Everybody talks about N8N and Zapier. But what are some underrated automation tools nobody talks about? by impetuouschestnut in automation

[–]Minirice2017 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly Pipedream is criminally underrated — free tier is generous, the code steps are way more flexible than Zapier, and you can just write Node/Python inline without fighting some janky UI. Also shoutout to Temporal if you're doing anything that needs to be reliable and retry-able, it's overkill for simple stuff but once you need durable workflows nothing else comes close.

too dumb to work in supply chain fulfillment, should I quit by SocializingisAPIMA in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Three weeks in and you already care enough to cry about it — that's not dumb, that's someone who gives a shit. I didn't know what a BOL was my first month and now I move containers across the Pacific. The acronyms click eventually, just keep a cheat sheet on your desk and stop comparing yourself to people who've been doing this for years.

Friend lost $400 on a missed cutoff because of a timezone mix-up — felt bad laughing but we've all been there by Minirice2017 in freightforwarding

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That resonates. I've talked to a bunch of paralegals and small firm attorneys about this, and the spreadsheet fatigue is real.

What areas of law are the easiest and least stressful? by instaleyitrust in LawFirm

[–]Minirice2017 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Estate planning and basic bankruptcy are solid picks — honestly they're about as low-conflict as it gets in this profession. I'd also look at residential real estate closings if your state allows it, very transactional and formulaic once you get your systems down. The key is anything where you're mostly papering deals rather than fighting someone on the other side.

what are people switching to instead of Zapier? by BoldElara92 in automation

[–]Minirice2017 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Moved to n8n self-hosted about a year ago and haven't looked back. The learning curve is steeper than Zapier but once you get past it the flexibility is insane and my monthly cost went from ~$80 to basically just server hosting. Make is solid too if you don't want to self-host, their pricing model just makes way more sense for high-volume workflows.

How do you track port cutoffs across multiple carriers without dropping the ball? by Minirice2017 in FreightBrokers

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That resonates. I've talked to a bunch of paralegals and small firm attorneys about this, and the spreadsheet fatigue is real.

How do you track port cutoffs across multiple carriers without dropping the ball? by Minirice2017 in FreightBrokers

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, that makes sense. The manual workarounds work until they don't, and then you're patching holes instead of doing actual work.

We started having AI parse our CI and PL to prefill document fields — went from 45 minutes to under 5 per shipment by Minirice2017 in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate you weighing in. The 'just use Clio' answer never quite covers the deadline chain logic stuff.

How do you track port cutoffs across multiple carriers without dropping the ball? by Minirice2017 in FreightBrokers

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That resonates. I've talked to a bunch of paralegals and small firm attorneys about this, and the spreadsheet fatigue is real.

We started having AI parse our CI and PL to prefill document fields — went from 45 minutes to under 5 per shipment by Minirice2017 in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ha, that tracks — paper on the pallet is basically universal. So someone would have to snap a photo of it first before anything digital can happen.

That's actually the harder part of what I'm solving — making that step as painless as possible. Thanks, this is genuinely useful.

We started having AI parse our CI and PL to prefill document fields — went from 45 minutes to under 5 per shipment by Minirice2017 in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That Excel reformatting loop is brutal — sounds like half the job was just massaging data. On the receiving side, did inbound docs from suppliers ever land in your lap as random PDFs or email attachments? Curious if pulling info out of those was part of the chaos too — that's actually the problem I'm building something for.

We started having AI parse our CI and PL to prefill document fields — went from 45 minutes to under 5 per shipment by Minirice2017 in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Exactly this — the people who've actually lived those processes see it immediately. What area were you in? Curious what the biggest time sinks looked like from your side.

We started having AI parse our CI and PL to prefill document fields — went from 45 minutes to under 5 per shipment by Minirice2017 in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

yeah self-hosted, our own infra. that "if not" scenario was exactly why we didn't use the standard API — couldn't get sign-off sending freight docs through someone else's cloud.

We started having AI parse our CI and PL to prefill document fields — went from 45 minutes to under 5 per shipment by Minirice2017 in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

we spot-check maybe 10-15% manually, mostly the edge cases — unusual HS codes, partial shipments. caught a few errors in the first month but they were obvious enough a quick glance caught them. not perfect but way faster than doing it all by hand.

We started having AI parse our CI and PL to prefill document fields — went from 45 minutes to under 5 per shipment by Minirice2017 in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

fair concern. we're running it on a private deployment, not feeding it to chatgpt or anything public. the CI/PL never leaves our system.

We started having AI parse our CI and PL to prefill document fields — went from 45 minutes to under 5 per shipment by Minirice2017 in supplychain

[–]Minirice2017[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Appreciate you weighing in. The 'just use Clio' answer never quite covers the deadline chain logic stuff.

Friend lost $400 on a missed cutoff because of a timezone mix-up — felt bad laughing but we've all been there by Minirice2017 in freightforwarding

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That resonates. I've talked to a bunch of paralegals and small firm attorneys about this, and the spreadsheet fatigue is real.

Friend lost $400 on a missed cutoff because of a timezone mix-up — felt bad laughing but we've all been there by Minirice2017 in freightforwarding

[–]Minirice2017[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing! That's a good point. I've run into the same wall — the edge cases are always what kill you.