Solution Profile: Industry: Food 75% of shipment handled without human involvement On time shipping improved to 99% Just in time delivery required SCE Provider: RedPrairie

United Sugars Corporation is a Bloomington, Minnesota-based marketing co-op. They ship beet sugar from nine sites in the Red River Valley of North Dakota and Minnesota and cane sugar out of Clewiston, Florida. United Sugars' customers are world leaders in the candy, baking, cereal, dairy and beverage industries.

The Challenge
When processing orders, United Sugars relied on textual information, making it hard to keep up with customer requirements and inquiries. "If a carrier called for a load out of Minneapolis, we didn't always know if we had any or not," stated Rocky Wagendorf, business analyst for United Sugars. "And if we did, how many?"

To address these challenges, they searched for a transportation management system (TMS) with sophisticated planning and execution capabilities that would work in conjunction with their ERP system. The ERP interface provides real-time information such as freight pricing and transit times, uploads shipment documentation and communicates rail routing and tariff authority information to the ERP system and to carriers. Connectivity and flexible modeling options made the TMS attractive. With 70 percent of their product being distributed by rail and the rest by truck, they needed rating engines for two different modes of transportation.

Delivering Success
Because the system automates distribution functions, such as carrier assignment and load tendering, 75% of United Sugars' business is handled by the system without human involvement. Planners are only required to handle exceptions to normal operations based on system alerts. For example, when a tendered carrier declines a load, the load automatically appears on a geographical map on the appropriate planner's screen. When a rail shipment is stuck in a yard, planners are alerted to deploy trucks. This automation has reduced United Sugars' labor requirements and enabled them to handle rush orders.

Communicating with carriers was another challenge due to the volume of shipments. Advance EDI notices increased communication and the company's on-time shipping rate leapt from 88% to 99% less than four months after implementation. United Sugars has the power to redefine parameters on the fly and keep pace with the company's growth. "The best part about this is that we know on a day-to-day basis where we need to make changes," said Roger Perala, Business Systems Manager. "We really can control our own destiny." "Using the system enables United Sugars to improve customer service within its diverse logistics environment. Just-In-Time delivery is a big responsibility for us and because of the TMS, we're a lot more confident that we'll deliver," concluded Perala.

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