Technology and Medical Customers

High-tech and electronics manufacturers, distributors and suppliers compete in a uniquely dynamic and fast-paced environment. Products quickly become obsolete, making today’s breakthrough tomorrow’s overhead. Market consolidation, complex supply chains and trends towards outsourcing add a further strain to existing business processes.

The high-tech industry’s “speed-to-market” requirements call for manufactures’ supply chains and finished product delivery cycles to be highly flexible and responsive. Connecting supplier to supplier around the globe, these supply chains require managing cross-border transactions on every shipment from spare parts to finished goods. High-tech companies demand efficient and integrated supply chain processes to create operating excellence and boost top-line revenue.

Challenge

A key challenge facing the high-tech industry is the automation of the global import-export compliance process. Manufacturers and distributors must comply with strict security and trade regulations in various international countries. Lack of compliance can result in severe liabilities, including fines and penalties as well as the delay and seizure of goods, for all parties involved. Furthermore, contractual performance standards can require that forwarders, brokers, suppliers and carriers incur costly penalties if delays occur. In addition, the short lifecycle of products requires that on-hand inventory of components, work-in-process (WIP) and finished products be minimized.

As supply, demand, and regulatory conditions change, corporations need a technology infrastructure that is highly flexible and can be quickly deployed to meet new challenges. The technology must be open and collaborative to include all internal divisions and external participants in the trading network including vendors, transportation providers, customs brokers, and financial institutions. The solution must also support any-to-any global logistics and customs processes to support ever-changing global business scenarios.

Solution

TradeBeam solutions avoid penalties and delays by providing the high-tech industry the ability to:

Screen business partners against government denied-party lists
Determine required licenses for import and export transactions
Manage export licenses by decreasing quantities and establishing thresholds for license renewal
Identify and generate mandatory shipping documentation
Optimize sourcing decisions by determining landed costs for multiple geographies and determining FTA eligibility (NAFTA, United States–Singapore FTA, etc.)
Check compliance on orders of non-physical shipments like software downloads and e-commerce
Streamline and maintain product classification
Optimize sourcing decisions and automatically generate landed cost calculations
Maintain a complete audit trail of import and export transactions
Maintain visibility into the physical movement of product to the SKU level
Provide visibility to suppliers to enable them to implement automated replenishment techniques to reduce on-hand inventory of components, WIP and finished goods

In addition, TradeBeam Global Trade Management tools reduce the pressures associated with the new and proposed filing regulations within the Container Security Initiative (CSI), Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) and Importers Self Assessment (ISA) designations. TradeBeam solutions also provide better visibility of sourcing options and simplify collaboration efforts across your enterprise.

Medical

The medical equipment industry and its supply and distribution chains face increasing pressure to lower costs, control working capital more effectively, and gain market share in new and existing markets. Growth alone cannot provide the financial results that Wall Street now requires from the leading companies in this sector. Rapidly deployable solutions bringing near-term working capital reductions and internal supply chain excellence are being found with the TradeBeam solution suite.

Challenge

Historically, medical device and equipment manufacturers and their suppliers have relied on a push inventory model from a largely domestic supply base that resulted in excess inventory levels and costs. Pressure to reduce costs throughout the supply chain has led leading medical equipment companies and their suppliers to move to a lean, collaborative inventory replenishment model that supports both domestic and international transportation modes. Efficient, lean inventory replenishment models can mean millions of dollars in savings for buyer and supplier and have been shown to consistently generate 20 to 30% inventory reductions in the first six months of deployment. Effective use of international sourcing and supply chain management can mean even greater savings. This includes using trade compliance, customs clearance, foreign trade zone and preferential trade agreement programs as a strategic advantage in international sourcing, manufacturing and sales strategies.

As supply, demand, and regulatory conditions change, corporations need a technology infrastructure that is highly flexible and can be quickly deployed to meet new challenges. The technology must be open and collaborative to include all internal divisions and external participants in the trading network including Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers, transportation providers, customs brokers, and financial institutions. The solution must also support any-to-any global logistics and customs processes to support ever-changing global business scenarios.

Solution

TradeBeam solutions enable the medical industry to:

Deploy a Web-based, collaborative, lean inventory management solution
Utililize multiple inventory management models in a single system (pull, Kanban, Discrete Order, etc.)
Manage, utilize and qualify for preferential trade agreement programs
Track multimodal shipments and measure logistics performance against event plan standards
Automatically generate documentation for domestic and international shipments
Comply with new customs mandates for global import and export shipments

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