Case Study on Warehousing Collaboration with a Large European Fashion Retailer in China

Case Study on Warehousing Collaboration with a Large European Fashion Retailer in China

Our client is a prominent European fashion retailer with a strong global supplier network that coordinates with local production factories which require high-quality standards due to direct skin contact. To ensure unbiased quality control, the client chooses to have inspections conducted by a third-party inspection company.

MOOV has warehouses at major ports in China, each equipped with inspection centers. This setup efficiently covers the client’s factory locations across China. More importantly, goods that pass inspection can also be repacked, picked, and consolidated, achieving an integrated shipping process and optimizing the supply chain structure.

Project Cooperation 

Our cooperation began by focusing on textile goods inspection, warehousing integration, and international transportation from our Shanghai hub. As client demands grew, our cooperation extended to Xiamen, Qingdao, and Shenzhen.

As the cooperation expanded, MOOV started handling the rest of the client’s products, such as shoes and other fashion accessories. Through our efficient logistics and inspection services, the client achieved high-quality warehousing and logistics management, ensuring fair and impartial product inspections to meet their high standard. This resulted in a significant reduction of shipments failing quality checks overseas, which would then need to be shipped back to China, hampering the supply chain.

Project Highlights

Efficient and Transparent SOP: 

Over the past years, we have continuously optimized our Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and cooperated with the client on building a digital supply chain software, to achieve online management of logistics warehouses. Here are our key processes, all visible and manageable online:

1. Order Management: Clients place orders through the online system to the dedicated inspection center team (IC). Upon receiving the order, the IC immediately notifies the factory to arrange warehouse entry, and the factory provides detailed     entry volume and time. The IC sends the factory’s entry plan to the warehouse, which arranges specific tasks accordingly.
2. Warehouse Management: Goods are inspected based on the shipment details, confirming whether the goods match the  shipping list. Any discrepancies are immediately reported to the IC for resolution; if there are no issues, the goods are smoothly stored.
3. Quality Inspection: A sample picking team is dispatched, led by IC, satisfying key requirements to randomly select goods for inspection in the quality control room （QC）. The QC conducts the tests and reports the results directly to the client’s quality manager (QM), who then informs the IC of the outcomes. If the goods pass inspection, the IC team coordinates booking and optimal shipping plans, including consolidating shipments to maximize container utilization. If the goods fail inspection, the IC team contacts the shipper to arrange for rework and subsequent reinspection.
4. Value-Added Services: MOOV also offers a range of value-added services, such as reworking and repackaging goods that do not involve process issues, and arranging sample shipments according to different country requirements. These services not only improve inspection and logistics efficiency but also help clients to achieve higher business goals.

Data and Cost Optimization:

1. Complex Document Optimization: We receive procurement contracts from clients daily, each with different formats and spanning dozens of pages, requiring extraction of useful information for inspection and logistics. We developed a tool to quickly read specified information and generate standard reports, reducing the understanding time caused by different formats and greatly improving work efficiency. Additionally, we optimized factory reporting standards to enhance overall supply chain efficiency.
2. Information Sharing: the online software facilitates  full-chain communication within the supply chain, ensuring the client’s quality control and logistics departments can timely access the required information online, reducing errors and delays in information transmission.
3. Rational Division of Labor to Reduce Costs: Based on our long-term cooperation, we deeply understand the client’s procurement and inspection needs, enabling us to predict goods and inspection scales in advance. We reasonably allocate the number of inspection centers, warehouses, and on-site inspection personnel to optimize costs, ensuring efficient operations while guaranteeing smooth inspections, achieving the best balance between cost and efficiency.

Addressing Supply Chain Uncertainties:During the COVID-19 pandemic, the supply chain faced significant challenges. Notably, from April to June 2022, operations in Shanghai nearly halted. Despite this, as one of the the client’s key warehouses in China, the MOOV Shanghai team still completed goods inspection and shipment on time and with high quality, ensuring nearly 2000 TEUs of goods were shipped smoothly.

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We are grateful for the years of growth with our client. Currently, we have mature and efficient inspection processes at our four warehouse inspection centers in China, especially in the textile industry. We also have extensive experience in other industries, combined with digital supply chain management software, enabling real-time management of warehouses and inspections in China. If you have any questions about your supply chain management, please feel free to contact us. We value your business as much as you do and will provide tailored solutions for your supply chain, allowing you to focus on the core development of your business and achieve greater success.