Posts tagged ‘Trade Planner’

Supply Chain Management for Retailers

February 23, 2011, 5:48 pm

The retail industry is challenged with fluctuating customer demand, ever-changing styles and seasonality, and the need to boost top-line growth through store expansion. A streamlined and efficiently run supply chain is a crucial piece of the puzzle when it comes to keeping overall costs down. As pointed out in World Trade Magazine’s article, Timely Ocean Transit for Retailers, inconsistent transit times can drive up total supply chain costs.

[Supply chain inconsistencies can force retailers to] either retain higher safety stock levels, which increases their inventory carrying costs; resort to airfreight to recover from delays, which balloons transportation costs; or use a combination of the two.

While the article references careful carrier selection as a way to ensure timely deliveries, there are GTM solutions out there that can help retailers with all aspects of supply chain and transportation management. By automating the following elements of the global supply supply chain operations, retailers will be able to reduce cash-cash cycles and lower total delivered costs.

Trade Planning
Develop optimal sourcing and distribution strategies by assessing the total landed cost of alternative decisions including product invoice, transportation, duties, VAT, excise as well as evaluating applicable import and export regulatory controls. With a complete picture of cost and risk, shared decisions can be made across sourcing, compliance and logistics functions.

Import Automation
Establish a global import compliance function that integrates all procurement activities. Manage product classification and admissibility reviews to ensure compliant purchase orders are issued. Streamline the entry process to reduce brokerage costs and reconcile entries to resolve issues before they become a costly Customs audit.

Supplier PO Management
Deliver compliant purchase orders to suppliers in a portal that confirms orders, creates invoices, and manages a buyer workflow to build shipments and generate key documents like the commercial invoice and packing list. Efficiently manage supplier compliance and integrate with origin logistics partners.

Origin Management
Manage origin logistics with a portal that coordinates full container load shipments from a supplier and less than container or air shipments. Use a collaborative workflow process to confirm and book shipments as well as collect bill of lading details to facilitate inbound visibility. Enhance compliance with new advanced notification regulations like Customs 10+2 by collecting relevant information at origin.

Global Freight Management
Negotiate seafreight and airfreight rates and implement a process for logistics providers and suppliers to book against your favorable rates. Use sophisticated rating tools to optimize carrier selection, pre-rate the booking and automate freight audit.

Supply Chain Visibility
Monitor global orders, shipments and in-transit inventory with a complete event management solution. Use milestone alerting to proactively resolve delivery issues and to trigger supply execution activities such as pickups or warehouse receipts. Use in-transit inventory information to enable postponement strategies and new, direct-to-store delivery strategies. Aggregate all operational data to establish scorecards and manage trade parties with a comprehensive set of key performance indicators.

For more information on the benefits automation can bring retailers, I recommend this new eBook: Direct Import Strategies for Retailers.

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Category: Global Trade Management, Supplier Portals, Supply Chain Visibility  |  Comment

Management Dynamics Releases New Version of Trade Planning Tool to Improve Design of Global Supply Chain

August 10, 2010, 7:15 am

Trade Planner 3.0 scenario-based planning solution optimizes sourcing and distribution decisions based on total landed costs and trade regulation risk

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ, August 10, 2010 — Management Dynamics, a leading provider of Global Trade Management solutions, today announced the release of Trade Planner 3.0, a scenario-based planning tool that helps supply chain teams quickly and accurately evaluate alternative sourcing and distribution strategies to optimize total landed cost while assessing the impact of trade regulations.

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, companies import nearly $2 trillion worth of products annually from over 150 countries, a number that is expected to triple by 2015. With the increasing pressure to cut costs, accommodate new trade regulations, and take advantage of new preferential trade agreements, businesses need planning tools to improve the design of their global supply chains.

“Companies today are moving beyond sourcing decisions based on the lowest product invoice and are evaluating multiple dimensions including transportation costs, duties and taxes, regulatory compliance, and other country risk factors,” said Janet Suleski, Research Director, Gartner. “Scenario-based planning solutions provide key players across sourcing, logistics and compliance with the ability to make faster, more accurate sourcing and distribution decisions.”

With Management Dynamics’ Trade Planner solution, users can quickly and easily compare the costs of sourcing and distributing one or multiple products from multiple locations to identify the optimal decision. Trade Planner allows users to import product descriptions, classify products and store classifications by country in a product repository. Trade Planner is fully integrated with Management Dynamics’ Global Trade Content and supports classification by the Harmonized Schedules and Export Control Numbers for over 122 countries, and identifies all applicable embargoes, prohibitions, license requirements, and other product specific barriers to importing and exporting.

“Businesses are increasingly global in scope and need new planning tools to continually monitor total landed cost, model the cost reduction opportunities of shifting a supply base, evaluate new preferential trade agreements and assess the impact of new trade regulations,” said Nathan Pieri, SVP Marketing & Product Management, Management Dynamics, Inc. “Today, some of the world’s largest companies in retail, food service, electronics, and apparel, are utilizing Trade Planner 3.0 across the enterprise to collaborate and make better sourcing and distribution strategies by considering both cost and associated risks.”

Trade Planner 3.0 is an on-demand application that can be quickly and cost-effectively deployed – typically in a few days.

For Additional information:
Make better-informed sourcing and distribution decisions. Maintain import and export compliance with on-demand access to the most comprehensive source of global trade content in the industry. Learn more at ManagementDynamics.com/TradePlanner.

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Category: Global Trade Management  |  Comment