The geographical location of Panama makes it a privileged country and practically a logistics center for all of America. For that differential advantage, Samsung decided 35 years ago to establish its headquarters in the Central American country, from which it not only administratively serves 13 countries in Central America, the Caribbean, Ecuador and Venezuela, but has also established it as the center of logistics operations of parts and parts for all of Latin America.
And Panama is located the Global Parts Center (GPC), a warehouse of 11,997 square meters in which spare parts for Samsung products (cell phones, televisions and white line) are received from the major manufacturers in 14 countries, including Korea, China and Mexico, and are shipped to 38 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
For the company, the shopping experience goes beyond the store, and the after-sales service offered to Samsung users is part of that holistic experience that Samsung is committed to. Therefore, having a hub where the spare parts of the entire range of products could be stored on this side of the world, was essential. But it was also crucial that the import and export processes allowed to accelerate the availability of these parts and parts in the different countries.
In 2020, the GPC of Panama began operations, in which 150 employees work and whose inventory exceeds 4 million pieces. The presence of this warehouse that supplys all of Latin America made it possible to shorten the availability times of parts and parts, and to lower transport costs. There are four other Samsung GPCs worldwide: Korea, Breda (Europe), Los Angeles (USA) and Dubai (Middle East).
In the last four years the GPC has been consolidated and 301,000 pieces are shipped monthly to the different subsidiaries. The next step is to optimize the processes from an ecological and sustainable point of view, whose guidelines began in 2023 and aim to continue with the reduction of waste (it has been possible to reduce consumption by 71 tons), the inclusion of solar panels and put together a fleet of electric trucks for distribution in Panama.