboration-do-you-feel-important/
