How big is your logistics team?

The logistics team's size and structure are major determining factors in how efficiently shipments can be planned, coordinated, and delivered, and this factor is especially true in the logistics of international apparel manufacturing. At Hula Global, the logistics team is purposefully kept lean, focused, and support-oriented.

Rather than functioning as a fully-fledged logistics company, Hula Global employs a small, yet highly skilled team that assists in the coordination of shipping and logistics for its clients, especially smaller, emerging brands that haven’t built their logistics systems yet.

The logistics team at Hula Global is made up of individual team members with specific and dedicated roles. Each of these roles is aimed at providing optimal coordination with regard to manufacturing, documentation, and third-party logistics. This configuration empowers Hula Global to assist its clients without carrying logistics as a mainstream business vertical.

One member of the team is exclusively focused on air shipments. This position involves the planning of courier and air freight movements, which are time-critical and detail-focused activities. Air shipments are typically needed for samples, urgent production runs, or small consignment units that demand greater speed.

The air shipments coordinator collaborates with international courier companies, manages pickups, tracks shipments, and communicates the shipment details to clients. Due to the constantly changing air freight prices and the availability of capacity, this position requires a lot of coordination and quick responsiveness.

Hula Global also has one dedicated team member for sea shipments, which, like air freight, is also provided with a dedicated staff member. Sea freight is typically used for larger volumes and bulk orders. It also has longer transit times, which require more complex planning.

The sea shipments coordinator works with ocean freight partners, manages container bookings, and synchronizes production with the shipment schedule. This position also involves monitoring sailing schedules, managing delays, and updating clients through the shipping process. Sea shipments require a lot of careful planning in order to avoid disruptions, and this is why having a dedicated person is crucial in terms of planning consistency and reliability.

Another important component of international logistics is documentation. Hula Global allocates one employee fully to documentation. This employee prepares all necessary documentation: invoices, packing lists, export papers, and compliance documentation for the shipping and customs processes, which is sent to the freight forwarder.

There is no room for errors in documentation, because mistakes can lead to delays, fines, and holds on shipments at airports and seaports. Hula Global is able to smooth the shipment processes for clients by reducing the risk of documentation errors in the logistics process.

Besides the noted roles, Hula Global employs two additional people who assist with all the logistics functions. These employees perform operational support, cross the log-jam in inter-department traffic, provide client support, and assist in load balancing.

This role is critical in periods of high production where the accumulation of several shipments occurs at the same time. By coordinating the work of the other support team members, the log-jam is cleared, the work remains balanced, and the team members are not overloaded.

This lean logistics structure is a key part of Hula Global's overall philosophy on logistics. For them, shipping and logistics are secondary to the main game - generating revenue. Their logistics team is there to help facilitate coordination and offer guidance, not to take over freight forwarding or big-picture logistics entirely. That approach allows them to focus on what really matters - running their apparel manufacturing business.

It's worth noting that Hula's logistics team is not a one-size-fits-all solution. They tend to work best with smaller brands or those that don't have a lot of experience with logistics - basically, anyone who doesn't have a huge volume of shipping to deal with yet. As brands grow and start shipping bigger and bigger volumes, logistics start to get a lot more complicated and demanding.

At around $500,000 a year in inventory shipments, it becomes a pretty good idea to get your own logistics manager on board - or at least some dedicated support staff. Anything above that level and the stakes get a lot higher, with costs, timelines, and operational efficiency all depending on the logistics being handled.

In fact, many brands start getting serious about building their own logistics capability a lot earlier than that - around the $150-$200,000 mark, to be precise. At this point, they tend to bring in some part-time logistics support or work closely with a specialist freight forwarder.

That way, they can keep costs under control, negotiate better deals with carriers, and generally be more proactive about managing risk. Having a dedicated logistics team also helps them plan inventory more effectively and not have to rely so heavily on external coordination.

One of the things Hula Global tries to do is help brands grow sustainably - and not get too dependent on their logistics team in the process. We're upfront about what our team can and can't do, so brands know where they stand and can plan accordingly. We're not trying to keep clients tied to their logistics service long-term; we're more interested in helping brands build their own systems and grow strong from the ground up.

All in all, Hula Global's logistics team is a small but experienced group of pros, with dedicated roles for air shipments, sea shipments, documentation, and operational support. Our job is to make logistics easier for brands that don't have their own setup in place yet.

As those brands start to grow and their shipping volumes increase, they'll need to start thinking about investing in dedicated logistics resources if they want to stay on top of things, keep costs under control, and make their supply chain more resilient.

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