EXPORT CYCLE (OVERVIEW)

Booking Empty yard Store Door ICD CFS Clearance Rail Terminal (port)
Process • Booking confirmation • Empty Pick up • Truck order placed • Laden gated in at ICD • Arrival of cargo by CBT • Customer documents received • Laden loaded on rail • Laden discharged
Milestones is given by the • Detention / free time • Truck GPS location • Laden stored at trucks • Checklist for Export clearance • Laden discharged from rail • ETD minus 3 days notification
customer, along with • Validity of MTY pick up • Truck driver contact location in depot • Examination of cargo (contents) • Rail location (status: on the • Late arrival
CURRENT PROCESS

details of export and • Container survey • Cargo loaded gate • Gate out pass • Cargo stuffed • Checklist approved way, stopped, etc.) • Special Permission to gate in
empty container pick- status out on truck received • Laden gated in at CFS • EGM filed • Rail real ETD & ETA with additional cost
up • Either in container or • Gate out pass received • SB assessed • Which containers are on which • Containers must be in the load
Truck rail for the same BL list
• Other rail availability (for cases
where the container didn’t
make it on time due to delay in
vessel arrival or in handling)

Activities to be • Booking Form • Validate Booking • Booking copy – team • Share the stuffing plan • Share the stuffing plan • Commercial invoice • For empty – booking copy • Draft Shipping instruction
looked after by • Shipping Instructions Copy connects with with help of stuffing with help of stuffing • Packing list • Invoice payments
the customer Template for filing transporter – for Instruction Instruction • Insurance and Freight
(includes customer stuffing • CIF
document • Stuffing report • Export declarations and scheme
preparation) • Truck documents bill declarations
• Clearance docs
• Stuffing cargo on time
• Gate out time
• Weighment of the
container
Activities to be • Raise a PO or Booking • Initiate Booking • Trucking • Stuffing Plan to ICD • Stuffing Plan to CFS • Checklist preparation for SB • Form 13 Handing over
WORKFLOW

looked after by • Manifest SI documentation • Weighment of the • Checklist approval by customer • SB final endorsement
Maersk (includes container • Checklist upload at ICEGATE and • Allowed for shipment
document obtain SB number • On board on vessel
preparation • Assessment documents,
Examination, LEO,
• RFID Seal
• Form 13
Communication • Process/booking • Yard sends mail in • Customer calls vendor • ICD sends mail in • Unknown • Vendor, Customer & Delivery • Terminal sends mail in specific • Terminal sends mail in specific
Flow initiated by specific format to directly or customer specific format to upload status & documentation format to specific mail ID format to specific mail ID
confirmation from specific mail ID asks CS who asks DL specific mail ID (BL, BoE, certificates, etc.) on
customer who asks vendor – AppLite directly or sends the info
• Customer sends all the vendor answers then in a specific format to dedicated
necessary documents DL feeds info back to mail ID
to be uploaded on customer
the government portal
ICEGATE
People/Parties • RMS • EO
RESOURCES

Involved • PO
• AO
(Officers appointed at CFS by
Commissioner Head)

PROCESS TIME FLOW – EXPORTS

Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Activity with • Booking • Coordinating with • Preparing and arranging for trucking • Stuffing Instruction received from • Clearance processed by Customs – in case of • Loading of final • In case of container
Lead time confirmation by yard for container documents (03 Hours) customer (0.5 Hours) mismatched cargo declaration (03 Hours) container with all via rail and then
taken customer (00 Hrs) availability and • Finalizing the trucking movement with • Clearance for declared cargo initiated • Post clearance from customs, CHA prepares the necessary seals moved into port for
• Gathering pick-up (03 hrs) help of SCM team (02 Hours) in Customs (01 Hours) stuffing plan based on stuffing instructions from onto the vessel loading into the vessel
documents from • Validating booking • Stuffing cargo from factory or into • Clearance processed by Customs – customer (01 Hours) (05 Hours) (08 Hours)
customer (07 Hrs) copy and initiating ICD/CFS for clearance process normal scenario (07 Hours) • Approval of stuffing plan by PO and stuffing
booking process (02Hours) permission obtained by PO after customs clearance
(03 Hrs) • Obtaining gate pass and checking (02 Hours)
final container weighment (02 Hours) • Stuffing cargo into container for moving out of
ICD/CFS to rail or terminal (03 Hours)
Time Taken
per day 07 Hours 06 Hours 09 Hours (can be reduced to 08 hours) 8.5 Hours 09 Hours 05 Hours 08 Hours
ILLUSTRATION OF A WORKFLOW/COMMUNICATION PROCESS – BETWEEN CUSTOMS BROKER (CFS) AND SHIPPER
Customs processes the. In
Customer documents are
case of discrepancies, the
coordinates with trucker for
received and given to the customs broker intimates
the shipper for detailed
customs for clearance
documents/amendments
Export process closed
ILLUSTRATION OF HOW AUTOMATION WOULD HELP
Shipper wishes to know
status of clearance and Shipper logs on the App
cargo movement from CFS
In parallel:
Agent appointed by the
A milestone is completed customs broker sends
by the customs updates in pre-established
format to email ID
ILLUSTRATION OF A WORKFLOW/COMMUNICATION PROCESS – BETWEEN FREIGHT FORWARDER (MAERSK) AND SHIPPER/CUSTOMER
Trucks are gated-in, post In case of physical After examination of cargo
Customs Broker Cargo is de-stuffed and
producing the gate-in examination, cargo is is over, “Let Export Order”
kept for examination at the
pass. In case of document taken to a separate area LEO is given in order to
entry into CFS CFS, for clearance by
clearance processing by for checking by EO. The clear the cargo for export
RMS, direct factory stuffing PO,AO, EO same is updated on Excel
After cargo is stuffed in the
Cargo stuffed on vessel Stuffing Plan to be containers, container are Gets stuffing permission
and SB copies are given to approved by the customs. gated-out with a pass and from customs and starts
customer, bank, shipping Plan to have all details like SB draft copy along with preparing stuffing plan for
line container number the stuffing plan for vessel vessel stuffing
Shipper sees a
personalized window for
his clearance procedure
with timestamp updates
for each clearance
The documentation is
Shipper gets notification if Shipper uploads the available on the app for 5
he needs to submit missing documentation in years and is automatically
additional documents the App shared with relevant
parties
App is updated with latest
status
 Customer gives a booking
confirmation and mails the
documents for further
process (CI,PL,ED)
ILLUSTRATION OF HOW AUTOMATION WOULD HELP
Customer wants to know
whether all is in order for his
cargo to be transported
In parallel:
A milestone is completed
by the concerned vendor
VALUE POINTS THAT COULD BE BENEFICIAL FOR MAERSK
Customer calls Customer Customer gets some of the
Customer Service calls Delivery calls the trucking
Service to ask about Vendor provides the Delivery shares the update information he asked for
Delivery to ask about the vendor to check real-time
updates on the various required information with the customer (some might be lost in
same update
stages translation)
Customer needs additional
The documentation for that Delivery shares it with Customer sends his information or learns that
stage is in place relevant parties documentation to Delivery he needs to provide an
additional document
Once the document is The cycle continues until
The document is sent back the final loading of the
approved it’s sent to the
to the customer for concerned authority for shipment on the vessel is
approval completed
further procedures
Customer sees all the
information he requires
The request is redirected to
Customer needs additional Customer raises a request
Customer logs on the App the correct stakeholder for
information on the App
resolution
The documentation is
Customer learns that he Customer uploads the
available on the app for 5
needs to provide an missing documentation in
years and is automatically
additional document the App
shared with relevant
parties
Vendor sends updates in
App is updated with latest
pre-established format to
status
email ID
 Pain points

Problem Description Possible Solution

Physical weighment of the container Weighment of the container is an important stage in the export process as there needs to be a cross • Using Smart containers
verification of the declared cargo, by the shipper and the actual weight of the cargo that has been • Smart containers are pre-equipped with sensors that uniformly weigh the
packed for export. container as and when any cargo is stuffed/de-stuffed from the container

Physical weighment of containers Benefits:

• Convenient process and been used since a long time, but is comparatively more time consuming
• Involves more resources in terms of equipment and people involved, along with ensuring safety of
the container while weighing
• Also takes into account servicing of the equipment that is used for the physical weighment of the
container
• The time spent in weighing the container, which is roughly even 1-2 hours
gets completely nullified, hence reducing the time of the entire process
• Saves on equipment maintenance cost which was earlier used for
physical weighment of the container
Challenges:
• Installing the sensor to transform a container into a smart container
across all the available containers of the company
• Investment in terms of money and time in installing the sensor

Repetition of steps in terms of clearance
documents for the process – Checklist
document
A checklist is prepared using the three documents provided by the customer – Commercial Invoice, • Developing a chat-bot service in order to verify the areas of mismatch
Packing List and Export declaration between the customer’s entered AD Code and the Custom’s Code
• The chat-bot would probe a customer with self-generated questions
• The process becomes repetitive as it’s essentially a compilation of the three documents that are based on the data it gets filled with initially and the data that it reads from
collected from the customer in the first stage the documents provided by the customer (CI, PL and ED)
• The requirement of a checklist becomes questionable as none of the other countries leading in
the shipping business follow a checklist
• Issues that checklist tries to arrest – differences in the AD Code and HS Codes filled in by the
customer and the codes provided by the customs

CHECKLIST GENERATION:

Current process:

Based on the documents
Customer gives the
provided by the customer,
documents for further
a checklist with all the
process (CI, PL, ED)
relevant info from the earlier
documents is added
The checklist sometimes has The customer approves the
The prepared checklist is Checklist is uploaded on
discrepancies in the AD Code checklist or asks to
sent to the customer via ICEGATE and SB number is
and HS Codes between the change the contents if it is
email obtained from there
one given by the customer required
and the customs’ codes

Chat-bot feature for developing checklist:

The App has pre-defined
Customer uploads the
codes fed into it. All the HS
documents for further
Codes, AD codes where
process on App (CI, PL, ED)
there’s a possibility of
discrepancy of data
Once the customer uploads the documents
on the App, the coding reads the documents
and looks for possible discrepancies based
on the commodity type, region code which
is already added in the system/App
Based on the information fed
into the App, a link floats on the
customer’s App with suggestions
of the different codes that could
have discrepancies
Once the customer chooses
the HS/AD Code based on
his requirement, a final
consolidated document is
auto generated in the App
The final document surfaces
on the customer’s screen
and the customer gives
approval through an accept
push link on the App

The whole process Once the customer accepts

roughly takes 30 mins, the document, it automatically
compared to the goes as a notification on the
current process taking interface of the necessary
3-4 hours stakeholders
ILLUSTRATION OF A WORKFLOW/COMMUNICATION PROCESS FOLLOWED AT FEDEX (GINA MODEL)
Customer gives a booking
confirmation and mails the Go ahead with the
If SLI is proper YES
documents for further shipping process
process (CI,PL,ED, SLI)

NO

Get back to customer to

verify the SLI and correct it