TCB Group provide global air freight services including supply chain management for a world leading fit out and interior construction company.

Their client list includes large multi-national corporations as well as most of the world’s biggest cruise liners and they regularly fit out vessels in ports and shipyards throughout Asia, Europe and In North America.

Situation Analysis

Our client was working on a ship for a large cruise line operator in Singapore.

Quite often on these fitout projects, the cruise line will appoint their own transport agent to manage the import of all cargoes for the fit out from the global supply chain management base.

This means that individual companies within the supply chain will have little say in the collection and delivery of their own materials to the vessel being fitted out. This can lead to problems and doesn’t always suit the requirements of individual suppliers, removing flexibility from their supply chain and the ability to change transport plans quickly whenever production schedules change.

This was the situation at a recent fit out in Singapore’s Sembawang shipyard. However to minimise disruption to their supply chain and reduce cost, our client required TCB Group in Singapore to import and store both tools and raw material, as and when they became available from other sites and then re-deliver these to Sembawang.

The TCB hub in Singapore is strategically placed in the new Tuas port area and all inventory held there was easily viewed and managed through the TCB online WMS portal.

A significant volume of cruise line fit out work can be carried out while the vessel is at sea, and in this instance further work was to be carried out on the vessel whilst in transit to Seattle, however critical raw material which had missed the loading in Sembawang was delayed further in transit to Singapore and required urgent air freight to Seattle.

TCB Group Solution

Our warehouse hubs in Belfast, Liverpool, Singapore and Indianapolis are strategically located and allows us to service our customers needs in most eventualities.

TCB Group received the call on Friday at 4pm to collect, re-crate and air freight 5 pallets of cargo ex the cruise line forwarders warehouse in Singapore and use our air freight services to Seattle for arrival the following Wednesday at the latest.

Our team collected the cargo Friday evening, crated the cargo for dispatch to Changi airport on Monday evening and departed Singapore Tuesday with arrival to Seattle Wednesday evening.

Outcome

In most cases the outcomes for our customers are evident. Through our efforts with this customer we not only saved them time and money, we also helped them out of a hole with their customer. TCB Group became part of their supply chain and through our in-depth understanding of not only their needs but their business processes which resulted in a positive outcome for everyone involved.

Client Testimonial

“Our business is all about delivery. We need partners within the supply chain who understand our business and who are able to meet our project deadlines. The team at TCB Group has managed to make that process look easy.”

For more information on the services provided by TCB please contact us here.