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Case Study:

Network Optimization

The Challenge

This national furniture retailer’s DC was responsible to quickly pull and ship goods sold at their nationwide footprint of stores. Goods were sold and promised to customers by specific dates. The DC team was responsible to find the truckers, secure equipment and manage goods to the final delivery destination.

With an ever-changing landscape of truck companies, complex regulations and demand, the infrastructure to support that operation grew, as did their costs. Meeting delivery dates, and cost controls issued by corporate became a larger unmanageable burden.

Store managers demanded improvements, canceled orders and lost customers required change.

Why MITCO

The MITCO solution was focused on three main components, Technology, KPI’s and Process. By utilizing MITCO Transportation Services, and cloud based TMS, we offered the ability to eliminate the carrier management requirements, and on MITCO’s Managed Solution to find the trucks, and deliver on time.

MITCO Solution

MITCO reviewed the lanes and evaluated targets for both transit time and costs. The team then partnered with 1-2 carriers per location to insure there was redundancy and capacity. Customer demand is not always constant and or predictable...but meeting the required departure dates is non-negotiable.

MITCO presented multimode service options, with over the road, and intermodal options providing lower costs. Together we developed KPI’s with the carriers to insure proper equipment availability, on time pick up, and on time delivery.

All loads were booked and managed through the TMS, giving real time updates, with BOL and document storage. MITCO assigned dedicated resources to manage in transit activity and to proactively respond to shipments that were at risk of missing delivery dates, as well as providing a single point of contact for the store managers.

The Results

MITCO provided the single point of contact, with a focus on Managed Solution;

  • Visibility- MITCO TMS gave the DC and stores the ability to get real-time updates to booking, in transit and delivery information. And a single reporting tool to evaluate lanes and a carrier over time.
  • Operational Performance- KPI’s met! Defined metrics insured goods shipped and delivered on time. Improved customer satisfaction and increased confidence at the stores.
  • Capacity and Reliability- No longer tasked with carrier management, but having a single source who continuously evaluated and contracted primary and secondary carriers with limitless capacity.
  • Costs- Eliminating of internal back office costs, service level options, and constant maintenance of market rate solutions, lowered the operational transportation spend.
As a result, our customers and their stores' satisfaction increased, canceled orders decreased and operational and corporate costs decreased.