Making Good Operations Better: The CaribEx Worldwide Story

CaribEx Worldwide grew from one man’s vision to serve one customer in Puerto Rico to offering a variety of services in multiple destinations. With a niche in the Caribbean and Latin America, they continue to improve by changing with the times and implementing needed technology.

,,,,We’re a unique company.

Madeline Chatt, Business Development Manager, CaribEx Worldwide

CASE STUDY:

CaribEx Worldwide Freight Forwarder, NVOCC, 3PL

ChallengesWhen a company grows and everyone is busy running the operations,

it’s hard to find time to evaluate how to improve processes. It’s often

easier to keep doing the same thing in the same way.

The family and staff of CaribEx Worldwide decided to stretch out of

their comfort zone to see how to make their company better and

ensure they were not missing any revenue opportunities. The results

are coming in, including the 2012 award from the World Cargo Alliance

(WCA) for “Latin American Partner of the Year.”

Another motivation arose when new trade agreements took effect

in the Caribbean and changed the textiles industry there. Because

CaribEx Worldwide serves that industry and others, their executives

needed to respond to stay competitive; they reevaluated the company

identity and reshaped itself to stay profitable. Constant improvement

has been a hallmark of the company since its beginnings in Puerto

Rico.

A Family BusinessCaribEx Worldwide was founded by Joe Chatt in 1980 as Caribe

Express, a trucking and air freight company in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.

One of their early customers was a Wrangler jeans facility in Puerto

Rico. Caribe Express provided cartage for them within Puerto Rico and

flew cargo back and forth between factories in Puerto Rico and the

Dominican Republic on Caribe Express’ own plane. This foundation

of the business is part of the company today, and they still fly daily

between the two countries and provide retail distribution for many

products in Puerto Rico.

To add more services and expand their reach into Central America,

Caribe Express joined Excel Cargo of Greensboro, NC, in 1987. Today

they have offices in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras.

They also have partners in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.

The family continues Joe Chatt’s vision; his daughter, Madeline

Chatt, is the Business Development Manager for the Miami office.

His son, Joseph Chatt Jr., is CaribEx’s Caribbean Regional President,

who is based in Puerto Rico and started working with his father as a

teenager. The company president is John Ford, and there are over 300

employees today across all offices.

Improving WMS ProcessesThe Miami facility of CaribEx Worldwide is located in a new, beautifully

landscaped industrial park that provides easy highway access. Inside

the CaribEx warehouse, cargo is organized by customer. The cargo

includes raw materials, finished goods, and hazardous materials.

Ms. Chatt explained the services this facility offers: “We have a

bonded area, and the facility has a CFS designation. We do a lot of

consolidations, receiving goods from multiple suppliers for overseas

customers. Many items go to the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico,

Central and South America. We ship goods usually once a week, saving

our customers money by avoiding separate shipments and paying for

multiple Customs clearances.”

At a GlanceCaribEx www.caribex.comIndustry

Freight Forwarder, NVOCC, 3PL

SolutionMagaya Supply Chain Solution, Magaya WMS Mobile

CaribEx Worldwide provides freight forwarding, warehousing, distribution, and Customs

clearance to many Latin American and Caribbean destinations. Their U.S. offices include

Miami, FL; Chicago, IL; and Greensboro, NC. They also have offices in Puerto Rico, the

Dominican Republic and other Caribbean and Latin American locations.

CaribEx Worldwide

According to Mr. Oliva, the integration project for CaribEx was different

from many of the other projects he has worked on. Many projects

integrate only two entities; for example, a Magaya customer needs to

connect to an accounting or inventory program. The integration for

CaribEx included three entities, CaribEx, their customer, and the other

system. As Ms. Chatt says, “We’re a unique company.”

The integration works by allowing CaribEx’s customer to enter files

that they call “receipts” of arriving items into their system, which then

sends the data to the Magaya system and converts it into the Magaya

Warehouse Receipt format automatically with a status of “Pending”.

The customer also sends sales orders to tell CaribEx Worldwide

what needs to be shipped. The integration provides visibility into

transactions such as movements of the items from one place to

another, inventory quantities, what items are on hold, and other

details. The data is updated every 15 minutes automatically or more

often with a click on the menu.

An example of an item CaribEx Worldwide handles is ceramic tile. Tiles

vary in shade and tone based on how they are fired in the kiln during

manufacturing, so each batch (or lot) is assigned a number. Lisa Travis,

who heads the IT department, explained that they needed to keep

track of not only the part number for the tile but also the batches

codes. “Magaya figured out a way to take care of that information for

us,” Ms. Travis said. “They have very strong customer service; they make

the effort to show they care.”

CaribEx Worldwide was using software that could perform these

processes until one of their large customers brought new requirements

to them which that program could not handle. CaribEx evaluated other

software programs and added the Magaya Supply Chain Solution

to its Miami warehouse in early 2012 to expand their relationship

with that customer and to improve their warehouse management

processes. “We wanted to make sure we were not missing any revenue

opportunities, even small ones such as packing fees,” Ms. Chatt said.

Magaya Supply Chain Solution works with handheld scanners to speed

up cargo receipt. The Miami warehouse has computers and handheld

scanners located at the receiving and shipping doors to improve the

end-to-end processes.

“We decided to get scanners because there is always so much going

on that we wanted to ensure accuracy of loading containers to make

sure the right cargo goes in the right container,” she said. “It will also

help us handle more volume in the future.”

“Magaya helped us set up the scanners and referred us to someone to

help install the antennae for the wireless signal inside the warehouse,”

Ms. Chatt said. “Learning to use them was easy.”

Integration: Getting Systems to Talk to Each OtherA crucial part of the choice to implement Magaya software is its

flexibility to integrate with other systems. The CaribEx Worldwide

customer who brought them new requirements uses another system

which needs to talk to the WMS in the Miami warehouse. CaribEx’s

customer has other outside customers who need to see inventory and

shipment data.

After a meeting to discuss their needs, the Magaya Development team

assigned Software Engineer Daniel Oliva to work on the project using

the Magaya XML API.

CaribEx Worldwide

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In addition to the Miami CaribEx Worldwide facility, the company

is now using Magaya software in their Greensboro facility because

it is growing. They are also working with Magaya on an additional

integration with their accounting program, Great Plains. Great Plains

(now Microsoft Dynamics GP) is an enterprise resource planning

(ERP) system with different modules for Human Resources (HR)

functions, finances, business intelligence (BI), supply chain and project

management.

“Right now, people in the office are doing accounting processes twice

by opening up another software program and re-entering details just

to create an invoice. When the integration is built, they will be able to

bill directly out of the Magaya system and reduce duplicating work,”

Ms. Travis said.

A Vote of Confidence

The results of the Miami integration project include improved visibility

into the warehouse and the ability to handle an increase in volume. Ms.

Chatt said this is a pilot project. “After completing testing in the Miami

warehouse, we’re ready to add additional customers, which we can

easily do.”

“I see a return on our investment in the improvements between how

everyone worked before and after,” Ms. Travis said. “Looking back at

the installation, I feel we have more faith in the system, and it’s nice not

to worry so much about human errors. The integration has made our

customer happy. What has been promised to them has been delivered.

We’re starting to see more business from them.”

“I also hear from our people in the warehouse,” Ms. Travis said. “They

tell me, ‘How did we ever live without it?’ That’s a vote of confidence.”

CaribEx Worldwide