Success in business comes from crafting and executing effective business strategies. The attainment of strong financial performance comes from integrating and aligning the various strategies of the business into a cohesive force. A company’s supply chain strategy, of which transportation strategy is a key component, is often a critical piece of the company’s business strategy. We often observe that the freight strategies of our clients are not well aligned with their business strategies. In fact, they often inhibit these companies from achieving the bottom line results that they are so desperately seeking. Here are some of the things that we commonly observe.

A Failure to Recruit and Train Top Quality Talent

As noted in an earlier blog (http://www.dantranscon.com/index.php/blog/entry/becoming-a-best-in-class-shipper-3-organization), it takes leadership and management skill to be an effective supply chain executive. By not hiring and training top quality management talent to this position, the company receives mediocre leadership and weak performance.

Some companies don’t fully appreciate the scope of knowledge (http://www.dantranscon.com/index.php/blog/entry/becoming-a-best-in-class-shipper-2-knowledge) that is needed to be a Best in Class Transportation operation. While companies will go out and hire top notch sales and engineering professionals, they will “force fit” unqualified individuals into the role of Transportation Manager. Without the knowledge, skills and resources, the company gets what it deserves - - poor performance.

The previous blog focused on some of the core freight management processes that are part of a company’s supply chain. For many years, prior to the age of computers and tablets, these processes were performed with manual procedures, calculators and spreadsheets. Some companies still use spreadsheets to manage a few or all of these processes. The good news is that there are some excellent technology-based tools that shippers can acquire or outsource to manage freight transportation. They include:

Transportation Management Systems (TMS)

A good TMS system can perform many of the activities outlined in the previous blog (http://www.dantranscon.com/index.php/blog?view=entry&id=202). These include shipment planning, shipment consolidations, mode and carrier selection, carrier performance management, exception reporting and a host of other functions. When linked with a strong Warehouse Management System (WMS), they provide a powerful integrated system to perform “end to end” supply chain management.

Shipment Loading

One can view a supply chain as a series of processes. From inbound freight management, the process of picking up raw materials, to last mile delivery, freight management is a group of practices and procedures that, when performed well, are seamlessly integrated to ensure a company’s goods, arrive on time, at the right place, damage free. Best in Class shippers have tight processes that perform each of the following activities in a highly effective manner.

• Inbound Freight Management

Often overlooked and underappreciated, strong inbound freight management processes allow shippers to leverage the full volume of their shipping activities in their carrier rate negotiations. They ensure shippers treat this as effective means of expense management rather than as a profit center for their vendors. When done well, inbound freight management permits shippers to create round trips and continuous moves to improve network optimization and reduce costs. They ensure inbound materials arrive in the right qualities at the right time at the lowest cost possible.

• Shipment Planning

In many firms, freight costs can be in the millions or tens of millions of dollars. This large expense can represent a significant percent of a company’s revenue. As a large expense item, it needs to be managed very skillfully.

The first blog in this series (http://www.dantranscon.com/index.php/blog/entry/becoming-a-best-in-class-shipper-1-freight-data-management) looked at the need for detailed, accurate, freight spend data. One of the benefits of having this type of quality data is that it allows the transportation leaders of an organization to create a quality freight budget. The budget should be tied directly to the company’s business plan and supply chain strategy. Every manufacturer or distributor must make certain assumptions about how it plans to transport its inbound raw materials and deliver its finished goods. These assumptions outline the modes and expected costs.

The budget should detail on at least a monthly basis, the projected revenues and freight costs. Since many companies utilize multiple modes (e.g. small parcel, LTL , intermodal, etc.) and multiple service options (e.g. next day by 9:00 AM, regular ground, air freight etc.), it is important to capture this type of granular data since the costs will vary based on the mode and service chosen. Similarly, projections should be made concerning fuel surcharges and any other extra cost that can be a significant component of the freight budget.

The company should also produce a monthly transportation expense variance report. The report should be granular and provide variances on expenses by mode and cost item. It should highlight percentage changes in modal utilization and carrier collaboration.

It takes leadership and management skill to become a Best in Class shipper. One question many companies face is where should Transportation fit within the company’s organization structure? Clearly one size does not fit all since manufacturers may have freight budgets ranging from a few hundred thousand dollars to tens of millions of dollars. The Transportation leader in a small enterprise doesn’t need the skill set of an individual who manages a multi-modal, multi-division, multi-million dollar freight budget.

This is not to say that a manufacturer with a small freight spend can be managed by an individual with limited or no freight transportation expertise. In smaller enterprises, we often observe an individual in a small office in the warehouse who has been there for many years, reporting to the controller or operations manager. These people often have a rudimentary understanding of freight and have been doing things the same way for many years.

Even small manufacturers and distributors should ask the question, do their transportation managers have the data (blog 1 in this series, knowledge (blog 2 in this series) and management skill to lead this function effectively. In addition do they have the processes and technology in place to be effective? Supply chain management is rapidly changing. If your freight leaders are lacking in many of the areas outlined in these blogs, it is important for their supervisors to ensure that they are receiving the necessary training. Their lack of expertise may be costing the firm large sums of money (in missed cost saving opportunities). For companies where Transportation is not a core competence, consideration should be given to outsourcing these functions to a logistics services provider that is better equipped to manage transportation.

In larger firms, there are other issues to address. Does the leader of Transportation function have input to the strategies of the business; does the company have a well-conceived supply chain strategy and does this individual have a seat at the decision-making table? Is supply chain management one of the core functions of the company or is Transportation viewed as an end-of-the line execution process? In other words, does the company consider alternate supply chains, alternate modes and transit times, consolidating and deconsolidating freight, where financially attractive and beneficial to its customers? Alternatively, is the transportation department expected to expedite the orders made by Sales or find a way to move partial or full truckload shipments that come off the production line after the truckers have left the building? These are telltale signals that Transportation is not properly valued in the company.