LOX Shipping: productivity without new hires

The scenario: bids decided before the sales pitch

LOX Shipping was founded in 2018 with a clear goal: to be a modern, lean foreign trade operation built on data and process intelligence. For customs clearance director Eloi Filho, with 33 years of experience in foreign trade, the challenge was to build from scratch an operation that could compete at scale, without the weight of the manual processes that dominate the industry.

“Doing the process manually no longer fits today’s market,” says Eloi. “It’s a sales tool, because I need to get ahead in a bid. When I go into a tender, I need to show what sets me apart.”

That differentiator rests on two pillars: the intelligence of LOX’s operators and e.Mix’s technology.

I have fewer people producing more. The information comes to me; I don't have to go looking for it on the screen.

Translated from Portuguese Eloi Filho, Customs Clearance Director, LOX Shipping Watch the testimonial

The result: productivity without new hires

Asked how many people he would need to hire to match today’s productivity without FollowNet, Eloi is direct: “I would have to add at least 50% to my headcount to justify taking on the volume.”

In an earlier study, LOX measured a reduction of up to 70% in labor demand: an aggressive figure, but one that shows the combined effect of the automations, customizations and process intelligence built into the system. “The first thing I can’t give up is the automation. The information comes to me. The second, just as important, is the alerts: they give me 80% of my productivity, because they point me to where I need to focus the effort,” Eloi explains.

For an operation that has to compete for bids in a consolidated market, turning people costs into margin is decisive.

Anyone not using FollowNet is still in the Atari era. I can't see myself working without e.Mix today.

Translated from Portuguese Paulo Cruz, Customs Clearance Specialist, LOX Shipping Watch the testimonial

Day to day: visual management and SLAs met

For Paulo Cruz, a specialist with 25 years in foreign trade and a certified Key User, the day-to-day gain is measurable. “A gain of 30 to 40% of my weekly working hours, which let me analyze the process more, manage it and really make sure the agreed SLAs were being met.”

FollowNet replaces the chaos of physical folders and pencil notes with a visual system based on traffic lights and heat maps. “The grids are for execution and the dashboards are for management. It’s like an electronic Kanban: we create traffic lights and heat maps, and we can tell whether the activities are on track.”

As a team manager, Paulo uses the indicators to rebalance the workload between teams in real time: “The system shows that one team can help another that has a tighter deadline. That helps management a lot with the daily workload, so we don’t have one team working ahead of schedule while another is under pressure.“

The method: why e.Mix has no direct equivalent in the market

Eloi started using e.Mix more than 10 years ago, back at Agility. He took the partnership to DSV, then GEODIS, and now LOX, from day one of the operation. At every company he found the same e.Mix, used to different degrees.

“I was side by side with you as this tool evolved conceptually. When I say it changed, it was because we realized it wasn’t being used to its full potential,” Eloi explains. “Here at LOX we use it to its core. I use every preventive feature it gives us. The methodology implemented here by e.Mix is something I haven’t found anywhere else in the market.”

It’s no coincidence. The e.Mix Model is System + Methodology + Team that lives your operation: three deliverables that, together, let operations like LOX compete on excellence, not on price.