The goal of the entire logistics process is to ensure that the entrusted goods are delivered to the right place, at the right time.
Logistics operations further necessitate an extensive paper trail that matches goods to the right supplier and address along with the applicable freight charges. This results in piles of paperwork including freight bills, load confirmation statements and bills of lading, all of which need to be processed with the utmost care and accuracy.
Client Background and Requirements
ARDEM was approached by a major freight shipping and logistics company, which just happens to be the 6th largest in the national market.
Keeping in line with the increased efforts to build supply chain resilience in the current climate, the accelerated shipping operations came with increased volumes of paperwork as well. Their current processes require around 20,000 bills to be processed per day. Once we were apprised of their requirements, our team jump-started their project immediately, studying their standard operating procedures (SOP) and training analysts for processing bills.
Industry Landscape
As operations expand and the volume of paperwork grows, many logistics operators struggle to keep up. Consequently, they find themselves unable to send out the relevant documents in time, thereby delaying shipments or compromising their delivery schedule.
This is exactly where outsourcing comes to the rescue, by using a combination of intelligent automation and effort-based processing, an experienced outsourcing partner can provide high-quality results with greater speed and accuracy for each shipment.
Opportunity for Improvement
Freight bill data entry and processing are quite laborious and focus-intensive processes and demand accurate data that must be delivered on time.
The challenges faced by this logistics company included the need to maintain a high level of accuracy while entering data in real-time for an increasing volume of load confirmations.
The Challenges of Logistics Processing
Our primary challenge was to train analysts to extract and enter data from different data points in the bill with both speed and precision.
However, this is easier said than done as training analysts for BOL processing requires:
- Basic knowledge of how to read BOL/BOL terminology
- Numerous class numbers that need to be tagged with each BOL
- Maintaining quality and tracking productivity of all new trainees
In order to overcome these issues, we created a virtual training program by mirroring their current system and process on our internal platform. This allows us to manage the training, track the progress, and reduce risk while working in their current freight billing system.
Training for the new analyst can take between 1-2 months. The first two weeks are very crucial to monitor and audit an analyst’s work to ensure accuracy and track their progress.
Our Solution
Our initial goal was to start with processing 5,000 bills each day and ramp-up processing to the point where we can process 10,000 bills in a day and then eventually 20,000 bills every day.
The entire process involves several complex steps as follows:
- Transcribing the customer’s bill of lading information into the legacy freight bill system. The bill of lading is then scanned into a mobile terminal where the scanned image is sent wirelessly to the queue on the billing system.
- Remotely accessing their servers, each analyst is able to view the image of the bill on one window and in a separate window enter the data into the system.
- The bill data entry begins approximately at noon and enters a peak around 2 pm, witnessing the busiest hours between 4 to 9 pm. The goal is to enter 99% of bills by 11 pm.
- The bills need to be entered within 30 minutes of receipt and a minimum of 98% overall accuracy must be achieved.
- Around 25 to 35 BOLs are processed every hour per analyst.
- The bills are processed on the company’s own legacy freight billing system.
The ARDEM Advantage
At ARDEM, we have worked with major operators in the logistics sector, implementing quality control and improving performance for several logistics and supply chain management companies.
Our advantage comes in our experience and ability to put it to use while building you high-performance data teams.
- Assured Accuracy: Manual errors are eliminated, duplicate bills become a thing of the past and the requisite paperwork is processed accurately and shared in time.
- Scalability and Flexibility: As the client’s processing needs grow, we can scale their team in as little as 10 days, matching our services to match their fluctuating needs.
- Advanced Training System: We map out an efficient virtual training process based on the client’s standard operating procedure and growing needs. We further implement an elaborate training system developed that allows us to enforce quality checks and track performance to reduce risk before having analysts enter live data into the client’s system.
- Cost-Effective Solutions: We eliminate errors and redundancies from the existing process to create streamlined solutions. We further take care of searching for, hiring and training all required analysts, saving our client both time and money while the requisite paperwork is processed accurately and shared in time.
- Management and Client Service: Our Project Managers stay on top of the project, identifying and correcting any errors or problems. Additionally, the client can easily contact a member of our team via phone or email and leave updated instructions or provide feedback.
As a family-run company, ARDEM realizes the importance of transparency and accountability across all our processes, providing our clients with project updates in real-time.
Ensuring accuracy, integrity and adaptability, ARDEM is committed to finding smarter, technology-enabled solutions for all our clients.