Kintetsu World Express, Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of the overall supply chain management for a manufacturing company. I’m responsible for sourcing, procurement, logistics, and planning, which are the main portion of our supply chain organization. We have two factories in Shanghai and Shenzhen, and we have printed circuit board (PCB) industrial and PCB integrations in China’s regions.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Kintetsu World Express, Inc.?

We hired Kintetsu World Express, Inc. (KWE) to be one of our key partners for warehouse management, sea freight, and air freight.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

KWE is our third-party logistics provider and they help us with our work on our multiple warehouses. Their services include warehousing, restocking, transportation, and other related customs clearance duties. We mostly need their service for the warehouse restocking and for responsibilities such as receiving, shipping, and inside warehouse handling.

We train them on our systems, and they are given some authorization to do order warehouse operations. They take care of packing, scanning, labeling, and packing forklifts for container loading.

Back in the day, we had internal order processing fulfillment teams in charge of inventory and fulfillment. However, once we rented a warehouse space that is fully under KWE, we kept things we imported from US and Singapore there and assigned inventory management to the KWE team. They continue to provide us with a support planner to check inventory levels and they run the weekly planning metrics.

What is the team composition?

From the very beginning, we had a key contact. Once the business relationship between us had been established, they assigned an account manager and project manager to oversee everything, from the management level to the operations level. The managers are in charge of the warehouse department, transportation department, customer department, and planning department. Each department has also one primary contact, and we’re working with restockers, too.

How did you come to work with Kintetsu World Express, Inc.?

I knew Kintetsu for about 20 years, and  I first met with them in 1999 when I was in charge of the physical distribution operation for a large company. When we built a distribution warehouse in one area, we invited Kintetsu to be the number one service provider for our warehouse, transportation, sea freight, and customs clearance-related things.

How much have you invested in them?

We've spent less than 2.5 million RMB (approximately $390,000 USD) a year.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing partnership started in October 1999.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’re satisfied with most of the metrics, and we can see that their team is very dedicated. The culture of the company is more of a Japanese style so they're a people company.  As a result, they're good partners to run a business with, especially for the warehouse and the logistics services that they provide.

KWE also acquired APL Logistics a few years ago and that gives them a very strong opportunity to improve their cost. As a result, there is an advantage for shipping companies to work with KWE.

How did Kintetsu World Express, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

When it comes to being on time, they reach our deadlines 98% of the time. Though there is still some room for improvement, they're doing great. In fact, KWE has been able to resolve our issues within acceptable timelines. We know it’s not an easy job for them because of our multiple locations, but since we’ve been using System Applications and Products (SAP), the system is guiding the people to do the right things the first time.

They also send us reports on all the statistics related to our project, and there are even metrics to measure the supplier. We have bi-monthly feedback with their management team for their performance report, and they send us monthly reports with their achievements as well as the billing information.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re hard-working people.

Are there any areas they could improve?

If they lose business and then learn why they lost that business, they’ll find out the loop costs of the infrastructures, investments, and acquisitions. By being informed about those costs, they can enhance their financial situations and cost modules, which can help them support their customers better. Overall, we still think they have a chance to offer competitive pricing because we found a competitor that offered half the price they’ve offered to us.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I think most of their customers are from Japan.