3 Ways to Ensure On-Time, In-Full Delivery of Inventory

Logility is working with a leader in the distribution and logistics space that provides delivery to auto dealers for the dealers’ parts and services business. 

This specialization allows them to be more efficient and knowledgeable about their customers and the specific parts they are delivering. Because these parts cannot be sold and services cannot be scheduled and performed until the parts are delivered, it is exceptionally important that they deliver on time and in full. 

The problem this organization faced was knowing which routes were responsible for delayed deliveries and what was causing the delays. The company felt their routes and stopping points caused inefficiency, but they also wanted to forecast the impact of extraneous factors such as weather, road construction, and traffic patterns. With this information, they could adjust schedules to proactively service their customers, adjust delivery times, and gain greater efficiencies from their fleet. In addition, they wanted to incorporate the inventories from their parts suppliers and their geographic locations so they could minimize empty return-trip trucks and duplicate runs, as well as minimize the inventory that they had to keep on hand in their distribution centers while knowing which suppliers had what parts in stock. 

Logistical Challenges 

With 10 distribution centers, each with over 100 routes, and each route with over 15 stops, this posed a significant logistics problem. Add to that over 2,500 parts from over 200 manufacturers and this became a significant supply chain opportunity. In addition, each truck itself – and there are over 1,000 of them – is a constant big data generator, capturing location, efficiency, speed, right turns, left turns, stop times and the length of each stop. How do you coordinate all this data against the business issue of on-time deliveries with the greatest efficiency? 

The Logility Difference 

Using Logility, they first aggregated their enterprise inventory and logistics data with two external data feeds. Then they created a series of operating metrics to be used by managers as well as KPIs for reporting to executives. An important feature of these reports was predictive metrics. These metrics, using Logility’s predictive modeling capabilities, identify routes with risk factors and suggest the likelihood of one or multiple delays in the near future (weeks). Lastly, they distribute these efficiency reports and interactive dashboards using the Logility® Digital Supply Chain Platform. An important feature of this approach was deploying mobile versions of each report for traveling executives. 

Today, everyone from the CEO down to the route dispatcher at each distribution center knows where any issues are and what needs to be done to correct them. It also allows our customer to be much more proactive in dealing with both the delivery points and their suppliers. As orders and inventory stocks can be readily shared, increasing parts production efficiency at the manufacturer and delayed delivery points can be more readily notified so they can more effectively reschedule their work loads. First-year savings from reduced inventory and greater fleet efficiencies are estimated at over $3 million

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