Vanguard Software Corp.’s cloud-based supply chain planning applications give large and mid-sized companies an advantage.
By Jim Harris
Vanguard Software Corp. founder and CEO Rob Suggs believes a little bit of planning can go a long way toward making mid- to large-sized companies successful. “The impact of having the right forecast can be dramatic,” he says. “We’ve been able, as a small company, to go into large, billion-dollar corporations and produce phenomenal impacts.”
Users of Vanguard’s Integrated Business Planning (IBP) system have seen cost savings of between $20 million and $30 million the first year of its use. The cloud-based platform enables companies to perform complex modeling and simulation, budgeting and planning, reporting and forecasting, and data integration functions.
“Our platform gives users a lot of power to build mathematical models and simulations to optimize their business,” Suggs says. “There are a lot of things in a business environment that companies don’t know. Building simulations on top of models can show a company the range of possible outcomes if they chose a particular strategy.”
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By better understanding its customers’ needs now, Höegh Autoliners is positioning itself for the future to expand in the automotive supply chain.
By Janice Hoppe-Spiers
Höegh Autoliners strives to be the go-to roll-on/roll-off [RO/RO] carrier in a globalized marketplace by remaining flexible and reliable while developing creative solutions at competitive prices. As its customers needs continue to evolve, the company is working to offer a wider range of services in the automotive supply chain.
“I think that what sets us apart is our flexibility and our relentless dedication and focus on customer excellence,” Head of Region Americas Shane Warren says. “We are not the biggest RO/RO carrier, but that helps us because we have more flexibility to meet their needs. It’s about understanding the customers’ needs, helping them understand where they have waste in their system and how we can help them to be more efficient.”
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CTG enhanced its already strong service with safety and leadership initiatives.
By Alan Dorich
For more than 30 years, Covenant Transportation Group (CTG) Inc. has been guided by values such as perseverance, hard work, faith, humility, planning and talent management. “Those are the keys to [getting us] where we are today,” President Joey Hogan declares.
Based in Chattanooga, Tenn., the transportation and logistics services firm is a holding company for multiple business units with offerings that range from truckload and intermodal freight transportation to tractor/trailer sales and leasing. Founders David and Jacqueline Parker started CTG in 1986 with just 25 trucks.
Today, the company has 2,600 vehicles across its divisions, Hogan says. These include Covenant Transport, Southern Refrigerated Transport, Star Transportation, Covenant Transport Solutions, Transport Financial Solutions and Transport Enterprise Leasing.
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IBM’s cognitive computing system, Watson, is a valued supply chain advisor to the company and others.
By Jim Harris
Disruptions are a fact of life for supply chain professionals. Inclement weather and natural disasters, mechanical breakdowns at manufacturing plants and other challenges can severely limit a company’s ability to produce and deliver goods to its customers.
As one of the world’s leading computing and information technology providers, IBM knows the reality of supply chain disruptions better than many companies. The Armonk, N.Y.-headquartered company serves customers in 170 countries from multiple manufacturing facilities it both owns and contracts with. The company also partners with logistics companies and service providers around the globe to deliver and install systems for clients.
Although IBM knows that many disruptions cannot be avoided entirely, the company is leveraging its existing technology to help both itself and others better predict and handle challenges.
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INAP used a phased approach to create buy-in as it shifted its procurement structure.
By Tim O’Connor
A successful supply chain transformation requires buy-in from the people executing its everyday functions. If a person in the field is unwilling to learn or follow the new processes and procedures the implementation can fall apart. Those employees must understand how those changes will improve their jobs before they are willing to go along.
For data center services company Internap Corp. (INAP), the pitch for its switch to a centralized procurement structure was straightforward: the change would take purchasing decisions out of the hands of the field agents and allow them to focus on providing technology solutions for customers. “I’d often tell them to think back at the job description when they applied for the job,” Senior Director of Procurement Adam Crowe says of explaining the change to field personnel. “I’m pretty sure ordering parts wasn’t one of the bullet points.”
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Xerox Corp. created efficiencies by more closely connecting its regional supply operations to its global network.
By Tim O’Connor
People don’t buy copiers and printers for the sake of having the equipment. Copiers and printers are a means to an end, a way to disseminate information among a team or to a client. In an increasingly digital age, these modes of communication are becoming more complex as communication that once took place in a single conference room now occurs all over the world.
To accommodate how modern business functions, Xerox has become a technology company focused as much on intelligent workspaces and cloud applications as it is on the broader printing market. “We’re a big player in an even bigger pool,” says Ken Syme, senior vice president of global manufacturing, supply chain and procurement at Xerox.
At the heart of Xerox’s technology is the interface between the digital and physical worlds. Customers want to convert their printed information into a digital format, distribute it to stakeholders and be able to interact with the material in a digital format. At the same time, paper documents are not going away anytime in the foreseeable future.
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SCI’s three-year ‘roadmap’ will bring savings and new talent to its operations.
By Alan Dorich
It is always a difficult time when a family loses a loved one. Service Corporation International (SCI) strives to make it easier. “We try to take some of the administrative load off of our locations so they can do what they do best, serve the families,” Sr. Managing Director of Procurement and Supply Chain Rone Luczynski says.
Based in Houston, SCI is North America’s largest provider of funeral and cemetery services. The company has spent the last seven years focused on streamlining and making its supply chain more efficient, Luczynski says.
In 2013, SCI completed a five-year plan that allowed it to significantly cut costs and expenses,. In 2016, the company started its journey on a three-year “roadmap” to improve purchasing for its more than 2,000 funeral homes and cemeteries in 45 states, eight Canadian provinces, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
SCI carried over some areas of focus from the five-year plan into its current one, Luczynski notes. “The first five years were about people, process and technology,” he recalls, noting that the company’s focus on people never ends.
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