Discover how we built a compliant, quick, and digital flow of documents for our customer by replacing physical exchange of documents with online uploads.
The customer
The customer is one of the world’s largest apparel companies and a leading global jeans brand. They have 500+ stores worldwide, and their products are available in more than 100 countries.
The challenge
In response to the global pandemic, COVID-19, when all countries went under some form of lockdown, Bangladesh too declared the lockdown from the end of March 2020. Previously the customer’s cargo release at destination depended on a physical document flow from our Maersk office in Bangladesh to their end.
However, the physical document flow could have been impacted by restrictions on movement which would have kept suppliers from sending documents to our office for us to sort and courier to customer at destination.
The customer, being the largest distributor of jeans, ships to 16 different countries from Bangladesh which comes with several documents for cargo release. Hence, the lockdown would have potentially disrupted their global supply chain if we had simply depended on physical document flow.
The Maersk solution
As a promise to serve customers during this challenging time, Maersk continued to seek solutions to meet customers’ supply chain needs. As an alternative to the dispatch of physical documents to destinations, we offered soft copies through email as Post Shipment Alert, and uploaded documents on ‘MyMaersk’, the online portal, which is accessible to our customer at any time. This challenged the age-old time-consuming manual procedure of dispatching physical documents.
The result
- Maersk's proactive way of working enabled the customer to have an uninterrupted supply chain during challenging times.
- Sending documents electronically as opposed to couriering six different types of documents to 16 destinations helped our customer save on average USD 12000 of the annual courier cost.
- Reduced manual work from shipper, 3PL & customer resulted in preparing, receiving, sorting, and checking on an average of six different types of physical documents at 16 destinations.
- Reduced the dependency on physical documents to arrive on time for cargo release thereby making the process more efficient and future- proof.
- This solution reduced paper usage and helped customer in their journey towards sustainability.
With a collaborative approach from Maersk Bangladesh, Global and Regional Program Managers from the customer, leveraging on these benefits, we are convincing customers to permanently onboard an e-doc solution. This will not only help you save time and cost, but also eliminate the scope for inefficiencies due to multiple vendors.
Indeed there’s always a silver lining as we emerge from a crisis: It forces people to challenge the status quo and look for better, more efficient ways to operate. Maersk, as always, is doing an excellent job as our strategic partner.
Flexibility to shape your retail supply chain
The integration of ocean and logistics services provides us with a unique advantage - the flexibility to tailor solutions according to your needs for both single products and product bundles. This includes finding different ways of transportation and alternative routes to handle supply chain disruptions if needed.
To determine which option will be the most effective for your business, contact us.
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