U6-dqs
SECTOR REPORTS T R A N S P O R TAT I O N : R O U T I N G S Y S T E M S
T ransporting food and beverage
products can pose various challenges
within the supply chain, including
on-time delivery, traceability, and
managing fuel costs. Companies that
don’t fully address these challenges
risk losing out on higher profi ts and increased
customer satisfaction.
Fortunately, with the use of a robust trans-
portation management system (TMS), these
obstacles can be handled with ease and give
companies greater control over their fleets at the
same time.
A maturing TMS solution TMS systems are constantly improving,
including the software platform options. Cur-
rently, TMS systems are available on multiple
software platforms, with the two most common
being on-premise installations and hosted SaaS
(Software-as-a-Service) models. According to
LeanLogistics, based in Holland, Michigan, the
current inclination is toward SaaS, which com-
pared to on-premise installations, offers more
benefits.
“Supply chain visibility, cost structure, flex-
ibility, and scalability, as well as business intel-
ligence are key benefits of a true SaaS platform,”
states the LeanLogistics team. A SaaS-based
TMS system is also deployed much faster than a
hosted installation.
Rik Schrader, senior vice president for global
sales and supply chain at Plano, Texas-based
Retalix, explains that one of the more recent
trends in the industry is the ability for clients to
completely manage their business on one TMS
system.
“We see more of a focus being put on opti-
mizing inbound and outbound operations
together from a transport standpoint,” he says.
Combining inbound and outbound operations
is an important optimization strategy.
What food/bev professionals want Simply put, there are many advantages to
implementing a TMS solution. For starters,
having the ability to view your assets while your
fleet is en route is highly important, especially
when transporting perishable food or beverage
items.
“Food and beverage companies have to moni-
tor logistics costs closely,” says Bill Pritz, vice
president of transportation solutions for Atlanta,
Georgia-based Logility. “Every dollar in savings
goes straight to increasing bottom line profit-
ability.”
With the 2011 Food Safety Modernization
Act (FSMA) in place, the ability to easily locate
where your cargo is can be important from a
safety and regulatory perspective.
“A lot of distributors within this market are
really looking to get better at honoring trace-
ability initiatives across the board,” says Retalix’s
Schrader. “It seems to be a very hot topic with a
lot of clients.” Tracking your cargo is also benefi-
cial in order to guarantee the products are going
to the correct destination.
“Proof of delivery is (also) a hot topic,” adds
Schrader. If something goes awry during a
fleet’s trip, the ability to immediately contact a
customer is essential to maintain good customer
relations and possibly remedy the situation.
Logility’s Pritz states that the “top prior-
ity and the leading benefit of TMS” is cost
reduction. “Many companies are increasingly
concerned with rising fuel prices,” he says.
“Advanced solutions have the ability to leverage
real-time fuel prices.”
What service providers offer In order to help perfect a driver’s route, Cary,
North Carolina-based MercuryGate offers an
optimization tool called Mojo. The solution can
help a company look at all of the “what if ’s” in
route vehicles by creating routing scenarios with
specific preferences.
“You can take your historical data, (and) your
external data and you could pull all of this in
together and look at your operational require-
ments,” explains Jane Sandifeer, senior solutions
manager for MercuryGate. “You could layer all
of that information together and look at your
strategy more holistically.”
Retalix Transportation Optimization (RTO)
is another product designed to improve a driver’s
route. RTO uses sophisticated algorithms in
order to produce the best route planning pos-
sible. The solution is also designed to collaborate
with existing management applications, which
can make it easier to use. According to Schrader,
this not only helps with the ease of doing busi-
ness, but also drives up “the overall profitability
of the operation.”
TMW Systems of Cleveland, Ohio offers
Appian DirectRoute to meet the needs of route
management.
“It definitely has improved our ability to plan
the route, delivery time and the delivery cost,”
says Mike Peterson, information technology
director at Kohl’s Wholesale, Quincy, Illinois.
“We can also get a better handle on customer
Transportation Management Systems An array of affordable solutions offers fleet managers better visibility and higher profitability. By Maria Hoffman
With MercuryGate’s optimization tool, Mojo, you can easily form any inbound or out-
bound routing plan.
www.foodlogistics.com FOOD LOGISTICS • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012 37
Page 37,39 RouteVehicles.indd 37 2/14/12 10:46 AM
SECTOR REPORTS T R A N S P O R TAT I O N : R O U T I N G S Y S T E M S
satisfaction and the number of trucks in our
fleet.”
With the use of TMW Systems’ software,
Kohl’s Wholesale was able to merge more deliv-
eries on their trucks, thereby making their fleet
more efficient.
Logility’s real-time software, Logility Voyager
Transportation Planning & Management, is also
a useful tool for fleet managers. The software is
constantly monitoring activity and issues alerts
for any exceptions that arise.
“Logility Voyager Transportation Planning &
Management is designed to improve efficiency,
reduce costs, and help increase service levels,”
says Pritz. “This increased visibility frees the
team to focus on improving relationships with
customers and carriers, creating a more produc-
tive end-to-end supply chain.”
LeanLogistics’ On-Demand TMS software
aids in planning routes and also gives a com-
pany visibility into their fleets.
According to one customer, “The scalable
environment of On-Demand TMS allows us to
be flexible and efficient based on changing busi-
ness needs.”
Meanwhile, the most recent offering from
LeanLogistics is their Web-based application,
LeanFleet.
“With LeanFleet, companies are able to maxi-
mize asset utilization while minimizing costs,”
says Matt Ahearn, president of LeanLogistics.
According to LeanLogistics, this technology
helps shippers handle all aspects of their fleet by
providing visibility into street-level routing.
Recently, Ruan Transportation Management
Systems transitioned to a new, wholly integrated
TMS called RTMS2.0. The product is a cus-
tomized transportation management solution
that combines software from one of the leading
TMS providers, other best-of-breed logistics
tools, including several load planning tools
and a warehouse management application, and
Ruan’s custom intellectual property.
“Our goal was to replace our previous TMS
with a leading transportation management
system that will augment Ruan’s competitive
advantage in our core business of dedicated con-
tract carriage and third-party logistics,” noted
vice president and CIO, Ben McLean. “This
change in technology will allow us to continue
to focus on providing customized solutions for
our customers, while providing us with indus-
try-wide functionality updates from a preferred
software vendor. We evaluated many offerings
from some of the largest software companies in
the world, and the software we chose ultimately
provided the functionality that was best suited
to our dedicated and 3PL operations.”
On the horizon Industry experts are indicating that access to
cloud-based services will continue to be a hot
trend in the future in order to provide further
connectivity for customers.
“The requirement of having visibility and
reliability with managing your transportation
cycle is critical,” emphasizes MercuryGate’s
Sandifeer.
Along with an increase in cloud-based servic-
es, experts believe there will be a move toward
the use of social media to facilitate easier com-
munications and increase reliable service.
“I imagine that through the use of mobility
and then some of the social media components,
it will continue to have a play not only in the
personal space, but also in the business space,”
concludes Retalix’s Schrader. ◆
www.foodlogistics.com FOOD LOGISTICS • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012 39
K ohl Wholesale, based in Quincy, Illinois, is a service
provider for various food companies. The company
uses TMW Systems’ Appian DirectRoute management
software, which is designed to optimize routing and reduce
costs.
Mike Peterson, information technology director of Kohl
Wholesale, spoke recently to Food Logistics about the com-
pany’s experience with Appian DirectRoute:
FL: What prompted the deployment to the Appian DirectRoute Software?
Peterson: The major reason was high gas prices; diesel is really going high and we
were getting more customers, and more deliveries. Instead of buying more trucks, we
decided to look into efficiency routes and see if we could make better use of what we
had. We also wanted to better track the expenses on the truck to see how much a
route would cost us.
FL: How has the Appian DirectRoute Software improved business?
Peterson: It definitely has improved our ability to plan the route, delivery time and
the delivery cost. We can also get a better handle on customer satisfaction and the
number of trucks in our fleet. We were able to consolidate deliveries onto trucks to get
more out of what we have. The optimization in the direct route program has helped
and it has really optimized the fleet and made it more efficient as far as it’s seeing
things that even our guys didn’t think would possibly work.
FL: Do you have any tips for other companies looking to implement a similar
system?
Peterson: Be prepared for a bit of upfront work. That work that you put on the front
end is going to pay off for you in the long term. When you’re setting the system up,
have people working on it who know the route [such as] dispatcher—it’s basically
going to be a kind of brain-dump as far as what they know of, which can include cus-
tomer preferences, customer delivery locations and also the unload rates of deliveries.
Also, realize that things change with your customer master file when you’re making
these deliveries.
Once you have the system, have a couple of people from the company go to one
of the user conferences. That was really valuable when myself and another dispatcher
went to one of the user conferences about TMW. It was really helpful to see other
peoples’ trials and tribulations. ◆
A Conversation with Kohl Wholesale About TMS
Page 37,39 RouteVehicles.indd 39 2/14/12 10:46 AM
Copyright of Food Logistics is the property of Cygnus Business Media and its content may not be copied or
emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission.
However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.