WEB-BASED SHIPPING APP
Case Study
Client
EastWest provides its US-based client’s an end-to-end service that automates the process of ordering and shipping parts and assemblies from offshore manufacturers to the US.
Business Challenge
EastWest developed and perfected a spreadsheet-based prototype to model their vision of simplifying offshore procurement. When products manufactured overseas are purchased, shipping is a significant portion of the cost and shipping partial containers is very expensive. EastWest had a vision that allowed smaller companies the benefit of buying products manufactured overseas and shipping full containers to reduce the overall product cost.
Solution
The application we built allowed a group of buyers to order products online and ship in full containers instead of partial containers. With the browser-based tool, buyers could see the container and its capacity. Once a container was full, it shipped.
The system automatically took into account all the dynamically changing variables that affected the supply chain process and reduced the risk. Ordering of offshore manufactured products became possible for companies that could not previously consider this option.
We analyzed each screen of the Excel model and analyzed each step of the process, comparing the Excel process to the potential benefits that an automated process could bring.
We enhanced the process by adding parameter-driven business rules to the product.
Impact
We built a web-based application that for all intents enabled a direct ship model that removed the middleman from the process. This reduced costs, and enhanced profitability for the manufacturer and the client. The visual “Container Wizard” tool manages the operation of efficiently loading and consolidating shipping containers.
