International ocean transportation comes with the dual challenges of ensuring orders have approved to ship and that they are shipping on time.
This balance involves different factors, including international trade compliance, customer experience, and inventory management.
To understand how these dynamics can play out, let’s examine the case of a rural lifestyle retailer with a complex global supply chain.
This case study helps illustrate the the impact of global supply chain management solutions MercuryGate provides for our users.
The Challenge: Global Supply Chain Complexity
A supply chain like this has a lot of diverse parts to manage effectively. They all need to work smoothly as cogs within a wheel for goods to ship on time. Sourcing and compliance challenges are inherent in managing a global supplier network like this.
Navigating Compliance in a Global Context
Global retailers face complex compliance challenges. For example, in our case study, the retailer has numerous hurdles:
- Expanding the global supplier network.
- Using manual methods for collecting, preparing, and distributing.
- Relying on stale data.
- Facing large quantities of and varying types of compliance requirements.
- Working with a limited staff.
Automation solves many of these challenges. Through automation, you can monitor and collect compliance status for companies. You can keep track of a range of requirements and then manage the data that confirms procedures are followed. With automation technology, you can identify problems and roadblocks that need attention to ensure timely delivery.
Approved to Ship? Validating Compliance Before Departure
When determining which orders are approved to ship, a company like our rural lifestyle retailer has numerous steps and roles working toward compliance, which include:
- Confirming shipment approvals for order releases issued over a previous period.
- Confirming the purchase orders that are pending release for shipment and focusing on resolving issues to ensure they ship on time.
- Confirming an order has a plan to ship on time and pending order release items.
- Determining the number of orders pending release without a satisfied transit test.
Technology tools and solutions empower staff to manage increasing compliance requirements without adding resources. For instance, your staff can:
- Automate compliance status.
- Make shipment approval at the order level.
- Create more visibility into progress.
- Reconcile compliance of purchase orders.
Ensuring Timely Departure in a Global Supply Chain
It’s difficult for global retailers to ensure orders are shipping on time. Some of the following factors affect timely transportation:
- Shrinking lead times.
- Needing advanced notice to improve bookings.
- Executing order collecting, preparing, and distributing manually.
- Expanding the supplier network.
- Facings numerous and diverse compliance requirements.
- Managing activities with limited staff.
Are My Orders Shipping On Time?
Balancing Compliance and Customer Experience
Learn more about shipping compliance in our webinar replay here. Watch it today for a deeper dive into the case study example of our rural lifestyle retailer. You’ll see our international sourcing and compliance solutions in action and find out how they fit your business needs.
