Category Archives: Transportation Trends

Dannon Leverages LeanLogistics to Create Competitive Advantage

The Dannon Company, Inc. grew rapidly after introducing fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt cups in 1947. And now, as one of the top manufacturers and distributors of yogurt in the United States, and the top-selling brand of yogurt worldwide, Dannon (sold under the Danone trademark in most countries other than the USA) produces and sells more than six million cups of yogurt a day in almost 100 flavors, styles and sizes. Headquartered in White Plains, New York, Dannon has plants in Minster, Ohio, Fort Worth, Texas and West Jordan, Utah. The Minister, Ohio plant is the largest yogurt manufacturing plant in the USA.

The dairy industry is an extremely competitive market with yogurt holding the title as one of the fastest growing segments. Yogurt consumption has almost doubled every seven years, making it a very attractive marketplace. Dannon competes with other fresh dairy providers to get products on shelves as quickly and efficiently as possible. In order to stay on top of the competition, Dannon is required to track hundreds of loads a day through its three manufacturing plants, six distribution centers and numerous trucks from third-party carriers.

In addition to the everyday complexity inherent in Dannon’s supply chain process, customers are requesting better service through improved scheduling options and increased on-time deliveries. The former outbound and inbound appointment scheduling process was manual and required time-consuming phone calls, faxes and emails between departments, shipping facilities and carriers. Additionally, the dock scheduler at each location was the only party with visibility to the entire transportation schedule creating a bottleneck that limited the ability to communicate any delivery changes to the customers.

Dannon selected LeanLogistics’ LeanTMS™ to get ahead of the competition by addressing the increasing demands from customers and complexity of the company’s fast-growing, changing marketplace. LeanTMS is a true SaaS transportation management system that supports planning, execution, claims and appointment scheduling. LeanTMS also integrates with Dannon’s SAP system to ensure end-to-end control over inventory, improve overall enterprise resource planning (ERP) and provide complete visibility.

“We work in a fast-growing marketplace that has unique demands on the supply chain due to the shelf life of the product and ourdistributed operation. With LeanTMS™ we are able to manage transportation from shipment tender through delivery, making service a competitive advantage.” National Transportation Manager, Dannon

Dannon improved order accuracy, appointment scheduling, workforce performance, visibility and communication using LeanTMS to more efficiently manage transportation operations:

- Staff for special events and busy times well in advance with calendar-based LeanAppoint allowing users to schedule in open slots on-line versus calling Dannon to make appointments

- Monitor both arrival and departure appointments in real-time, available to all customer service representatives, to communicate accurate delivery times

- Track priority deliveries to customer or distribution center and provide details on any delays with availability of real-time data to all load planners and transportation staff

- Research areas with frequent issues, pinpoint causes and address problems through reporting of service failures

- Review accessorial charges and automatic calculation of fuel surcharges for total shipment cost any time upon load acceptance with visibility to all carrier dialogues

Dannon has the opportunity to create a competitive advantage in this fast-growing, highly-competitive marketplace. Visibility and collaboration provided by LeanTMS, enables Dannon to increase customer satisfaction while freeing up internal resources to focus on other corporate initiatives. The benefits Dannon continues to receive from utilizing LeanLogistics technology include:

Saved Time – Dannon frees up approximately one and one-half hours per resource per day with LeanAppoint allowing resources to handle more important tasks on a daily basis
Improved Customer Service & Customer Satisfaction – Complete visibility into the transportation process allows all customer service representatives the ability to see loads quickly and easily which provides open communication of any issues or delivery changes leading to customer satisfaction improvements
Reduced Costs – Dannon and associated transportation parties see carriers’ schedules allowing for better planning for delays and changes resulting in reduced detention costs in the first year of usage alone

Download the full Dannon Case Study here >>

Keystone Foods Improves Supply Chain Visibility with SaaS TMS

Keystone Foods is a multi-national, multi-protein processor for the world’s leading brands, providing fresh and frozen protein products to customers worldwide. Keystone processes poultry, beef, fish and pork and is dedicated to food safety as well as quality. The company runs 50 facilities that serve about 6,400 restaurants around the world. The Keystone Food Logistics Services Group is part of the Keystone U.S. distribution business, which has four distribution centers servicing the quick serve restaurant industry. Keystone Food Logistics Services stores and ships every item customers require using a private fleet while handling inbound through contract carriers. Keystone typically handles 500-700 loads per week.

Keystone ran several business case scenarios in search of opportunities to grow business while reducing supply chain costs. The company determined that centralizing its internal freight and launching a new logistics service would be the most profitable route. Historically at Keystone, freight was managed in a decentralized manner, so each individual manufacturing facility managed transportation. The company used both asset-based carriers and brokers to handle freight. Lanes consisted of transfers of raw materials between facilities, fresh and frozen products to customers, cold storage facilities as well as inbound ingredients from suppliers.

Keystone created a wishlist for a revamped transportation management system that included:

  • Visibility into real-time supply chain information
  • Collaboration with everyone involved in the freight network
  • Centralized data on common platform
  • Ability to benchmark and establish KPIs
  • Reduced overall transportation costs

Keystone selected a true software-as-a-service (SaaS) TMS to improve overall supply chain management in a collaborative environment. The collaborative platform enables Keystone to manage the entire freight process, from optimizing mode to routing shipments to managing carrier selection while ensuring capacity commitments are met. Additional benefits include:

  • Real-time monitoring of the entire freight process – everyone is in the loop so plants can continue producing and meeting customer demands
  • Orders received automatically and loads tendered to carriers directly through the system
  • Automated processes and reporting, providing access to data that was not available previously
  • Visibility to all carriers and rates in the system, so Keystone knows it is selecting the best possible rate for a particular lane
  • Electronic scheduling gives total control of appointments for each facility while being configurable to a specific schedule and dock
  • Easy to use system for carriers and other users who are not traditionally computer savvy

By leveraging transportation technology, Keystone is now able to:

Improve Visibility: A central data repository enables visibility for analysis of costs and performance measurement to uncover areas for improvement.

Reduce Costs: Keystone saved 5% of overall freight spend and received quick payback of four months.

Increase Collaboration: With all parties in the transportation process having access to the system, Keystone gained insight into how freight impacts operations.

This entry was originally posted on Logistics Viewpoints, read the full article here >>

Managed Procurement Services Allow Companies to Optimize Transportation Investments

truck-procurement-freight-capacity

Transportation sourcing is a significant challenge for many companies. Typically, the procurement process to identify potential new carriers and award business requires a major investment of resources. The transportation team must develop a request for proposal (RFP), follow up on carrier responses, evaluate multiple award scenarios, and implement new carriers into the mix. In many cases, companies do not have a dedicated resource to manage the freight procurement process, resulting in usage of key personnel from other areas to support the sourcing event. This is disruptive to current operations, and prevents the development of functional expertise to drive continuous improvement in the transportation network.

Lack of carrier profile data, vetted capabilities and industry benchmarks are also common issues for many companies.  Without comparative data points, companies do not know if carriers are costing too much or if lanes are inefficient.  Capacity can become an issue but it remains unclear if that is due to the current carrier’s inefficiencies or if more carriers are required to meet demand.

Managed procurement services that combine transportation procurement skills, knowledge of carrier capabilities, and supply chain expertise, can optimize a company’s transportation investment.  These types of procurement services provide industry benchmarks and innovative technology to more efficiently and effectively handle transportation procurement.

Typically the managed procurement process begins with a holistic review of a company’s lanes and rates to determine which need attention to best deliver on overall corporate goals. By comparing performance internally against external industry benchmarks, managed procurement service providers focus on out-of-tolerance conditions, identify new carrier opportunities and discover strategic cost and service improvement opportunities.  Once a company’s current performance is analyzed, a transportation procurement project plan is created.

This entry was originally posted on Logistics Viewpoints, read the full article here >>

Aberdeen Group Research: Integrated Transportation

Aberdeen Group Transportation Benchmark Study

Aberdeen Group recently released complimentary integrated transportation benchmark studies. The research shows how Best-in-Class companies gain more visibility while transforming supply-demand networks and technology.

These companies have looked beyond their internal capabilities and systems by:

  • Partnering with a solutions provider
  • Enhancing cost & service dynamically
  • Collaborating across their global supply chain

BENCHMARK STUDY #1: Global Trade and Supply Chain Management
Aberdeen Group’s research benchmark study reveals that trade compliance teams are actively revamping and augmenting their Global Trade Management (GTM) and their Global Trade Compliance (GTC) programs to stay current with supply and demand fluctuations, growing global operations, increasing operational complexity and risk, and trade lane changes. ACCESS THE STUDY NOW >>

BENCHMARK STUDY #2: International Transportation
Aberdeen Group’s research benchmark study shares that dynamic supply chain optimization capabilities and near real-time visibility to detailed supply chain events are key requirements to thriving within the complex and shifting international transportation and global trade environment. ACCESS THE STUDY NOW >>

[WEBINAR] Supply Chain Visibility | Nov. 8

Supply Chain Visibility Webinar Banner

Thursday, November 8th | 2:00pm – 3:00pm EST | REGISTER NOW

Lack of visibility and standardization across business units combined with manual processes create increasingly difficult business practices. These business issues create frustration inside the company and with outside supply chain partners, while translating to business inefficiencies and additional costs.

Northwest Pipe Company, a leading manufacturer of welded steel pipe, went from a decentralized transportation process to a centrally managed operation by leveraging technology. On this webinar, Max Beach, Corporate Logistics Manager, will share how Northwest Pipe Company utilizes a SaaS-based TMS to increase visibility, improve collaboration, and reduce transportation costs.

Register for this webinar to learn how to:

  • Gain complete visibility with supply chain partners
  • Make better decisions by utilizing real-world data for business intelligence
  • Integrate business processes to improve efficiencies & centralize control
  • Reduce overall transportation spend & improve carrier relationships

Space is limited. Reserve your webinar seat today >>