Page 34: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2020)

Feature | Mercado Labs 2020 SHIPPING & PORT ANNUAL

A typical screenshot and window into the Mercado Labs platform.

Mercado Labs businesses better plan, move and ship products. Mercado’s that process manifests itself across dozens of milestones in cloud-based platform features 73 procurement, ordering and every transaction. A typical import scenario might involve 25 shipping features, spanning the full gamut of supply and lo- entities, 30 people, and myriad departments trying to manage gistics processes, vendor vetting and the promotion of better a six-month process of sourcing, purchasing, manufacturing, transparency along the entire supply chain for its customers. regulatory and logistics. “Mercado connects all of those enti- “All of those features are important. For example, native ties, people, departments onto a uni? ed platform so everyone language translation may not be important to a buyer, but it has exactly the same information,” says Garrison.

may be critical for their supplier. Our ? ve main value proposi- tions include collaboration, predictability, transparency, visi- On the Waterfront bility and automation. All ? ve are connected to the 73 features The maritime mode could be a better partner in the ‘? rst needed to enable them,” explains Garrison. mile,’ but carriers and ports have long focused on optimizing

Time is money. The Mercado service array improves ‘pre- assets (ships, terminals, cranes) without connecting to criti- dictability’ via accurate, real time vision into the shipment’s cal data needed to enable networks. A 30,000 TEU vessel that movement. The decision-making process in a fast-moving sails from a port that does 86 moves per hour but also experi- supply chain is the ultimate bene? ciary. The shipment’s ETA ences a 20% ‘no show’ rate amply demonstrates that shipping is one obviously important “predictability” metric. But, the is a 100% perishable commodity.

biggest portion of time for any global transaction is not ship- Garrison asks, “What if the assets were connected directly ping. Garrison explains, “Shipping is relatively predictable; to the suppliers that manufacture the product, and the carriers save the Southern California ports. The biggest portion of leveraged ‘AI’ to ‘predict’ the demand, and then put in the ap- times is production. Mercado contains a robust work in pro- propriate supply in response?” cess engine. We start with the order placement and monitor Mercado’s cloud-based software addresses important but often every milestone from placement to receipt.” delay inducing issues such as chassis logistics, drayage, contain-

In a nutshell, Mercado transforms the ? rst mile of any ship- er/cargo damage and the surveys that reveal these headaches. ment from analog to digital means. That’s important because Garrison explains further, “Because we are a platform, we can 34 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • October 2020

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