Operations: when success is born out of creativity

When, in 2021, the port of Long Beach was jammed in a bottleneck for all of North American’s supply chains, all the region’s forwarders received the same terrible news from the shipping lines: bringing merchandise from Asia was getting more expensive by the day and delivery times were rising. We were being given delivery forecasts of over three months.

Any professional with experience in maritime transport operations knows that congestion in Long Beach, where the majority of the cargo ships come from Asia-Pacific, affects half the continent. And any of these professionals would say that we will inevitably have to wait for the situation to improve.

However, not all operations professionals work at KENSA. This company specializes in transport and, in line with its creator’s philosophy, does not accept no for an answer. Which is why the question the operations team led by Claudia Morales asked themselves was not, when will we be able to disembark in California?, but rather something quite different: Is there any other way to get the merchandise to the distribution points sooner?. Can we set up a bypass so that our clients can get their goods faster?

Training the imagination to offer custom-made solutions

Karla Jiménez, our commercial director, likes to say that KENSA is a boutique forwarder because it always seeks out custom-made solutions for each client. And that calls for great imagination. In fact, our operations team has been trained to not take any particular solution as the only possible answer. So, when the usual destination for container ships coming from Asia was jammed, the work team looked for an alternative in the West Coast of Mexico.

A port with sufficient capacity and with a flexible customs system. The merchandise could then be delivered to a non-congested point and be moved overland to more convenient distribution centres for each company. We only needed to take on some indispensable extra work in customs.

On paper, the option seemed feasible. And in practice? In practice, KENSA’s option was a complete success, as, in the last six months, it has managed to help clients save on costs and shorten the original delivery times of three months to just three or four weeks.

Predicting clients’ needs

The success of the projects completed during 2021 lies in this imaginative way of working. Though, as Claudia Morales points out, it is equally due to the communication we have with the client. In this respect, she clarifies: “we accept that the client must always be informed, in a truthful and efficient way; and this transparent way of working helps them feel safe”.

What’s more, this constant communication allows us to get to really know the companies that place their trust in KENSA and put itself at their service. “But it does not mean listening to the client –Karla Jiménez passionately points out – but rather anticipating their needs, predicting them”. And to this end, we need to bring together all our professionals’ knowledge of the clients and their great experience in forwarding.