Higher Profit through Supply Chain Control
Anna Guy
The reality is, today’s business world operates without boundaries, time zones, or holidays. To stay competitive, companies must be able to deliver their products faster, fresher, and in greater volumes than ever before. The most successful companies maintain their competitive edge by unburdening themselves of elements of their operations to third party logistic support companies like 3PL Links, whose value-added services for greater time and cost savings help gain an invaluable competitive edge.
Toronto-based 3PL Links continues to provide peace of mind to clients like Parmalat and Maple Lodge by allowing them to focus growing the front end of their business. 3PL Links’ experienced professionals manage and prioritize every detail of their clients’ supply chain needs by reducing operational and administrative overhead costs and establishing key performance indicators (KPI’s) performance levels, and capabilities that cover the globe. 3PL Links’ integrated suite of services provides transportation management, distribution and warehousing solutions through its leveraging process, purchasing power and technology.
Instant access to information
Identifying time and cost efficiencies for any Supply Chain plays an integral part in any successful business operation, as is up-to-the-minute inventory control and the flexibility to respond to real-time situations. “Through business intelligence and data analytics suite of customized dashboards, our clients can access all this information right from their smartphones,” says Walter Grossi, President of 3PL Links.
That information can then be sent to sales team, procurement team, finance department, the operational team, or to all four, to optimize business efficiency. “Through our business intelligence tools, we make it easier and effortless for Supply Chain Operators to forward critical data to their finance department in specified data formats which traditionally took three to five days to complete and get into format. Now, we were able to give clients this data at the press of a button.”
It’s instant access to information like this that gives 3PL Link’s multinational companies the advantage they demand and require to stay competitive in their field, while achieving cost savings of up to 30 per cent.
Value-added services
3PL Links was founded in 1998 on Grossi’s 36 years of experience in the supply chain industry. The company’s free cost analysis and solution implement process quickly gained 3PL Links a roster of clientele who benefited from a large network of resources to develop a one-stop solution. Clients were so pleased with their partnership with 3PL Links, they asked for further integration into their supply chain.
“We initially focused on a consultative type approach, with free analysis and fully implementing change,” says Grossi. “Then came a new breed of customer who wanted and needed more of a total integration of Supply Chain services which meant entrusting their back-end Operations to 3PL Links. This type of outsourcing allowed customers to focus on what they do best knowing that 3PL Links has tight operational controls on their Supply Chain.”
All of this combines to an exhaustive service for supply chain clients that is greater than the sum of its parts. It’s a holistic third-party logistics service that allow clients to access business faster and more efficiently: the Alpha and the Omega in Supply Chain.
One-stop solution
“Customers are looking for somebody who can handle all aspects of the supply chain,” says Grossi. “We allow them to focus on the front end of their business while we handle all the back-end operations. We are able to impact their business through positive results in procurement, sales, finance, and operations.”
“I wanted to expand our services to not only cover transportation, but any kind of service- or supplier-based service,” says Grossi, “whereby if you have a contract with supplier, you can audit the invoice to 100 per cent accuracy up to and including vendor billing resolution.” Grossi says that interest in the program has been “overwhelming”, with customers opting to have all billing and auditing through 3PL Links. “With data analytics, clients are given the capability to make good, sound operational business decisions based on 100 per cent accurate data.”
An extension of your business
Responding to clients’ needs has always been at the heart of 3PL Link’s strong relationships with its clients. Grossi sees his team as being a natural extension to his clients’ businesses, and their priorities become 3PL Link’s priorities. Last year when a client in the steel manufacturing industry needed to expedite product from Toronto to Mexico in 24 hours, 3PL Links made it happen by chartering two 727 airplanes. “Accomplishing this task was key to our customer avoiding significant financial penalties as a result of shutting down manufacturing lines,” says Grossi. “They said it couldn’t be done and we did it.”
Today’s business climate and challenges make it difficult to navigate and plot a coarse for success and profitability. 3PL Links’ total Supply Chain suite of services plays a very important part in helping its valued customers succeed in plotting an effective and efficient coarse to business success and profitability. If you feel you can use a hand in navigating and plotting a successful and profitable action plan, don’t hesitate to contact 3PL Links Inc.
