Offshoring and outsourcing has long been a key supply chain activity for many companies, with many other firms more recently taking advantage of global supply opportunities. Many companies find the management of inbound containers from ports to distribution centers or assembly plants is challenging.
Softeon's CMS module complete visibility to inbound containers, and allows importers to manage their inventories and inbound processes with much greater efficiency and control. CMS can be used by 3PLs executing inbound processes for clients, by importing companies themselves, or in combination to improve collaboration and inventory management.
Key features of the CMS module include:
- Web-based visibility to inbound containers at the port along with associated purchase orders and inventory by SKU
- Tracking of the status of those containers as they are staged at the terminal and transferred to intermediate facilities and the ultimate receiving location and container return location.
- The ability to see containers and inventory in the yard and to automatically create tasks to move the containers in for receiving based on inventory requirements and other factors.
- Management of the "free time" for containers, with event notification as a container approaches the expiration of its free time to avoid incurring additional charges for demurrage, per-diem and detention.
- Management of driver availability and multi-move driver charges.
- Real-time integration with 3PL Billing module for automatic generation of invoices
- The ability to analyze container aging and detail move history.
- The ability to track time and activities associated with container movement, allowing importers to drive process improvements, and 3PLs to accurately bill clients for container management and transportation.
