In our busy lives, we are happy that our food, drinks, gadgets and other products are delivered to our doorstep but we don’t usually acknowledge the logistics industry striving to make this a reality. There are innumerable drivers, operators, analysts and other personnel working hard to ensure the timely delivery of our goods. And their superiors i.e. the directors, managers and CEOs overlook every aspect of their operations spread across vast geographical areas. So, if you’re working already in or interested in a career in the logistics industry, remind yourself that only hard work and perseverance will help you achieve your goals.
Because the modern logistics industry is primarily dynamic and revolves around the customers’ changing needs, business here is a continual balancing act. On one hand, utilizing the right approach, mindset and strategies and on the other hand, helping business and the industry flourish. So, we must understand that there’s no replacement for diligent and consistent work. And, the companies who achieve this earn the title of a leader and can gain the power to rewrite the way business functions. Let’s explore the case of one of the fastest-growing logistics businesses operating in the Asia-Pacific today—YATFAI Group. Let’s look further into how they have illustrated business success.
In 1985, YATFAI Group was set up as a cross border trucking service and soon garnered prominence. It was able to serve customers’ changing needs transporting diverse commodities over long distances with the help of hundreds of trucks, 24*7 monitoring and high visibility throughout international networks. In the 1990’s, the company chose to expand and diversify its offerings to include warehousing, freight forwarding, import/export of goods, custom brokerage and cold chain logistics.
And, its business grew immensely in the ASEAN market thanks to the booming manufacturing activities around the turn of the 21st century. Throughout, YATFAI Group’s aim—to becoming a leading and comprehensive logistics service provider able to satisfy all kinds of logistics needs—has been its most powerful framework for decision making. Vincent Chan, the CEO of the company says that the secret to their growth and evolution has their mindset to constantly strive towards perfection in everything they do. He adds, “Today we have our own branches covering seven countries in Asia, plus network partners across all continents.”
Today, YATFAI Group has a strong reputation as a leading and highly focused integrated third party logistics services provider in the Asia-Pacific with offices and facilities set up internationally. At the same time, YATFAI Group continues its pursuit for higher professional excellence and perfection through creating innovative solutions. Vincent Chan shares. “We currently have our own integrated logistics management system running for our clients.” This easily implementable system has an effective warehouse management module with an optionally available transportation management system brought to the customer’s fingertips via apps. He further adds, “We can also integrate systems with some of the robotics solutions for your warehouse operations.”
We can see why YATFAI Group is successful in how it helps customers achieve success. And, some of its client relationships are nothing short of success stories themselves because YATFAI Group has intensely satisfied some clients who were global leaders. Every time, it pays extreme attention to detail and its employees work together to orchestrate success for both parties. Vincent Chan has high respect for employees. It shows when he says, “Our employees are a huge part of our system. It is our sales or leadership team that takes in contracts, but it’s our operational staffs who scale up the cooperation.” He has recognized the cruciality of employees in realizing business success and he encourages regular standard meetups between clients and the operational teams to strengthen rapport. And, YATFAI Group has also developed a customer relationships management system which provides regular insights to improve business.
In preparing for future challenges and sustaining its success, YATFAI Group is going to increase investments in technology. Vincent Chan explains his plans, “YF will become a technology driven logistics service provider. We would like our operations to be run more by systems instead.” In the future, we can expect their offerings to incorporate artificial intelligence and machine learning enriching business and serving customers better. He adds, “We would like to implement AI alert systems into our control tower so our process can be system driven and monitored.” To add, Vincent Chan is also working to connect with more and more vendors to scale up even more.
Vincent Chan has also recognized that leveraging technology will be indispensable in realizing the company’s vision to be an international leader in logistics. As the company is strengthening its services in ASEAN markets, it’s maintains a high focus on fine-tuning its operational accuracy and efficiency to encourage even better customer relationships.