Since 2002, Ergobaby has redefined how we carry babies. What started as a one mom’s search for an ergonomic and comfortable way to keep her newborn close to her, is now a leading consumer products company sold at more than 700 U.S. retailers and in 50 countries worldwide.

This fast-growing baby products company has more than 10 global suppliers spread across China, India, and Vietnam. As its supply chain became more complex, visibility into logistics milestones and other business-critical data became crucial to its growth and success. The company had long outgrown its manual supply chain processes which primarily involved email threads and Excel spreadsheets.

Ergobaby operates a global supply chain, producing premium products in Asia, before shipping them to Germany. Beyond the complexities of international logistics, their supply chain presented critical downstream effects. For example, product announcements on Ergobaby’s social media channels are tightly tied to cargo arrival dates.

With this unique set of needs, Ergobaby set out to find a logistics partner that could optimize their entire supply chain.They chose Flexport to help digitize their supply chain and increase visibility and collaboration at all points of the process, regardless of location.

Need for Global Network Visibility and Real-Time Data

Prior to working with Flexport, Ergobaby’s suppliers would email all their shipment details—including the contents and weight of shipping containers—which ended up in an Excel spreadsheet. With Flexport, they can simply upload this data to our first-of-its-kind, cloud-based logistics platform, and create a single source of truth for all suppliers and associated parties to work from.

Riyadh Rashid, demand planning and supply chain manager at Ergobaby, starts and ends his day with the Flexport Platform. The increased visibility and real-time updates that the Flexport Platform provides allow his team to plan downstream with greater accuracy, creating more predictability for their entire operation. Exceptions and issues can now be addressed in minutes, instead of the hours or days it used to take before.

By digitizing its supply chain Ergobaby has transformed its operations in multiple ways:

• Real-time visibility into their global logistics network to enable better coordination of product launches, faster time-to-market for online-only products, and increased efficiency of marketing campaigns.
• Flexport helps Ergobaby connect suppliers in China with their operations in Germany. By using the Flexport Platform, Ergobaby can upload purchase orders and share them with suppliers to book shipments that are more aligned with cargo-ready dates.
• Real-time reporting supports end-to-end supply chain optimization, so their logistics team can view container utilization, customs exceptions, and detailed landed costs in just a few clicks.

Seamless Collaboration With Teams and Suppliers

Visibility starts way upstream for Ergobaby. The team sets rules to automate reorders and allow suppliers to book shipments directly, based on cargo-ready dates. In the Flexport Platform, everyone can communicate in context. Messages expand and collapse under purchase orders or shipments, so Rashid and his team know exactly where to find everything they need, in real-time.

Integrating purchase orders and sharing control with suppliers resulted in:

• Faster launches for online-only products as they have more reliable data on when cargo arrives, and easier launches for all products.
• Faster deliveries. With Flexport, Ergobaby gets shipments two to three days faster than they did before.

During a recent launch of a new stroller, Flexport-enabled milestone visibility across a global network enhanced company-wide alignment, right down to the timing of social media posts.

Digitization Drives End-to-End Optimization

The improvement in launch and delivery times illustrates one of the major upsides of digitization: Ergobaby can now optimize for both speed and cost at every step in the supply chain. In just minutes, their team can get insights on container utilization, customs exceptions, detailed landed costs and much more.

For Ergobaby, usability, functionality, and stability were important factors in choosing a freight forwarding partner. But the human factor behind the technology was also critical. They count on Flexport’s technology, infrastructure, expertise and 24x7 localized customer support. It is this combination that enabled Ergobaby to achieve end-to-end optimization of their supply chain.

Ergobaby Takes Back Control of its Supply Chain

Good design doesn’t have to end at the product. With Flexport as their shipping partner, Ergobaby has unlocked opportunities for increased visibility and control in their supply chain–while modernizing processes and workflows. With Flexport, Ergobaby was able to create a supply chain that’s truly optimized for global collaboration and operational excellence.