Driving Transformation in the Logistics Industry

DBS, with its suite of digital solutions, developed a complete automotive supply chain platform for a client in China to create greater efficiency and enhance transparency across the supply chain.

Automotive supply chain

BAIC CCL (CCL) is a professional logistics firm. It was founded in 2008 to provide vehicle logistics, finance and manage integrated supply chains. CCL’s clients include the BAIC group, Beijing Benz, Beijing Hyundai and electric car manufacturer, BJEV.

The firm had been facing some major challenges which it wanted to address and asked us to help. The most important concern was a reliance on paper-based documentation, needed when shipping vehicles to its distributors and major customers. These documents are passed from carrier to carrier and any loss or damage to the paperwork causes delays in delivering the vehicles to their final destination – delays that can be costly and damage reputations.

Partly as a result of the extensive paper-trail, CCL’s supply chain participants were taking a long time to reconcile their accounts, resulting in delays to paying carriers. As supply chain manager, CCL needed a solution that would eliminate paper from the shipping process and reduce costs and risks to its carriers’ businesses caused by these payment delays.

Together with a local blockchain provider, we developed a complete automotive supply chain platform - integrating logistics, settlement and supply chain finance into one seamless package. We deployed APIs from our suite of banking API solutions, RAPID (Real-time APIs with DBS) to integrate trade financing onto the platform.

The new platform enables all members of the supply chain – from car manufacturers and exporters, to carriers and dealerships – to connect with each other, creating greater efficiency and transparency across the supply chain.

As a result of these changes, participants can now access digital data about the delivery status of their order in real-time. The carriers can accept orders through the new platform, and car dealerships can update the delivery status on the same platform once they receive their vehicles.
The information is provided to all participants to ensure transparency and trust is maximised throughout the supply chain.

The new solution has met all of CCL’s goals, removing reliance on paper documents and improving operational efficiency across the supply chain – making reconciliation easier and allowing payments to be made quickly for all participants.

Furthermore, as we now have a view of the entire supply chain, we are able to offer participants easier access to finance through our RAPID APIs – especially the smaller carriers who might otherwise not have been able to access funding.

If you are planning to streamline your own operations, DBS RAPID could help you to meet your goals. With more than 200 RAPID customers and the largest banking API library in the world, we are a leader in the provision of banking API solutions.