Introduction:

Cable drums are round objects used to house different wire products such as electric cables and fibre optic cables. It is important to handle such drums correctly to prevent any unwanted impact or damage to the cables. This case study describes the successful transportation of 25 metric tons of Cable Drums from Incheon, South Korea to Houston, USA.

Background:

Access World was engaged by our key customer in the Oil & Gas industry to move 23 time sensitive Cable Drums from their supplier premises in Incheon, South Korea up to final delivery address in Houston, USA by air. The drums varied in weight from 50 kg to 2000 kg with the largest drum 2 m in diameter.

Access World Korea worked in collaboration with Access World USA to perform a comprehensive door-to-door logistics solution.

Scope of Work:

The scope of work for the transportation of the Cable Drums included EXW (Ex-Works) collection, trucking to export warehouse, packaging fit for air transportation, export customs clearance, airfreight, and trucking to the final destination.

Challenges:

The first challenge faced during the transportation of the Cable Drums was the cargo handling. Given the cargo dimensions and weight, Access World carefully assessed the best handling method to avoid damaging of the cables as well as the packaging and loading process to ensure regulations imposed by airlines were complied with. As a result, the drums were laid flat on their surface (flange) for air transportation purposes.

The next critical success factor was ensuring smooth and timely communication with the relevant stakeholders throughout the supply chain with multiple time zones involved. Access World Korea worked directly with the shipper/export party to collect cargo for packaging at designated location before export out via airfreight and kept our customer updated based in USA. Due to the total cargo quantity, the Airline proposed to ship the cargo over multiple flights, which increased the risk of delay. Access World managed to keep the number of flight to a minimum ensuring cargo arrived timeously.

Conclusion:

The successful delivery was attributed to our local understanding of supply chain requirements for the transportation of Cable Drums and Access World’s presence in South Korea and USA. This resulted in effective planning and execution, offering our customer a single point of communication and a door to door 1-stop solution.