Viewpoint: USG's new collaborative era
Michael A. Levans, Group Editorial Director -- Logistics Management, 10/1/2009
When we're poring through the Nasstrac Shipper of the Year nominations, we tend to look for the impact players, those shippers who have introduced new best practices creating benefits that trickle through the company's overall operations—and beyond.
This year our decision was easy. In fact, when we read USG's nomination and the details of how quickly they ushered in a new era of carrier collaboration, it became clear that the building systems supplier met all our criteria. About 13 months ago, Janet Kemp, USG's manager of carrier operations, along with the company's logistics team, pinpointed a number of areas that needed immediate improvement and put theory into practice. They're now seeing the fruits of their labor benefit their employees, carriers, customers—even the environment. Sounds simple, but it wasn't.
Executive Editor Patrick Burnson offers a detailed look into all of USG's recently implemented best practices and their subsequent effects starting on page 24.
What I found of particular interest was Kemp's determination to launch new programs designed to both benefit carriers and improve transportation operations at the same time—relationship building programs we often tout but rarely see come to fruition.
First, Kemp launched the Carrier Certification Program to award a certification rating that recognizes carriers for meeting financial, operational, administrative, and infrastructure standards set up by the logistics team. Second, the team put a Carrier Scorecard into place that establishes metrics, communicates how they're performing based on these metrics, and allows them to see how they stack up against other carriers.
From the outset, the programs forced Kemp to rethink USG's carrier strategy. More importantly, these initiatives put the logistics team across the table with a small group of core carriers with whom they could trust. This was especially important considering the tight delivery windows established by the big box guys, USG's largest customers. By taking the time and effort necessary to attempt this “consultative” approach, Kemp was able to communicate USG's goals, lay down the expectations, and create a tighter bond between the shipper and its core group of transportation providers.
And the bottom line is pretty impressive. This collaborative framework within which the shipper and its carriers are now functioning has improved on-time performance, reduced total freight claims, and has even helped USG to establish a program where it shares backhaul lanes with one of its biggest customers.
“This not only contains costs, but also helps solidify our relationship with the customer,” Kemp tells Burnson. “We have common goals and—ideally—equally beneficial results.”
Comments? E-mail me at michael.levans@reedbusiness.com
View All On-Demand Webcasts