Top logistics provider and long-time Zepol customer, Samuel Shapiro and Company, is hosting a half day seminar, Supply Chain Innovation: Find the Missing Efficiencies in Your Business Model, at the Sheraton Baltimore City Center in Baltimore, Maryland on August 12, 2010.

Topics covered at the seminar include:

• Supplier PO placement and negotiation
• Product sourcing and research
• Ocean and air market update
• Transportation options and cost analysis
• Supply chain security update

The seminar will be followed by one of the area's most popular industry events of the the year, the Annual Propeller Club Crab Feast.

Click here to sign up today to learn more about this event.

Click here to download this event's brochure.

Supply chain problems are nothing new to importers. Before the invention of the container, an importer could expect to lose some of their goods due to pilfering by dock workers or other people that would touch the products along the way to their end destination. Shipments would be loaded and unloaded multiple times, increasing the chance shipments would not be complete upon arrival.

Things have changed a great deal since the invention of the container, which provides security for shipments and allows importers to ship more types of goods to the United States from all over the world. Today, frozen shrimp are sent from Vietnam in refrigerated containers and chemicals are sent in sealed tanks from India. Just fifty years ago, none of this was possible.

However, importers still face issues. From Customs' holds on perishable goods to untrustworthy suppliers, today importers have the ability to use technology to overcome many of these challenges. Instead of goods walking out of a container, companies now provide seal technology to lock in goods. Some importers are even utilizing RFID tags and GPS chips to track shipments along the way.

The most advanced importers are going beyond U.S. Customs' online interface to track imports. While the government's system allows importers to view their own Customs entries in great detail, using AMS data tools, like Zepol’s TradeIQ, lets them see their competitors' and suppliers' entries as well. This provides them with invaluable real time intelligence into their markets.

The key to using any import technology is to be able to prove a return on investment to stake holders within your organization. Some of the time, it is very easy to do, for example winning a judgment against a counterfeiter or disreputable supplier, but it can also be difficult to show a dollar value on the intelligence that was gained and what part that played into either a cost savings or revenue generating project. It is our goal here at Zepol to ensure our customers are able to find this return, but also exceed their expectations.

As a Minnesota based company, we run into people who have certain expectations of 'Minnesota Nice'. We work hard to fill that positive stereotype by providing quality customer service, personalized support throughout the sales process, and constant updates and enhancements to our products that meet our customers' growing needs.

However, sometimes stereotypes can cause confusion and problems in business because we think we already know all the answers.

For example, China is the place to go to get cheap rice right? Nope. Changes in China's social, cultural, and economic climates have greatly reduced their agricultural output. Right now, the place to get rice is Thailand, who dwarfs all other countries' output in both total volume and value imported into the United States. In fact the U.S. imported 77% of its rice from Thailand in the last 12 months; a whopping 982,335,403 pounds!

While the above anecdote is amusing, it also proves a good point. Doing proper research into all avenues of your business is indispensable. It will ensure you are dealing with quality suppliers, that you are able to see the market shifts before you are stuck with a warehouse full of unwanted products, and that no one is profiting from your brand name but you. Proactive trade research and some industry knowledge ensures your business keeps moving forward.

One of the biggest reasons that importers use Zepol’s trade data is to find new suppliers of the products they import. This use of the data covers a significant portion of our user base and these users require a trade data tool that is much more than a report generating mechanism that some trade data providers sell. Supply chain professionals require a highly customizable system and have little use for reports that assign arbitrary scores that are determined by nebulous, internally held formulas.

So how are trade data users utilizing trade data to enhance their sourcing processes, reduce costs, and improve their results?

1. Sourcing country/region identification: There are a number of factors that go into identifying the right area of the world to purchase products from, like capacity, quality, and transportation costs. Using U.S. Census data, users can see the cost of products that were imported from each country they are investigating within about 6 weeks of shipment arrival. Take a look at the chart below to see an example of this type of analysis at a 10-digit HTS level:

HTS Code 7011.10.1000 Light Bulb Sourcing Location Prices YTD:
2. Finding companies providing the products: While there are sources available, like Alibaba and ThomasNet, where manufactures list their services, U.S. Customs data is the only source of information that can show what products companies have actually exported to the United States. The next step is to look at which companies exist in a sourcing county. Below is a graph of the top ten companies exporting light bulbs for 2009 taken from our U.S. Customs trade data tool, TradeIQ.

3. Evaluating suppliers: Once the user has developed a list of suppliers that they see as viable prospects for sourcing products, they then will begin to individually investigate each of them. They investigate the suppliers' exporting trends and view who their current customers are. They ensure suppliers can handle the volume that they will need to source. See the trend below for an example of this trend analysis:
4. Monitoring their supply agreements: Once a contract has been struck, using trade data does not stop. It is important to consistently monitor what your suppliers are exporting. If a company has agreements with suppliers regarding exclusive distribution, they make sure that suppliers are not working with other companies. U.S Customs trade data is the only source for this type of information at an individual company level detail.

Sourcing departments demand to have the ability to do dynamic trade data analysis that breaks through the typical search to report cycle. They look at trends of specific suppliers and dig into the details to understand for themselves what is going on. With this said, the sourcing process is complicated and additional information beyond trade data is needed that usually can only be gathered by internal data analysis, factory visits, discussions with the supplier, and reference checks.