With a high level of complexity for product assembly and additional requirements beyond the industry standard for white glove service, this company and Hub Group started a business relationship in 2009 that was focused on providing consistent, nationwide white glove service for an affordable price and within a reasonable transit time.

The Solution: Multiple Methods

Hub Group used multiple methods of training materials including videos, conference calls, work instructions, on‐site visits, and other reference guides to prepare the last mile terminal network for a zero‐defect, staged onboarding of the business. With such a successful implementation, the customer continued to increase the percentage of markets that Hub Group serviced for them until Hub Group became their primary last mile carrier, acquiring 95% of their white glove business.

Hub Group has also ensured continuous improvement and service consistency. As new terminals are brought into the network, Hub Group reviews all customer training materials in‐depth with the delivery teams and terminal management. Internal meetings are held to keep open communication flow on opportunities and trends as well as set assignments and progress goals within both companies to enhance the customer experience.

The Results

Throughout the relationship, the furniture manufacturer has set and measured goals that align with their business focus, and Hub Group has continued to develop strategies around service improvements within the areas that Hub Group can impact. In particular, the company surveys all their white glove delivery recipients measuring overall customer satisfaction with the service provided as well as ratings in the following categories:

1. Ease of scheduling.

2. Driver product familiarity, professionalism, and performance.

3. Individual service requirements–assembly completion, removal of stickers, performance of the product wipe down, product manual distribution to the customer, etc.

Over the years of survey scores, Hub Group has averaged 97% overall satisfaction rating, and the individual performance metrics are used on a weekly basis as training opportunities for specific driver teams and to identify service trends for high- and low‐performing terminals.

In addition to the company’s service measurements, Hub Group provides a monthly scorecard to track KPIs. The Defect‐Free Ratio (shipments without a transportation service defect notation) is 97%, and Hub Group OSD for the account is <2%. The average last mile transit time is 3.5 days with an average of .65 days from the order arriving to the Hub Group terminal to the first call placed to the customer for scheduling.

The clear outline of expectations and goals in addition to the commitment from both companies to provide the best possible customer experience has proven to create a long‐term, successful business relationship. Open communication and alignment of delivery strategies with the customer vision will continue to be the cornerstones of the value‐added services Hub Group provides to ensure customer satisfaction.

To learn more:
info@hubgroup.com
800-377-5833
hubgroup.com

The Challenge

Containerized heavy weight cargoes such as wines and spirits, tile and granite, lumber, resin, foodstuffs, and metals are not within traditional container payload weight limits.

Higher payloads were getting increasingly difficult to secure and overweight permit options almost impossible to obtain. Shippers required experienced motor carriers that specialized in heavy weight loads who could obtain the necessary permits to legally transport these loads. Most carriers had no motor carriers to take on the loads once they left the vessel and port.

U.S. states have very strict payload weight limitations: 38,000 lbs. per 20’, 44,000 lbs. per 40’ and 41,000 lbs. per reefer. Shippers were being forced to use additional containers in order to lighten the heavy loads for transport.

They faced a major problem: less cargo in each container equaled more containers per shipment. The bottom line? Paying additional costs to transport their heavy loads.

The Solution

For pickup and delivery of heavy cargo moving via the Port of New York, ACL can significantly increase those heavy weight container limitations. ACL has teamed up with an experienced New Jersey-based motor carrier that specializes in heavy weight loads. They offer professional drivers who are experienced with heavy loads, provide a fleet of quad-axle tractors with two types of tri-axle chassis: 20’/40’ combo tri-axle chassis and 40’ super single tri-axle chassis.

Special permits are provided for New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware that allow the maximum gross weight of cargo-container-chassis- tractor to be increased from 80,000 lbs. to 90,000 lbs. Heavy New England deliveries are made using tri-axles and quad-axle tractors.

ACL helps heavy cargo stay in conformance with state highway regulations. What this means for shippers is more cargo in each container which equals fewer containers per shipment.

Bottom line? Much less cost! ACL can easily handle containerized heavy weight cargoes that are not within traditional container weight limits. Shippers can now load additional freight into one container with realized cost savings. All heavy shipments will be handled using proper permits in accordance with local and state authorities.

ACL has developed transportation options in New York. We work with professional motor carriers who are highly experienced with heavy cargo and are experts at providing higher payload weight limits with the use of 4-axle trucks, tri-axle chassis, and permits.

ACL can now deliver cargo safely/legally via New York with quad-axle tractors, tri-axle chassis, and special permits for New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. ACL also has opportunities to widen the benefits found for New York to the Ports of Baltimore and Norfolk if there is interest. Please contact us for more details.

To learn more:
nambookings@aclcargo.com
800-225-1235
www.ACLcargo.com

The Challenge

Aggreko was struggling with gaps in shipment payment data and needed better visibility, accuracy, and supply chain efficiency. “Every time we sent a shipment, we were almost starting from scratch; we were constantly in reactive mode,” explains Chad Thibodeaux, Aggreko NAM Transportation Manager. The company also wanted technology to help manage its complicated transportation network, improve procurement processes, and manage vendors.

“We’re high-maintenance,” quips James Hoogendoorn, Aggreko NAM Logistics Manager. “We needed a provider that wouldn’t be scared off by that. We wanted a logistics partner with the same intensity-driven mindset as ours.”

The Solution

Aggreko found an ideal partner in RedStone, a Kansas-based third-party provider (3PL). “RedStone didn’t run from our challenges,” Hoogendoorn says. In addition to the experienced RedStone management team, Aggreko gained access to the RedStone Latitude technology solution. Latitude provides real-time information for tracking and exception management, sophisticated reporting and analysis, as well as a best-in-class transportation management system (TMS).

Thibodeaux describes their partnership with RedStone as a major success: “We now have a tailored solution that captures data for every shipment and provides full visibility to crucial information such as length of haul, type of truck, dollar-per-mile cost, etc.”

RedStone helped Aggreko re-align procurement strategies by conducting a sweeping analysis to find opportunities for cost and performance improvements throughout their vendor network. Today, Aggreko and RedStone work together to continually analyze procurement effectiveness, identify ongoing opportunities, and find new vendors.

Nailing down accurate freight rates got easier as well, thanks to the custom freight calculator RedStone created for Aggreko. “We’ve always struggled with pricing freight accurately because we operate in many different markets using many different vendors,” Thibodeaux notes. The Aggreko team now uses this custom calculator as a quick, easy way to provide freight quotes.

RedStone also streamlined freight-payment processes by taking on accounts payable duties. Instead of paying hundreds of vendors, Aggreko makes one payment to RedStone, which manages individual payments.

With closely aligned philosophies, Aggreko and RedStone have developed a strategic partnership that supports the Aggreko mission. “When facing crisis events, our customers count on us to engineer solutions that allow them to continue being productive,” explains Hoogendoorn. “Ultimately, RedStone did exactly the same for us.”

To learn more:
solutions@redstonelogistics.com
888-733-5030
redstonelogistics.com

In the complex world of rail logistics, the capacity to manage data effectively and maintain data visibility is of utmost importance for operational success. Understanding this, RSI Logistics encourages finding better ways to manage, handle, and learn from the complicated data involved in the rail industry, and to help others form strategies to effectively capture, manage, and distill valuable insights from their data.

A client of RSI Logistics found themselves stuck, being forced to sift through important data via manual processes. These inefficiencies not only jeopardized the quality of client service delivery but also posed substantial threats to progress. The overarching objective for RSI Logistics was, therefore, to construct an efficient solution capable of surmounting these shortcomings.

To overcome this challenge, RSI Logistics helped create a custom dashboard for the client.

The client struggled with the management and analysis of their data. Their existing system was predominantly reliant on manual data entry and management. This resulted in processes that were time-consuming and opened the door for potential inconsistencies due to inevitable human errors.

Past failures in the company’s attempts to design a trustworthy and reliable system illuminated the complexity of the data management challenge that was present.

The Solution

To overcome their client’s challenge, RSI Logistics developed a custom dashboard tailored to meet the client’s needs with unmatched precision and accuracy. This dashboard combined data from different places and made it easy to see and understand through clear visuals. The result was a facilitation of smooth data integration across a multitude of systems while providing clear data visualizations.

By incorporating real-time updates, the need for manual entry was eradicated, allowing the client to vastly improve their efficiency. The interactive, highly customizable features empowered clients to adjust the interface to align with their specific needs. Furthermore, the one-click automated reporting capabilities enabled the generation of accurate reports, amplifying the tool’s utility and effectiveness.

The creation of this custom dashboard resulted in the significant streamlining of data management processes. It drove operational efficiency to new heights, enabling the client to make firm, data-driven decisions that ignited confidence.

RSI Logistics’ custom dashboard yielded numerous benefits for the client: It simplified data management, saved time, improved data accuracy, reduced redundant costs, and enhanced operational efficiencies. This allowed the client of RSI Logistics to witness firsthand the immediate improvements in their data management and reporting capabilities.

This case study highlights the pivotal role technology can play in modern logistics. It illustrates the power of transformative solutions in bridging operational gaps and strengthening client relationships, favoring the continuous growth of organizations and the industries they serve.

To learn more:
info@rsilogistics.com
517-816-4568
www.rsilogistics.com

Logistics Plus (LP) is a leading worldwide provider of transportation, warehousing, fulfillment, global logistics, business intelligence, technology, and supply chain solutions.

A United States-based aircraft parts supplier approached Logistics Plus with a warehousing challenge. The client moved into a new 550,000-square-foot warehouse earlier in the year to handle the storage and fulfillment of their products.

The client started running into inventory issues and incorrect reporting in their warehouse management system (WMS) only a few months after beginning operations. So, they called Logistics Plus for help.

THE SOLUTION

Within three days of being asked to help solve the issues, LP sent 10 of its own warehouse employees from its West Coast warehouses (Phoenix, AZ and Chino, CA) to work on-site at the client’s warehouse until the issues were identified and solved.

The LP team started by breaking the project down into three phases. Phase 1 was identifying the root problem. LP determined the warehouse’s rotating temporary workers were not appropriately trained in using the WMS, and the inventory wasn’t properly flagged nor scanned into the system when it arrived or left the warehouse. Phase 2 of the project involved going through the warehouse and re-scanning every piece of inventory. As pallets were scanned, the team flagged all items that were not in the proper location.

After the inventory was accounted for, and issues were flagged, Phase 3 began. This involved moving all of the flagged inventory to the proper location and entirely re-staging the product. Additionally, the inventory that was incorrectly tagged was sorted by location codes. Tags were also added to different locations of the pallets so that each item could be easily identified and located. After this was completed, the team updated the client’s WMS to reflect actual inventory levels.

THE RESULTS

With LP’s rapid response time and warehousing expertise, the client now has complete and accurate visibility of its inventory levels. The warehouse is staged in sections to allow the warehouse workers to quickly scan, identify, and pull products from the proper locations.

The LP team will remain on-site for the foreseeable future until the client is comfortable with the system and process that was put into place. Logistics Plus continues to grow its relationship with the client and remains ready to assist with any new supply chain challenges.

As a 21st-century logistics company, Logistics Plus was able to leverage its can-do culture to help fix the client’s inventory issues within a matter of days.

To learn more:
contact@logisticsplus.com
1-866-LOG-PLUS (564-7587)
www.logisticsplus.com

As the pharmaceutical industry has grown and pharmaceutical companies expand their product lines, an emergent need has arisen in the industry. The bottom line is, as pharmaceutical companies have expanded their product lines and industry demand for products has grown, there is a lack of support for pharmaceutical manufacturing components.

These companies have grown so rapidly they can no longer support the storage of components for their products in house, and are looking externally to knowledgeable service providers within the life sciences and pharmaceuticals industry to remedy this need. The southeast is home to a large concentration of life science and pharmaceutical companies, specifically within the Research Triangle Park (RTP) area of North Carolina.

The Solution

With nearly 30 years of experience in the life sciences and pharmaceuticals industry, MD Logistics operates four state-of-the-art facilities in Plainfield, Indiana, with an additional facility in Reno, Nevada. When met with additional client demand, MD Logistics began to explore the opportunity to bring their expertise as a third-party logistics provider within the life sciences and pharmaceuticals industry to the southeastern United States. Understanding the need to be in the region, MD Logistics chose to bring their service offerings to the RTP, North Carolina market.

Experience. MD Logistics has a long and storied history within the life sciences and pharmaceuticals industry, one with many of the companies who already have a presence within the southeast region. Their experience within the industry and with these providers makes them a natural fit to provide services within this region.

Nimbleness. MD Logistics has built a business on being responsive to the needs of clients and the greater industry. As client needs and industry demand fluctuate, MD Logistics has a history of quickly responding and pivoting to provide customized supply chain solutions for clients. The increased need within the industry to provide support for manufacturing components showcased how quickly the team at MD Logistics was able to respond to this need.

Network. The MD Logistics network of state-of-the-art, U.S.-based facilities provides an ease in which an organization’s goods can flow through the supply chain, from manufacturing components to finished goods, if need be.

If you are in need of a 3PL provider who specializes in the life sciences and pharmaceuticals industry, located within the southeast, reach out to the MD Logistics team of supply chain experts!

To learn more:
info@mdlogistics.com
317-838-8900
www.mdlogistics.com

Sustainability is at the forefront of organizations’ strategic approach to operations, particularly in the automotive industry. While the transportation sector accounts for approximately 28% of energy consumption in the United States, it is estimated that over 80% of an organization’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions stem from the supply chain. As a result, optimization provides significant opportunities for reducing our carbon footprint and meeting sustainability goals.

One of the largest global automotive suppliers, known for its emission control technology and vehicle interiors, has made sustainability an integral part of its decision-making process and set a net-zero target. They turned to ProTrans International as a 3PL provider to help explore options that would contribute to their sustainability goals. Common strategies include sourcing renewable energy, optimizing routes and trailer utilization, and minimizing waste with reduced GHG emissions being a key performance indicator.

THE SOLUTION

Believing in the synergy of working together, ProTrans agreed to identify potential partners and organize several pilot test programs that may contribute to meeting the automotive supplier’s sustainability goals. They researched alternative fuel technologies, vetted providers, and selected a partner for the first pilot.

“Through a collaborative effort, we researched multiple companies offering alternative fuel solutions. We settled on ClearFlame Engine Technologies because of the ease of implementation and the viable options they offer for both short-haul and long-haul trucking at a price point that is comparable to current diesel options,” said Shane Dye, General Manager of ProTrans’ asset-based division, Millennial Transport Services.

ClearFlame’s mission is to deliver cost savings while helping fleets meet their sustainability targets, all without compromising performance or uptime. The company has developed a technology that repowers heavy-duty internal combustion diesel engines to break free from diesel and run on decarbonized, renewable, liquid fuels.

ProTrans coordinated with ClearFlame to integrate a 6-cylinder, 15L ClearFlame-enabled engine into a Class 8 tractor for use with their trailers on a specific set of linehauls. The pilot program was implemented over a 450-mile route with daily round-trip linehauls. Data was collected over a set period to determine the effects of using the ClearFlame tractors and potential savings over traditional diesel tractors.

THE RESULTS

Not only do alternative fuel options reduce our consumption of fossil fuels, but the results of the pilot program showed a 42% reduction in GHG emissions. In turn, there was significant savings in fuel costs realized.

Strategic collaborations are the solution to cleaning up the supply chain and reducing energy consumption, creating a cascade of sustainable practices at every step of the supply chain. As a result of the success in this pilot program, ProTrans and ClearFlame have established a partnership moving forward that will include the leasing of multiple ClearFlame tractors and integration into their transportation services.

To learn more:
www.protrans.com
www.clearflame.com

For Holman Logistics, nothing is more important than the safety of its team members and the customers for whom they provide manufacturing logistics, warehousing, and transportation services.

“Our core values set the foundation for the work we do, and we have no more important core value than safety. We constantly seek technology, training, and other innovative resources to help us maintain our superior safety performance,” commented Brien Downie, president of Holman Logistics.

Holman operates forklifts in all its locations across the United States, and operations managers and customers understand the human and financial costs of forklift-related accidents. Holman currently monitors and tracks forklift activity; however, management wanted to understand the root causes of mishaps and find out if it was possible to create a system to warn of problems and prevent accidents from occurring.

The Solution

Along with ensuring that it hires, trains, and develops technically proficient forklift drivers, Holman chose to partner with OneTrack to leverage that company’s expertise in Computer Vision and Deep Learning, also known as Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Computer Vision refers to software processing images from an onboard camera. While the concept of Computer Vision has been around for a long time, recent advancements in Deep Learning allow computers to detect, recognize, and predict high-level concepts from images with superhuman accuracy and reliability.

A system powered by Deep Learning has the ability not only to detect that an incident occurred, but also to learn why that incident occurred. Most importantly, it can recognize the same pattern in the future and provide a real-time warning when it thinks a similar incident is about to happen. Such a system continues to learn while deployed, actively preventing incidents and continuously getting better at doing so. As the system learns, drivers become safer and more effective, and the number of accidents can be reduced over time.

These technologies create a safer, more efficient workplace for everyone, which is important for Holman because processes, requirements, and workflows can vary greatly by customer and location across its network of facilities.

Brien Downie concluded, “I am confident that these AI tools, along with our never-ending safety focus, will help us achieve our goal of accident-free operations. AI technology is already having a positive impact on the safety performance of the entire industry.”

To learn more:
solutions@holmanusa.com
holmanusa.com

Over the past few years, the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries have witnessed tremendous growth. Advances in temperature-sensitive biologics and global events have increased the need for readily available storage environments and require an efficient way to process the added volume of orders.

As our clients have increased their own product volumes, the challenge for us as their 3PL partner becomes: What improvements can we make to our processes to more efficiently move product throughout our facility?

The Solution

In a state-of-the-art life sciences and pharmaceutical warehouse, conveyors are an efficient way to move product throughout the facility. In the MD Logistics warehouse, we have found success with utilizing conveyor automation in our pick-pack area, by moving shippers to be picked with product, then audited and packed out before being moved and staged for shipment.

As order volumes begin to increase in our warehouse, it very quickly became apparent we had reached the maximum potential with our existing conveyor configuration. With current clients anticipating future organic growth in the coming years, the decision to replace the existing, tired conveyor with new, efficient automation was clear.

Working with an external vendor, we were able to procure and implement new conveyor automation in one of our state-of-the-art warehouses, servicing clients in the life sciences and pharmaceuticals industry. This new configuration has proven to provide a variety of benefits for our warehouse team:

Flexibility. Working with a vendor who specializes in warehouse conveyors, allowed us to fabricate a tailored solution not only to our existing floor plan, but also to the specific needs of our clients. We were able to build a system tailored to our warehouse floorplan, taking the time to plan out current volumes while anticipating future volumes to allow the system to evolve as the needs of our clients do as well.

Efficiency. Perhaps the largest pain points with our original conveyor system were the inefficiencies that were apparent as our client’s business grew and order volumes increased. As our workload increased, our warehouse teams were compensating with increased physical labor—lifting shippers onto the conveyor, walking old corrugate to the compactor, and moving shippers from the conveyor to the staging area to be loaded on outbound trucks.

All of this extra movement from our team added extra time to the process and created inefficiencies felt across the operation. The new conveyor system has allowed us to be more intentional with the space that we have, while reducing the extra effort and physical labor that was previously placed on our team members.

Overall, this has led to a more efficient process where we have already been able to reduce team member “touches” by 50%.

Increased Output. Being able to tailor a system to current and future needs provides us increased efficiencies to be able to handle additional output. These changes have allowed our team to increase our order fulfillment capacity by 25%, with the potential to handle additional volume as our client’s business needs evolve.

To learn more:
info@mdlogistics.com
317-838-8900
www.mdlogistics.com

With the rise in available data, the need to understand, utilize, and share it becomes increasingly important.

A large third-party logistics provider for shippers and carriers needed a procurement tool to help manage large sets of data, create bid events, optimize workflows, and enable responsive communications. With many bid procurement tools on the market, this 3PL began their search for the one that could help them achieve their goals at scale.

To help with the selection process, the company started by defining what kind of information and output they would like to get out of their bid tool. They narrowed their search to a few crucial business outcomes their chosen bid tool would have to provide:

• The ability to identify bidding challenges and their impact on the business
• Targeted negotiations
• Faster feedback to clients and carriers
• Shorter response times
• Any easy way to follow up on accepted RFPs and save time

The Solution

The 3PL selected SMC³’s freight procurement tool Bid$ense®, a cloud-based solution for over-the-road freight transportation sourcing and pricing negotiation. In one RFP example, they used Bid$ense to run a smarter bid procurement event at a scope of 10,000 shipments from 51 different origins and across 3,300 unique lanes.

The company sent 41 unique bid invitations to carriers through Bid$ense—all as one push email from the tool, as opposed to 41 emails to be individually sent, corralled, and followed up on.

Bid$ense became a valuable tool for this 3PL by simplifying and streamlining the procurement event process. They also saw benefit in working with SMC³ and their team of transportation experts to optimize RFP events—saving them time and money.

The results immediately distinguished Bid$ense as the bid solution of choice, providing value across key areas:

• Instant visibility into bid responses (33 out of 41 carriers accepted the RFP; 31 responded)
• Showed the impact of different respondent criteria, down to the lane level
• Enabled timely follow-up with carriers that accepted the RFP, including prompts from Bid$ense about when to follow up with which carriers
• Allowed for inclusion or exclusion of specific carriers

To learn more:
800-845-8090
www.smc3.com