The article surrounds on the quest by Grayling Industries to find software to enable them to view their inventory located on alternate sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. The paper is an analysis of achievement of this goal and consequently knew what stock was available, and its location. All companies want and desire to have inventory visibility, most of which the software developers promise it but in reality, very few companies possess such. A majority of enterprises are characterized by having numerous numbers of suppliers, have business across borders and lack financial backup for the software implementation that is time-consuming yet collaborates supply chain parties. Grayling Industries were no exception of the three given company traits.
Grayling Industries have its headquarters in Alpharetta, Ga with an estimated $20 million annual business from custom orders. The warehouse's locations are Atlanta, Netherlands, Toronto and Nijmegen and an assembling ISO-certified maquiladora located in Juarez, Mexico. Its primary supply sources are Asia, Europe with some 15% from Mexico and the remainder from U.S that also forms 80% of its consumer market. The back and forth movement of inventory across the borders created gaps in stock data.
Before the new system, the real-time inventory data was unknown for incoming supplies. The data was keyed in once a day in the evening of all shipments at the customs. The shipments that came within the night were known the following evening as the data held was based as at five p.m. on a given day. The consequence of this was a failure to identify required and vital stock for production already at the docks. As a result, key production lines collapsed and were closed losing regular client orders as well as a backlog of the production warrants. Also, the information related to placed orders as well as the supply arrivals at the port delayed in arrival. Vital time got lost when reconciling and feeding the given data into the system.
A solution to data and time loss got assigned to the director of finance and operations, Carlos Rubio. The manager needed to implement software that could integrate the supplier information on required stock to replenish provision of real-time updates to Graylings and its supply chain partners plus integrate into the shipper's ERP system. The primary challenge faced in the selection of software was financial constraints in purchasing a long, expensive implementation. Shipper’s as well as most of the suppliers that were a small family owned businesses couldn’t afford, install and use them.
The Inventory and Warehouse Management System at a monthly cost of $500 by the Smart Turn met all criteria’s needed by Grayling. The software is allowed unlimited users as well as facilitated upgrades at source plus free updates eliminating long and expensive installation, customization or modifying the existing system. The inbound and outbound shipments required a shift from the customs broker to a 3PL and “Prologistics” was chosen as they handled part of Grayling’s shipments.
The only condition set for Prologistics was that they shift from the paper documentations and adopt the WMS supplied by SmartTurns. The process of configuration and deployment into both Prologistics and Graylings took few weeks. Additionally, two of Graylings major suppliers got absorbed into the process free of charge rather than the training hours. In conclusion, the suppliers can key in into the system to see the orders and depleting stock and start production. Alternatively, Prologistics keys in data of arrivals as soon as it arrives. Grayling gets aware of the stock making arrangements for customs paperwork. The 3PL updates inventory as soon as the trailers leave the warehouse thus maquiladora and Grayling's HQ are aware of en route items. Real-time information of the items quantity and location within the pipeline has enhanced better services and cost saving for the shipper, supplier, and 3PL alike.
Works Cited
Gooley, T. (2008, December 1). Little Cost, Big Benefits. Retrieved August 27, 2016, from DC VELOCITY: http://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/20081201specialreport/
