Three Ways Kimball Cuts Shipping Delays from Asia
As we discussed in our previous blog post, the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted shipments from Asia. From a sudden explosion of importations to a shortage of vessels, trouble in US ports, and ground transportation delays, there are many things to consider when moving the hospitality goods necessary to complete hotel renovation and construction projects.
Kimball Hospitality, a valued Innvision partner and manufacturer of casegoods and seating, is taking active steps to accelerate the supply chain and minimize the damaging effects felt by their clients. In this post, we’ll take a behind-the-scenes look at what they’re doing to mitigate these challenges and the improvements they hope to see in the future.
Teamwork
Although late furniture shipments negatively impact hotel owners, the good news is that there are teams in place to minimize delays wherever possible. The team at Kimball Hospitality works diligently to shave time at every opportunity in moving their containers from point A to point B.
Christy Padgett, an Account Manager at Kimball Hospitality, operates like the conductor of a nationwide orchestra. She oversees and directs the movement of Kimball containers, communicates with all parties involved, and monitors logistics. At any given moment, she may interface with 13-20 different truckers, optimizing routes and planning in an effort to decrease even the smallest delay during land travel.
Because of Account Managers like Christy and the rest of their rock-solid team, Kimball Hospitality is improving outcomes and helping shield the blow from Asia’s shipment delays on hotel owners in the US.
Communication
When it comes to freight management during a pandemic, things can change drastically by the day. Whether it’s a sudden weeklong delay when a ship enters a port but cannot be unloaded or a need to secure a trucker at the precise time to move cargo inland, communication must be frequent, timely, and thorough.
Kimball Hospitality and Innvision are in constant communication with each other every step of the way. This allows Innvision to stay informed and establish frequent contact with clients to provide essential updates and transparent news about shipments.
Kimball is aware that hotel owners’ project schedules rely on the on-time delivery of goods. They recognize that shipment delays can mean project holdups, so they are committed to communicating all updates down the line so Innvision and hotel owners can plan accordingly.
Overseas Support
The team working behind-the-scenes to reduce delays and the pandemic’s negative impact on hotel owners isn’t just stateside. Kimball Hospitality has hired multiple freight forwarders with offices in Asia and the US whose sole responsibility is to increase Kimball’s access to more containers so they can ship products to the US more quickly.
The use of a freight forwarding contractor gives Kimball a considerable advantage. It allows their clients, such as Innvision, to get their products sooner despite the container imbalance plaguing the entire import/export industry worldwide.
Hired freight forwarders search for available containers, give Kimball priority to secure them, and then push to get the containers loaded early and shipped quickly from Asia. Because of relationships like these that Kimball has both in the US and Asia, their products have moved more rapidly despite this challenge impacting all imported goods.
Facing Forward
Although the pandemic is not yet over, the team at Kimball Hospitality is hopeful for the future. No one quite knows what our “new normal” will look like, but Christy predicts that we will begin seeing improvements in May and June when Asia has had time to catch up with the changes in importation demands and shipping.
In the meantime, Kimball Hospitality is working hard to make even the most incremental improvements whose cumulative effect can mean the shortening of delays by days, if not weeks, for deliveries. When it comes to what they do for their clients, Charles Bastien, the VP of Sales and Marketing for Kimball, said it best, “We work on the little things that have big wins.”
Innvision’s strong relationships with partners such as Kimball, coupled with our experience, infrastructure, and service-oriented approach, create a compelling value for hotel owners about to begin work on a new construction or renovation. If you’d like to learn more about how Innvision can make your next hotel project a success, contact us today.
