Cross-border
Nearshoring to Mexico: what the landed cost model usually misses
Duty rates are the easy part. Lead time variability, classification risk and broker performance are where the number moves.
Coming soon
Hoboken, New Jersey
A supply chain that keeps up with your growth.
Consulting, US and Latin America cross-border strategy, and fractional leadership for manufacturers, hardware companies and consumer brands whose operations have outgrown their setup. We design the change, lead it, and stay until it holds.
Cross-border work between the US, Mexico and Brazil is a core part of the practice.
$70Mof inventory managed across the Americas
5distribution and repair sites run
4countries: US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil
60%fewer stock-outs after an S&OP redesign
13+years running global supply chains
The firm
When growth starts to strain the operation.
Growth creates operational problems. Inventory gets harder to control, the warehouse falls behind, planning lives in spreadsheets, and every new market adds complexity. Large companies have whole teams for this. Growing companies usually have one or two people doing three jobs.
Costa Supply Chain Advisory brings that big-company capability to companies that do not have it yet. Our experience comes from building and running warehouse networks, hardware operations and cross-border flows for global technology hardware and FMCG businesses. We scope the work to what a growing company can absorb, and we stay through implementation rather than handing over a plan.
From 3PL selection and warehouse layout to cutover and weekly performance reviews, most of our work happens on the floor.
Services
Three ways to work with us
Each engagement is scoped around a result, not a number of hours. Some problems need advice. Most need someone to run the change.
Fixing planning, inventory and logistics when the current setup no longer scales.
For companies where the basics are no longer holding: forecasts miss, inventory is too high or in the wrong place, the warehouse cannot keep up, or the 3PL is not performing. We agree a baseline, redesign the process and the systems behind it, then run the implementation with your team until it works.
Scope includes: diagnostic and baseline, process redesign and S&OP, planning system setup, 3PL selection and transition, cutover and stabilization.
Discuss this workMoving product between the US, Mexico and Brazil without surprises at the border or in the tax bill.
The rate sheet is the easy part. The real cost of moving product between the US, Mexico and Brazil sits in customs delays, classification errors, broker performance and tax structures that were never designed for your flow. We design the network, select and govern the partners, and put controls in place so production keeps running when a lane fails.
Scope includes: landed cost modeling, network and fiscal design with licensed partners, broker and forwarder selection and scorecards, documentation workflows, contingency planning.
Discuss this workA senior supply chain leader on your team, without a full-time executive hire.
Some companies need a VP of Operations before they can afford one. Others need someone to own a 3PL transition, a warehouse move or a product launch from start to finish. We take the seat, with real accountability for the result, and hand over to a named person on your team when the work is done.
Scope includes: fractional VP of Operations or interim Head of Supply Chain, program leadership for 3PL transitions, launches and returns operations, hiring and coaching of the internal team.
Discuss this workWhere we go deepest
Warehousing and 3PL
3PL selection, contracts and SLAs, warehouse layout, WMS requirements, cutover.
Hardware lifecycle and returns
Deployment, returns, repair and spare parts for serialized devices at scale.
Datacenter logistics
Hardware delivery and staging sequenced to the construction schedule.
Planning systems and S&OP
MRP parameters, safety stock, replenishment rules and the S&OP routine.
The job is done when the operation runs at target without us.
Our standard on every engagement
Method
How an engagement runs
Four steps, sized to the problem. Some engagements stop after the design. Most run through to a stable operation.
Diagnose
We walk the floor, pull the data and agree a baseline you can hold us to: forecast accuracy, order cycle time, inventory turns and logistics cost as a share of sales.
Design
Process maps with owners and exceptions, an S&OP cadence, system parameters and a KPI scorecard. Detailed enough that your team can build from it.
Implement
We configure the systems, write the procedures, train each role and manage the physical cutover, whether that is a new 3PL, a new distribution center or a new repair flow.
Stabilize
Daily performance reviews with your team until the results hold at target, then a phased handover to a named owner inside the company.
Your team learns the work as we do it.
Key people are coached along the way, decisions are written down in playbooks, and the weekly routines are run by your team before we step back.
US and Latin America
We know both sides of the border.
Cross-border trade between the US and Latin America is a core practice here, built by running real freight, brokers and customs across the US, Mexico and Brazil.
We have done this as operators. Setting import and export strategy, selecting and auditing brokers and forwarders, and designing networks around local tax rules in the US, Mexico and Brazil.
For clients, that means landed cost numbers that hold at the border, paperwork that does not trigger inspections, and a plan for when a lane goes down.
Network designCustoms and fiscalPartner governance
Results
Numbers that held after the project ended
From operations our founder ran at global hardware and FMCG companies, each measured against a documented baseline.
60%Fewer stock-outs
S&OP redesign for a capacity-constrained consumer goods portfolio, with production prioritized by margin.
3xGrowth supported in one year
New warehouse and distribution networks launched in Mexico and Brazil during rapid expansion.
18 daysLess inventory on hand
Planning parameters and systems reset for an importer in Brazil. Stock-outs also fell by over 40%.
20%Faster customs clearance
Supply and fiscal network redesigned after an import partner change, keeping tax incentives and cutting trading costs by 15%.
25%Fewer repeat device replacements
Repair process redesigned after field studies and root-cause analysis across a national fleet of payment terminals.
65%Fewer production interruptions
Four million spare parts reconciled across two 3PL warehouses, with barcode tracking, procedures and a live dashboard.
About
An advisory built on operating experience.
Lucas Costa, Founder and Principal
Costa Supply Chain Advisory was set up in Hoboken, New Jersey, to give growing companies access to supply chain and operations experience that usually only exists inside large corporations. The work centers on the problems that appear as a company scales: planning that has outgrown its tools, inventory that is hard to control, warehouses and 3PLs falling behind, and cross-border flows nobody designed.
The practice is led by Lucas Costa, who spent thirteen years running supply chains at global technology hardware and FMCG companies. Most recently he led Supply Chain for the Americas at a global payments company, responsible for five distribution and repair sites, around $70 million in inventory and the flows between the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil. Earlier he redesigned the fiscal and logistics network of a confectionery multinational in Brazil and ran supply planning for FMCG brands across Latin America.
Clients get direct access to that experience, scoped to a growing company's budget and pace.
Thirteen years of operating experienceSupply chain leadership at global hardware and FMCG companies
Warehouse and 3PL networksBuilt from RFP to cutover, then governed week to week
Hardware lifecycle at scaleDeployment, returns and repair for hundreds of thousands of devices
Cross-border operationsImport, export and fiscal networks across the US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil
Journal
Notes from the floor
Short pieces on nearshoring, 3PL contracts and hardware logistics, written for people who run operations.
Warehousing
Choosing a 3PL: the SLA clauses that actually matter
Receiving turnaround in hours, line-level picking accuracy and count reconciliation tolerances, each with money attached.
Coming soon
Hardware
Closing the loop on a device fleet
How returns, triage rules and repair standards decide whether a device fleet costs money or recovers it.
Coming soon
Contact
Start the conversation
Tell us what is not working, or what you are about to build. The first call is free, and we reply within two business days.
Phone+1 (646) 520 6733
OfficeHoboken, New Jersey
CoverageOn site across the Northeast, cross-border work nationally