Global Manufacturer of Commercial and Residential HVAC Equipment

This manufacturer delivers products, services, and solutions that increase energy efficiency and reduce operating costs in buildings for more than one million customers. Operating from 500 branch offices in more than 150 countries, the business is a leading provider of equipment, controls and services for heating, ventilating, air-conditioning, refrigeration, and security systems.

Request

After growing through acquisitions, the company amassed a mix of logistics management teams and ERP solutions. This patchwork of capabilities hindered its ability to tackle highly complex and demanding transportation challenges. Among them:

  • Wide-ranging shipments to customers—from boxes of product shipped in standard trailers to oversized air-conditioning units on flat-bed trailers.
  • Various product shapes and sizes, creating complexities around how products can be arranged with each other on a trailer.
  • Shipments to construction job sites that must be precisely coordinated with building schedules (for example, when a crane is available to hoist the product on to a roof).

Approach

Manual optimization and load planning, booking, and tracking were creating obstacles. The unit lacked visibility to trucks in transit and to exceptions—and it was unable to alert customers to late shipments. In the spring of 2013, the company set out to find a better approach and ultimately selected CLX Logistics’ Kewill-Transport (TMS) as its standard, enterprise-wide platform. The system went live in the fall of the same year, timed to coordinate with the expansion of its SAP ERP to all business units.

Results

For this business unit, CLX Logistics’ TMS has supported a number of important business results. Among them:

  • Significant savings due to improved adherence to routing guides.
  • Significant efficiency gains through automated load planning and optimization.
  • Tracking and visibility of shipments.
  • Ability to proactively alert customers about late shipments.
  • Large gains in all aspects of freight financials: rating, accruals, and freight audit and settlement.
  • Improved reporting about costs, carrier compliance, and execution.