Standstill of a gas extraction project avoided –

Malaysia, emerging “tiger state” in Southeast Asia. Engineers have been working on behalf of a Dutch energy company for some time on a large gas extraction project close to Miri, a city in the Eastern Malaysian province of Sarawak. Work is going “smoothly,” the technicians are making good progress – until mid-April when one of the most important machines of the entire project breaks down. The experts on site make a sobering diagnosis: some of the main components are not only defective, but they also cannot be repaired or replaced on site. The only solution: suitable spare parts must be obtained as quickly as possible; otherwise the extraction project could be threatened with a standstill, which would result in a significant financial loss for the energy company.
The magnitude of the logistical challenge caused by the defective machine increases once it becomes clear that the urgently needed spare parts are only available at the company’s home base, therefore in the Netherlands.

The Dutch headquarters subsequently decide to contract the specialist logistics provider time:matters. The service provider, which is part of the Lufthansa Group and is an expert for sameday, courier and emergency logistics solutions, also has a branch office in Amsterdam. It is there that the energy company’s logistics manager hands over the urgent machine parts directly to the On Board Courier, whose job it is to act as a “flying bodyguard,” meaning to personally accompany especially important shipments the entire time.

The time:matters experts immediately recognized during the energy company’s initial call that the Malaysian case is a job for an OBC. The specialist logistics service provider immediately developed a perfectly coordinated transport and delivery process, which begins to run like clock work as soon as the spare parts are dropped off at the time:matters office in Amsterdam at 10:00 am. A mere two hours later the plane takes off from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol headed towards Kuala Lumpur with the time:matters courier on board – and with him the valuable cargo that is being transported as carry-on luggage. After the plane lands in the Malaysian capital at 7:00 am local time, the OBC immediately attends to the customs clearance of his cargo, so that he can reach the two-hour long connecting flight to Miri shortly thereafter. Upon arrival he can take a taxi directly to the site of the energy company’s project, since the customs formalities were already taken care of in Kuala Lumpur. There he personally delivers the urgently needed spare parts to the site manager of the gas extraction project, just as the customer specifically requested.

Merely 22 hours have passed since the energy company’s logistics manager dropped of the machine parts at the time:matters office in Amsterdam. During the entire time the energy company was aware of where the cargo was; the seamless monitoring of the current shipment status and the proactive communication thereof to the customer belong to the high standard of service at time:matters. Now the spare parts can quickly be installed here, in the remote area Eastern Malaysia – just in time to prevent the extraction project from coming to a standstill.