Starting January this year, enjoy connectivity from the port to distribution centres across Europe through the Maersk Deconsolidation Warehouse in Barcelona.

Whether looking for mass production, cost-effectiveness or faster output, a number of European businesses today venture overseas to fulfil their sourcing and manufacturing requirements. However, this also results in higher transit times. In such cases, the demand forecasted at a particular distribution centre may not tally with the real demand at the time when the goods arrive.

This may call for movement of cargo to other distribution centres that still have requirements.

This unbalanced demand can have negative consequences:

• Higher cost in moving inventory between DCs.
• Loss in sales owing to the lack of inventory in the DC that requires the same.

The need of the hour is to plan against aggregate demand through a deconsolidation hub, which features near an entry port that serves many other DCs. This ensures that goods once at the hub, can be routed to the respective DC according to the latest demand estimates.

Maersk has identified the Barcelona Port as a hub between the Iberian Peninsula and South France and has invested in a state-of-the-art mixed cross-dock and storage warehouse there. Given the availability of the Logistics Activities Zone (ZAL) and the optimum multimodal transport connectivity, major retail players have already begun positioning their deconsolidation facilities in this area.

Maersk’s new Barcelona Deconsolidation Warehouse will ensure that goods, once at the hub in Spain, can be routed to the respective distribution centres according to the latest demand estimates.

Adding value to your supply chain