Main Role Players
What is a Customs Broker?
Intermediary that assists with customs documentation procedures in each country.
KPI that answers the question "How much time does delivery take?" from the warehouse to the final destination.
Delivery Time
Production strategy where items are manufactured only after receiving a specific customer order (e.g., printing services).
MTO
The full terms represented by the shipping acronyms ETA and ETD.
Estimated Time of Arrival and Estimated Time of Departure
Type of company that moves cargo by land using trucks (e.g., MCT, Botero Soto, JB Hunt).
Trucking Company?
What is DIAN?
Government entity in Colombia responsible for regulating the entry and exit of goods.
Measurement of how many received orders arrive correctly compared to what was placed.
Order Accuracy
Production strategy designed to keep units in stock to meet high customer demand.
MTS
The full terms represented by the tracking acronyms ATA and ATD.
Actual Time of Arrival and Actual Time of Departure
Actor responsible for managing modal transfer operations for ships, barges, containers, and bulk cargo at entry points.
Terminal Port / Airport?
What is a Shipping Line (e.g., Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd)?
Company that moves cargo by sea and/or river in ships and barges.
Total time taken for the complete process, starting when an order is placed until it reaches its final destination.
Lead time
: ZARA clothing and Chocoramo are prime examples of this inventory management model.
MTS
If total logistics costs equal $1,500 USD and sales equal $10,000 USD, this percentage represents the Logistics Cost / Sales KPI.
15%
What is a Courier?
Courier service specializing in urgent deliveries, small packages, and documents (e.g., DHL Express, FedEx).
What is a Freight Forwarder?
Agent that consolidates international logistics services to serve as a single point of contact between buyers and sellers.
What is OTIF?
Metric that measures the proportion of orders delivered On Time and In Full.
A core objective of Supply Chain Management regarding operational inefficiency in distribution.
What is avoiding unnecessary losses (like time)?
Metric that calculates efficiency based on unit measurement, such as $1,500 USD spent across 20 tons of cargo.
Logistics Cost / Weight (or Volume)? ($75 USD per ton)
What is Air Freight / Air Transport?
Mode of transport used by airlines like Avianca Cargo, LATAM Cargo, or Polar Air Cargo to move goods.
What are INVIMA and ICA (Sanitary/Security Authorities)?
Authorities in charge of controlling the entry/exit of specific goods based on their nature (e.g., health, agriculture, or security) in Colombia.
If a company orders 1,000 books, but physical count in the warehouse only yields 900, this KPI records a score of 90%.
Inventory Accuracy
The definition of Supply Chain Management (SCM).
oversight of materials, information, and finances as they moved from supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to customer
The comparison between logical stock recorded in the system versus actual physical stock present in the facility.
Warehouse (WH) vs. System stock for Inventory Accuracy?
What is the International Logistics Flow (from Seller/Origin to Buyer/Destination)?
The end-to-end movement sequence of an international supply chain, represented by actors 1 through 9.