For a business, inventory locks up substantial capital whether as raw materials or finished goods. Many times, the amount of capital locked in inventory is so substantial that managing inventory flow efficiently becomes highly critical to the survival of the business. This makes defining, documenting and aligning inventory policies throughout the entire supply chain crucial. Yet, adopting general inventory policies or defining them without analysing business requirements is very risky for a business and can produce results such as dead stock or frequent stock outs, high storage cost, puzzling accessibility, complicated warehouse processes, and increased TAT. Results such as these accumulate and have a negative impact on the business. In short, inventory policies are effective and beneficial for any business only when they are fulfilling business requirements. Successful business owners in Australia understand that experienced and established 3PL providers can assist them to analyse their supply chain requirements, and that they have the required knowledge to assist them define inventory policies and align them to their business needs.

Read on to learn more on inventory policies and how the experience and knowledge of 3PL providers can assist you in aligning your inventory policies to your business needs.

By far, air freight is the fastest mode of transportation to and from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. Air freight remains the choice of Freight Forwarding and Logistics Managers if products need to be delivered fast or if products are of high value. Certain factors such as limited space, safety rules, crude oil prices, local Government specific regulations, stuffing rules and restrictions create uncertain situations and fluctuations in the air freight market. For supply chain sustainability, it is important for businesses to be proactive and prepared to deal with this uncertainty. Leading Freight Forwarding and Logistics Managers in Australia understand that unpreparedness can lead to a high landed cost, detention, delay in delivery and reduced customer satisfaction. You can mitigated these risks by outsourcing air freight operations to professional air freight forwarding service providers in Australia. Air freight service providers in Australia plan in advance for fluctuations and assist you to meet your delivery timelines.

Read on to learn how professional air freight forwarding providers can assist your business be prepared for fluctuations in the air freight market.

Logistics is a highly operations centric business with a series of interconnected and well-defined activities. Driving operational excellence throughout the logistics chain remains one of the key drivers of success and this can only be achieved through the deployment of best practices. Logistics Managers face many challenges including process management, SKU (stock keeping unit) proliferation, on time delivery, workforce management, interaction among various sub-functions, which need to be overcome to ensure faster throughput, and customer satisfaction. All of these challenges need to be solved while keeping costs low.

To overcome these challenges, one needs careful planning and deployment of best practices. These best practices do not come into existence overnight; instead, they are formed through years of experience and expertise. Melbourne 3PL providers have been carefully forming these best practices through years of serving customers and can readily deploy them with minor customisations for any business. Further, Melbourne 3PLs continuously improve these best practices for the benefit of customers and assist customers in driving best-in-class operational performance.

Read on to learn how service providers of 3PL Melbourne deploy best practices in some critical areas of logistics to deliver operational excellence.

A well-designed and managed warehouse is the key to perfect order fulfilment. Multiple processes are performed such as receiving, storage, value added services, cross docking, just in time inventory and freight forwarding. As supply chains have evolved, the face and purpose of a warehouse has also evolved and become more complicated and challenging. When building and managing a warehouse in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide or Melbourne, businesses face questions related to the ideal infrastructure, a suitable storage system, efficient material handling equipment, well defined IT-infrastructure, standardised processes and optimised inventory levels. Comprehensive answers of these questions can make your warehousing operation optimal, which leads to better order fulfilment and a higher customer satisfaction level.

Many established and experienced Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Sydney 3PL service providers have warehousing networks to fulfil your warehousing needs irrespective of product and operation type. Whether your products need racking, surface storage, pallets or value added services, warehouses managed by experienced 3PL Sydney providers are the perfect storage and distribution destination for your products. Their team is always ready to provide solutions to your warehousing challenges.

Read on to learn how solutions provided by Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Sydney 3PL companies can fulfil your warehousing needs.

As a freight forwarder that has been serving customers for more than 120 years, BCR has experienced many different markets with regards to import sea freight to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Fremantle (Perth). As a busy Logistics or Freight Forwarding Manger, it can be challenging to stay informed on the current state of the import market. It is important to stay informed as this will assist you to plan short term shipments and plan your long term freight forwarding strategy. To assist, each month we provide you with up to date information on the import sea freight market to Australia so you can quickly stay informed.

Read on to learn more on the import sea freight market conditions to Australia for major lanes including North East Asia, South East Asia, the United States and Europe. In addition, this issue has a feature about the implementation of the SOLAS amendments which are effective from 1 July 2016. This new SOLAS regulation is mandatory and will impact all shippers.

In today’s competitive environment, increasing supply chain stability and sustainability are towards the top of the agenda for many Supply Chain and Logistics Managers. Fluctuations in demand and supply, uncertain delivery deadlines, cost competitiveness and customer expectations are major factors that challenge the stability of any supply chain. Supply chain stabilisation requires consistent performance, a futuristic approach, supply chain visibility, management of bottlenecks and technological support. All these can be very challenging for a business to manage along with its core business. This makes it essential for businesses to align with a well-established third party logistics (3PL) provider that comes with an organised structure and years of experience. Well-organised third party providers in Australia can streamline your processes, manage uncertainty of logistics capacities, plan for long-term stability and improve your level of customer satisfaction, thus assisting in creating a competitive advantage for your business.

Read onto to learn 5 areas a third party logistics (3PL) provider can assist with to stabilise your supply chain operation.

In today’s business world, logistics operations have moved from being about the simple loading/unloading of boxes to dealing with crises, challenges and understanding technology. Inefficient business processes and a lack of operational visibility can have a major impact on logistics operations, both globally and locally. In addition, rising overhead costs, unpredictable capacities, increasing liabilities, security risks, and employees’ compliances issues exacerbate operational challenges. Businesses need to keep an eye on these challenges at all times and be prepared with plans to either mitigate or absorb them. To do this successfully requires a significant investment in logistics infrastructure, technology and processes. A 3PL provider, on other hand, manages these operational challenges on a daily basis and is ready and available to provide scalable solutions that ebb and flow with changing market conditions.

Read on to learn how you can kill 7 top operational challenges with the assistance of a 3PL.

This announcement is to inform our customers that on 1 April 2016, BCR will be moving the Perth 3PL warehouse and office to a new location. The new address is conveniently located at 16 Baling Street, Cockburn Central, Western Australia 6164. BCR Perth telephone numbers will remain the same.

Starting on 1 July 2016, a new container weight verification regulation comes into force for sea freight shipments around the world. This new International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulation will impact all parties involved in moving freight.  The objective of the new sea freight regulation is to improve safety at sea for those working on ships by verifying the actual weight of containers before they are loaded as opposed to relying on documentation provided for each container. In reality, many times the documented weight varies from the actual weight which means containers may be loaded on ships in an unbalanced fashion. 

Read on to learn more and view a handy infographic that explains the new regulation.

Businesses in Australia have two options when they consider transporting freight in or out of Australia. They can allocate resources and hire freight forwarding professionals in-house or they can outsource to an experienced freight forwarder. Freight forwarding operations consists of domestic transport, sea freight, air freight, customs clearance and many times short-term storage. In addition to the modes of transport, effective freight forwarding requires efficient management of product, documents, processes, cash flow and resources.

For an individual business, it can be challenging to align the resources and manage all the flows simultaneously and proficiently. This is where a freight forwarder steps in with their years of experience, expertise and professional management. A proficient and experienced freight forwarder can have a huge impact on freight forwarding operations through efficient management of freight forwarding processes, resources, and consequently assist in achieving freight deadlines with cost effectiveness. Smart businesses know collaborating with the right freight forwarding company increases their resource network, gives them better negotiation skills, provides efficient information and document flow, assists them to meet their freight deadlines, and improves their customers’ satisfaction.

Read onto to learn the positive impacts a freight forwarder can have on your freight forwarding operation.