Cross-docking at Crocs

By Michiel van Mourik

Crocs, Inc. is a shoe manufacturer founded by Scott Seamans, Lyndon “Duke” Hanson, and George Boedecker, Jr. —to produce and distribute a foam clog design acquired from a Quebec company called Foam Creations. On Wednesday, May 18th John Frijsen, Supply Chain SME at Crocs presented how they use ShipitSmarter for Cross-docking. Which is a practice in the logistics of unloading materials from an incoming semi-trailer truck or railroad car and loading these materials directly into outbound trucks, trailers, or rail cars, with little or no storage in between. This may be done to change the type of conveyance, to sort material intended for different destinations, or to combine material from different origins into transport vehicles with the same destination or similar destinations.

Advantages of cross-docking with ShipitSmarter:

  • Streamlines the supply chain, from point of origin to point of sale
  • Reduces labour costs through less inventory handling
  • Reduces inventory holding costs by reducing storage times and potentially eliminating the need to retain safety stock
  • Products reach the distributor, and consequently the customer, faster
  • Reduces or eliminates warehousing costs
  • May increase available retail sales space
  • Less risk of inventory handling

Typical applications of cross docking in ShipitSmarter:

  • Hub and spoke” arrangements, where materials are brought into one central location and then sorted for delivery to a variety of destinations
  • Consolidation arrangements, where a variety of smaller shipments are combined into one larger shipment for economy of transport
  • Deconsolidation arrangements, where large shipments are broken down into smaller lots for ease of delivery

ShipitSmarter can help you control with several factors concerning cross-docking:

  • Continuous communication between suppliers, distribution centers and all point of sale;
  • Freight costs for the commodities being transported
  • Cost of inventory in transit
  • Complexity of loads
  • Handling methods
  • Logistics software integration between supplier(s), vendor, and shipper
  • Tracking of inventory in transit