Brain Gain: How Logistics Plus Attracts and Keeps Millennials in Erie

Brain Gain: How Logistics Plus Attracts and Keeps Millennials in Erie

Brain-Gain-SquareThrough its partnership with Erie Times-News and GoErie.com, Logistics Plus will be featured in the next four issues of the publisher’s Lake Erie Lifestyles magazine. The first segment, discussing how Logistics Plus attracts and retains young talent within the Erie community, appeared in the August 2017 issue (which is inserted monthly into the Erie Times-News newspaper). A reprint of the feature, which is shown below, is also available online at www.goerie.com/lifestyle/lake-erie-lifestyle. You can click the image below to see the larger, online version.

Brain Gain: How Logistics Plus Attracts and Keeps Millennials in Erie

Resilient LP Charleston Focuses on Customers Despite Irma

Resilient LP Charleston Focuses on Customers Despite Irma

Just a little Wednesday morning fun in acknowledgment of the resiliency and dedication of the Logistics Plus Charleston, SC staff.

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This is interesting as well. A local restaurant called California Dreaming hit hard by Hurricane Irma but, in true Charleston style, local patrons are most concerned about the prime rib.

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All kidding aside, remember, there are lots of ways you can help support relief efforts in these hurricane-impacted regions, including the American Red Cross, UNICEF, the Salvation Army, and many others.

Recent Project Cargo Work from Logistics Plus Turkey

Recent Project Cargo Work from Logistics Plus Turkey

The Logistics Plus Turkey team has been secretly busy managing some very cool project cargo work. However, thanks to a few leaked photos on LinkedIn by our own Başar Kandil and Bahadir Erdil, we’re able to share a few of those projects here:

  • Safely loaded 11.10 x 4.50 x 4.75 / 32 tons  Condensate Tank from Izmir to Mexico
  • Safely loaded 36 MT – L16.80x W5.40xH6.30m Crew Boat from Derince to Middle East
  • Safely loaded 49 Pcs / 2440 CBM Shipyard Crane and Accessories from Derince to Kuwait,Shuaiba
  • Safely loaded Evaporators / Preheaters and its accessories from Istanbul to SE Asia
  • Safely delivered 81MT Gearbox and its accessories from China to Turkey Factory thru Aliaga/Izmir Port

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History: Logistics Plus and our challenges after 9/11

History: Logistics Plus and our challenges after 9/11

911-History-ImageEveryone remembers what they were doing 16 years ago, today, and most everyone has a story of what happened to them on Tuesday, September 11th 2001, and in the days following.  Luckily, everyone working for Logistics Plus at the time was safe that day.  However, the events of 9/11 did end up having a huge impact on our industry, and Logistics Plus has an interesting story that transpired in the days following the attack.

September 11th 2001 started like any other at the GETS Routing Center, which served as LP’s main office at the time.  We were housed onsite in building 14-2 of the GE Transportation Erie Plant.  A couple hours into our day, the phones rang off the hook, as usual, and GE buyers, material expediters, and production managers came in and out of our office to verify that the parts the plant needed to get through the day were being delivered.

Our international intern reported to work a few minutes before 9:00 am, and was the first to relay the breaking news that an airplane had just crashed into the World Trade Center.  There were few details yet, and while most everyone took quick note of the bizarre news, we all kept going about the work of the day.

Maybe 10 minutes later, news came sweeping through the office that a second plane, believed to be a passenger airliner, had crashed into the other tower of the World Trade Center.  In a matter of seconds, the general turmoil of our routing center albeit stopped.  As the reality that our country was under attack set in, work throughout the facility froze, and the phones were suddenly silenced.  A TV was turned on in a small conference room down the hall, and most of us crowded together with open jaws for the next several hours as we watched the rest of the attack unfold, and all the horrors that came along with it.

The hours that followed were the quietest I remember in all the years we managed the Routing Center at GE.  The phones barely rang, and did so only with friends, family, and suppliers from overseas making sure we were ok, and expressing their condolences.  Ironically, this was the calm before our own little storm began.

By that afternoon, the realization that we still had a job to do forced our eyes from the TV screens and back to our computer screens.  Reports came in that all non-military flights were grounded indefinitely, commercial border crossings at the Canadian and Mexican borders were halted, and all US seaports were closed.  In logistics terms, it was the perfect storm.

The following day, the government was still offering no firm timelines as to when ports and airspace would reopen.  We were faced with the fact that the supply lines that kept our biggest customer running had been cut off.  GE Transportation was only a couple years into their global sourcing initiative, and relatively new suppliers scattered across Europe were already struggling to keep up with GE’s busy build schedule.  Routine airfreight shipments from most of the suppliers had been required to keep GE’s production running.  We didn’t know when flights would resume, and it was obvious that the backlog would be so great when it did, that we could be waiting weeks to get freight moved via normally scheduled passenger and cargo flights.

Additionally, LP was still very young at the time, and facing a contract renewal with GE that represented almost our entire business.  There was a very real sense that if we could not offer GE a solution that would minimize the impact of this event on their production, that the loss of confidence could feasibly be the end of our small, young company.

By the end of the following day, our small international team, then headed up by Gretchen Seth and Rita Serafini, had developed the outline of a wild plan to try to keep freight moving as well as possible.  We’d engineer a ‘Pan-European’ airfreight consolidation.  We would take all the critical components from GE’s 9 suppliers in 6 different European countries, and consolidate them at 1 central location in Western Europe.  We would then charter an aircraft to stand by, and take-off with the material as soon as the FAA permitted international flights to resume.

The next several days were some of the most challenging we’ve ever seen as a company.  Even as the borders and ports reopened, our routing center struggled with vehicle shortages, massively increased security, and immense backlogs.  Trucks from Canada were taking 24 hours to cross the border, and the wait at the Mexican border was measured in days.  Domestic flights were reinstated, but the backlog to fly any cargo would be over a week, and there was still little indication as to when international air flights would again be permitted.

The international team struggled to move all the critical European freight into Hahn, Germany, which came with numerous transportation and Customs hurdles.  The details of the story are too numerous to share here, but in the end, after many long hours, hundreds of issues resolved, and a lot of stress, our charter came together.  Logistics Plus moved almost 100,000 lbs of cargo from 6 European countries and got all the freight onto one of the first international charter flights booked into the US after the attack.  Our flight,  MNB 681, landed in Pittsburgh at 22:50 on Tuesday, September 18th, just hours after the FAA lifted the unscheduled international flight ban.  Our trucks lined the tarmac, and had delivered the freight to 7 different locations in Pennsylvania and Indiana by 5 am the following morning.

In the days and weeks following 9/11, none of GE Transportation’s assembly lines ever stopped due to missing parts.  We never failed to get a single part into production before it was needed.  I’ve included the original timeline that Gretchen Seth put together that week as an overview of the project, as well as a letter that Jim sent out the day after the flight landed.

To this day, I truly believe this is LP’s biggest single success story.  It came when our international operations were only a couple years old, and our company relatively inexperienced.  It proved that “Passion for Excellence” was more than just a motto, and that the Logistics Plus team was an international family that could persevere tremendous adversity, and find the way to get a job done.

Onward and Upward.

God bless everyone who was affected by the events of 9/11/2001.  Thank you, to all our colleagues that shared that terrible day.

Memory recounted by Jeremy Chaffee

A 3½PL approach to 4PL Solutions

A 3½PL approach to 4PL Solutions

3 1-2 PL SolutionsAt Logistics Plus, we provide both 3PL and 4PL solutions. What’s the difference between a 3PL and a 4PL? In a nutshell, a 3PL is a partner that provides logistics services to a client using either their own assets, contracted assets, or both. Conversely, a 4PL is an integrated and outsourced partner, often with dedicated, onsite resources, that manages other logistics providers on a client’s behalf. In many of these situations, the 4PL provider becomes the de facto logistics department for the client.  However, for many of our clients, the ideal Logistics Plus® solution lies somewhere in-between – or as we refer to it … 3½PL™ solutions.

With our 3½PL approach to 4PL solutions, we become a valuable extension to your existing supply chain management team. We provide you with onsite or offsite dedicated logistics resources and preferred access to both our own and contracted assets. That includes access to our National Truckload (NTL) capabilities, LTL and truckload solutions, warehousing and distribution options, import/export services, project cargo expertise, global trade compliance oversight, and technology platforms. An additional aspect of our 3½PL solutions is that they can be highly customized or even à la carte. Only need warehousing and fulfillment? No problem. Just need customs brokerage and freight forwarding? We can do that too. Need customized technology integrated with your shopping cart? We’ve got you covered.

In a 3½PL arrangement, even though our own assets and resources are available to you, we are not married to them if other logistics partners can provide better or more affordable solutions. That’s the beauty of this approach. As part of your team (and not a replacement for it), we can look up and down your supply chain, identify the greatest opportunities for improvements, and then act on them. So, not only do you get access to a nationally recognized great supply chain partner and a top freight brokerage firm, you do so without having to increase (or decrease, if that is a concern) your own staff. Additional benefits include:

  • Design and planning consultation
  • Domestic and international transportation management expertise
  • Oversight for customs regulations and compliance
  • Smart and efficient technologies, such as eShipPlus™ and eWorldPlus™ powered by CargoWise One®
  • Business intelligence, data visualizations, and dashboards using our customized MyLogisticsPlus™ platform
  • A liaison between carriers and shipping sites
  • Audited and consolidated invoicing

The presentation shown below provides a general overview of our 4PL solutions. Although we still often refer to them as 4PL solutions, which is a more common industry term, you should know that our trademark 3½PL approach is a key point of differentiation that has led to many successful programs for clients such as GE Transportation, GE Oil & GasWeWorkCanadian Solar, HeroBX, and others.  If you’d like to engage Logistics Plus to help you with your own logistics challenges, simply click the button below to get started.

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Outsourcing Your Pick, Pack, and Ship Fulfillment Services

Outsourcing Your Pick, Pack, and Ship Fulfillment Services

LP-Fulfillment-LogoWhen growing a company, you may reach the point where you can no longer handle all of your customers’ order needs. When this time arrives, companies need to consider outsourcing pick, pack, and ship fulfillment services to a third-party specialist.  “Pick, pack, and ship” in its simplest terms means receiving customer orders, selecting the correct item out of your inventory, choosing the correct packaging, and shipping the order to your customer.  Outsourcing this process to a third-party fulfillment company, such as Logistics Plus, can help you grow and expand your e-commerce business much faster than doing so on your own. However, there are important considerations that come into play at each step in the process. Addressing each of these areas requires a third-party partner that can full integrate itself into your shopping cart or order management system, has the knowledge on which transportation modes and packaging are best for your products, and can provide the necessary tracking, follow-up and real-time inventory management updates you’ll need to stay current.

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If you’re still on the fence, here are additional reasons why you might consider outsourcing your pick, pack, and ship fulfillment services:

Organization and Speed

The main concern of most companies is customer satisfaction.  With that being said, being organized and quick to pick and pack orders only means that a customer will receive their products faster.  Third-party fulfillment companies are experienced and know what it takes to correctly fulfill an order in a timely fashion.

Lower Overhead and Fixed Costs

As your business expands, you may consider renting or purchasing a warehouse with enough space to store your inventory, while leaving enough room for the fulfillment process.  As you can imagine, renting or purchasing a warehouse can be extremely costly. At that point, you will also need someone to run the operation, costing you more money, no matter the number of orders placed.  By outsourcing to a fulfillment company, you can avoid several of these fixed costs and focus more on building your brand and selling your products.

Scalability

Outsourcing your pick, pack, and ship fulfillment services allows you the flexibility to grow your company as it grows with you. Fulfillment companies already have a large client base they fulfill orders for daily.  This means that if your business triples in size, it will be much easier for a fulfillment company to adjust to the new volume of your orders, rather than you trying to adjust yourself.

Technology Solutions

A third-party logistics company often provides beneficial technology solutions that help level the playing field. Two of these specific systems include warehouse management system (WMS) and transportation management system (TMS).  These systems can add tremendous value to your company because they provide detailed information regarding inventory, upcoming trends, and rate analysis through a web-based program.  These technology solutions can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but can be available to you just by outsourcing to the right pick, pack, and ship fulfillment service.

Shipping from Ideal Locations

Most large 3PL’s have several locations throughout the country and sometimes world.  Since shipping carriers base rates on location and time of delivery, having an ideal location for your product inventory can be crucial. This will save money on shipping, while saving time the customers must wait to receive their order.  Outsourcing fulfillment services to ideal warehouse and fulfillment locations will also help you expand your business and help you reach markets and places you may not have thought were possible.

By outsourcing your pick, pack, and ship fulfillment services, you may be able to save time and money, while allowing you to focus on the most important parts of your business: selling products and building your brand!  Logistics Plus is ready and willing to assist you with all of your e-commerce fulfillment needs.

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