The measures by which the sources of supply grow are the measures by which the international logistic chain becomes more complex. Hundreds of suppliers in different countries, multiple 3PL's, shipping and transportation systems and increisingly complex normative fulfillment requierements demand from  organizations  visibility in real time. 

What makes an international logistics be complex?

Now more than ever, the challenge for a global supply chain to be successful is its ability to give real time visibility of the financial and logistical flow, through a suitable automation for its processes, relating its suppliers, transporters, banks and customs agents.

 The lack of financial and documentary information interchange generates a series of negative consequences inside the organizations: delays, overpayment of taxes, lack of compliance, sanctions, cancellation of customs and tax benefits and increased financial costs.

Each time the administration of processes in its international logistics chain becomes more complex, involving several challenges to management, from control in generating cash flow until the documentary control.

That’s why in global trade, the need to create interfaces with partners, share information and create bases of collaboration has become critical to achieve a successful international logistics.

The solution to automate processes must be focused on the following players in the international logistics chain: importers, exporters, customs agents and logistics providers, enabling them to obtain better visibility in operations. 

The time lost, bottlenecks, lack of visibility, payment delays, increased financial costs, lack of compliance, payment of fines and penalties, and disruption in the financial and documentary flow, are elements with which international organizations have to contend on a daily basis.

What is the solution to these problems? Automation

AUTOMATION

Automation is understood as the digitalization of processes trough technological tools that allow organizations among other things to:

• Get real-time visibility of their activities
• Share information in real time with their external suppliers
• Have an efficient decision-making
• Reduce bottlenecks
• Optimize its capital and work
• Not depend on the knowledge of the owners of processes

This topic can be approached from two perspectives: i) Government’s approach to efficient processes between taxpayer & authority, and moreover, ii) Trends and challenges faced by organizations to automate their international logistics chain, business to business relationship.

Under the first approach, we have now seen that automation has been a priority item on the government agenda.

In this sense, today we know that the General Administration of Customs has been involved in the automation of a series of processes in the relationship taxpayer-authority, through the simplification of customs, which allows the acquisition, generation and electronic application of a series of permits and paperwork.

In this order of ideas, the Ministry of Economy recently in the publication of its Decalogue provides as a fundamental part automating certain processes for the simplification of formalities, through the installation of digital displays.

Now well, the concept of automation that I now refer to is focused on the second perspective, meaning the business to business relationship, mentioning those processes co-related with the parts integrating the International Logistics’ supply chain, not the appliance of automation between authority and contributor.

This article’s goals are: 

1) To identify the agents that participate in the International Logistics Chain 

2) Have more common processes executed in the International Logistics Chain 

3) Benefits of the automation, under a financial and logistic perspective 

4) Applied technology for processes automation.