Career
Constructive working relationships are the proven key to successful business. According to a Deloitte study, collaboration improves work quality by 73%. The study suggests that putting collaborative principles at the core of a company’s strategy will grow its business 52% faster and bring 4 times more profit compared to a strategy focusing on other factors.
For customers of transport service providers, close interaction with the logistics team speeds up operational processes, increases productivity, and reduces the total costs. Therefore, the AsstrA corporate group integrates a collaboration-focused strategy into its internal business processes. Experts from related departments work closely with each other to find an appropriate solution to any challenge, regardless of its complexity. As a result, each client receives competitive rates and on-time deliveries with uncompromising service quality.
For one AsstrA client, this collaborative approach was a decisive success factor in the transportation of machine tool parts from the Chinese city of Zhengzhou to Lobnya, Russia. The unique aspect of this project was its tight delivery timeframe. To complete the delivery by the agreed date, air transport was the obvious choice. The cargo’s non-standard weight of 23 tons, however, soon proved to be an insurmountable barrier to air transport. Despite careful advance planning around the aircraft’s capacity, the third-party transport partner changed the flight schedule and the required deadlines could no longer be met.
Olga Shimanovich
“The client needed an alternative to urgent air transportation, as there could be production line stoppage in Russia if the spare parts did not arrive by the deadline. This would cause the client to incur colossal losses. Therefore, the AsstrA team quickly reviewed and proposed alternative solutions, and the client chose to use road transportation from China to Lobnya. A day after confirming the order, our colleagues from the Shanghai office had the vehicle ready for loading,” says Olga Shimanovich, CIS Logistics Project Coordinator.
The next challenge lay at the border of China and Kazakhstan. Due to the border crossing’s limited capacity caused by the spread of COVID-19, trucks faced potential downtime of up to 3 weeks. By carefully monitoring the situation at multiple border checkpoints, the team was able to change the planned route at the last minute to avoid possible delays and cross the border in 3 days. The team also oversaw the transshipment of the cargo to the next vehicle on the Kazakhstan-Russia route, via which the spare parts were delivered to their final destination.
“Thanks to our excellent internal collaboration, the client received the shipment a day earlier than planned. In addition to having accelerated delivery, the customer bore much lower costs, as by road the transportation was four times cheaper than by air. The close cooperation of colleagues from several departments and offices became the key to success for this logistic project,” sums up Olga Shimanovich.