Unfinished goods, delivered in the order you'll build them
Finished product sits on a shelf. Parts sit on your critical path. We run inbound freight for manufacturers who do final assembly in North America, and we plan it like a production schedule.
One missing part stops the whole line
You can have 98% of a product's parts in the building and still build zero units.
Most forwarders treat production parts like any other cargo. Each supplier books its own shipment, the containers arrive whenever they arrive, and your receiving team spends two days breaking down pallets to find the one carton of screws you're short.
We started Fiskers in 2013 to fix exactly that for one appliance maker in Illinois. It's still the work we're best at.
Many suppliers in, one planned delivery out
Tools we use, depending on your plant
Not every client needs all of these. We usually start with consolidation and add the rest once we understand how your line runs.
Multi-supplier consolidation
We collect from each supplier on a milk run, reconcile against your PO, and ship one container instead of several half-empty ones.
Kitting at origin
Parts are grouped into kits per unit or per batch, matched to your bill of materials, and packed in your returnable totes or our cartons.
Build-sequence loading
Containers are loaded so the parts for week one come out of the door first. Your receiving team unloads straight to line-side staging.
Shortage alerts at origin
If a supplier short-ships, you know the day we pick up, while there's still time to fly the missing part or reorder.
Vendor-managed buffer
Safety stock of critical parts held in our Chicago or Toronto warehouse and released on your call-off or kanban signal.
Returnable packaging loop
Empty totes, dunnage and racks shipped back to suppliers in China instead of being bought new every run.
What clients see after six months
Median figures across 12 production-logistics clients onboarded 2023–2025, comparing the six months before and after.
Case study: 9 days of line-side wait cut to 2This service works best if…
- You do final assembly, configuration or packaging in the US or Canada
- You buy parts from three or more suppliers in China or Vietnam
- You ship at least two containers a month of parts, or plan to
- A missing part costs you more than the freight to fly it
- You're tired of your receiving team playing detective
Not quite there yet? Plenty of clients start with buyer's consolidation on a single product line and grow from there.
Have a production schedule we should see?
Send us your PO dates and lane details. A planner (not a bot) will come back with routing options and a rate within one business day.