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What do you do when asked to move 50 cars door to door from Hiroshima, Japan, to Milan – all by air, all in one go? You build the largest flying garage! A global auto company was introducing a new sports car to Europe, and cars had to be flown from Japan to Milan on one plane: a Boeing 747-8. Agility designed double-stack racks to fit 50 cars in one plane. For comparison, usually one to five cars are shipped at a time. Agility also prepped the cars for flight by transporting them 900 km from the factory to Narita airport. Once the cars arrived in Milan, Agility trucked them to showrooms in six European countries.

When a global provider of air treatment solutions needed to move its air compressors from China to an assembly line in Italy, they wanted to do it quickly and cost-effectively. Agility recommended a combination of rail and road freight for the 11,200-kilometer journey; it’s cheaper than air freight and faster than ocean freight. Compressors from a factory in Chongqing, China, were transported by rail through Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland, and arrived 17 days later in Duisburg, Germany. Finally, the containers were loaded onto trailers and delivered to Italy. ​The innovative cross-border solution reduced transit time by as much as 50% compared to ocean freight, and 65% compared to air freight.

A leading vehicle maker need better visibility into dozens of manufacturing and assembly plants worldwide; a reliable flow of parts from China, India and other Asian nations; and faster door-to-door transit times to reduce shipment delays. Agility was appointed to manage the company’s logistics. The first step was to install a control center in Turin. Next, procedures were implemented to track every single container, shipment and part number door-to-door. Our plan included customized track and trace EDI solutions, and buyer consolidation and container optimization. Agility also made emergency plans to ensure nothing could bring business to a halt. Today, the customer relies on Agility to manage parts from China, India, Thailand, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam to multiple plants across Europe and Latin America.