8 Things You Should Do to Reduce the Lead Time of Your Cargo

The moment that I entered the logistics industry, I noticed one thing; The lead times of shipping are far from accurate. The lead time of a product is the period covering from the manufacturing to the distribution of the products to the customers and this process can take from 2 weeks to up to 6 months.

Every freight forwarder, before the beginning of the shipping process, should make an estimation of how long it will take for the products to arrive at your destination. However, issues may rise and port congestion may cause unexpected delays to your shipments. Hence, the first thing that you need to do is to collaborate with a trustworthy freight forwarder, that will provide you with transparency and full visibility of your products.

But, even if you do this, you, still, cannot be sure that your products will arrive within the arranged timeframe. I know the feeling, believe me! This is why I started searching for ways to shorten the lead time of the shipments. In the next paragraphs, I will present all these ideas, hoping that they will put to good use, to increase the efficiency of your business.



  1. Choice of the supplier: I know that you may want a supplier from the other side of the world due to reduced production costs, but consider, just for a moment, to choose a supplier based stateside. It can help you reduce the lead time by two weeks or more. It takes more to send the parts from multiple countries than to send them from just one country. On top of that, the language barrier may cause delays and problems that will increase your lead time.
  2. The number of suppliers: Apart from collaborating with local suppliers, you have to think carefully on how you will manage all the different orders with different suppliers. One approach of doing that is to leverage on management software that will help you simplify your processes and achieve greater efficiency. Another way of managing many suppliers is to concentrate your orders to one or two suppliers. Consolidating suppliers, will enable you to reduce time from coordinating all the vendors, while managing multiple purchase orders in one sitting.
  3. How to approach suppliers: Have you ever wanted a lead time of 12 weeks, but your supplier could only offer a lead time of 14 weeks? Have you considered to offer him a bonus if he agrees to deliver at your preferred lead time? If not, then please think about this. Everyone like rewards, so I am sure that your supplier will try his best to meet the deadline.

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