Case Study Briefs

Click on the links in the navigation below to see how PDI has helped various customers achieve their transportation goals. Each case study brief has a link to the full report if available.

• Inteplast Group, LTD
• Groupe SEB, USA
• CTM Whitepaper

Inteplast Group, LTD.

|Full Report|

Inteplast Group, Ltd., one of America's leading manufacturer's of plastics products for a wide variety of industries, received the following benefits from a comprehensive PDI service package. Inteplast, with well-known brands such as AmTopp, World-Pak and Integrated Bagging Systems (IBS), was focused on rapid expansion of their business and preferred to focus their internal efforts on growing their business, using capital more efficiently, gaining competitive advantage, and gaining market share-all without the traditional logistics constraints. PDI was selected in 2004 as their strategic partner to accomplish these objectives.

At the strategic level, PDI used a total system approach to define how Inteplast should optimize its transportation logistics flows from plant to ultimate customer. At the tactical level, PDI developed and managed a pool distribution program that would accomplish all the stated objectives and provide additional value-add benefits. On an operational level, PDI designed and managed processes to optimize freight flows, consolidate LTL shipments, optimize carrier assignment, execute continuous moves, provide regional distribution, and effectively integrate all supply chain partners.

Results thus far have yielded improvements in all targeted areas as noted below. In addition, Inteplast has gained significant benefit from PDI's proven processes and now has real-time visibility to their in-transit shipments through PDI's proprietary web portal.

Before	After
12 % LTL shipments	<5 % LTL shipments
Long order-delivery lead times	2-3 day reduction in order-delivery lead times
Excessive freight damage	Freight damage nearly eliminated
High transportation cost	13-15% reduction in transportation cost
Poor on-time performance	96.5%+ on-time performance

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Groupe SEB, USA.

Groupe SEB, USA, a leader in the cookware and small alliances market, has been a PDI client since 1987. A few of their well known worldwide brands include Krups, T-Fal, Rowenta and All-Clad. Their parent, Groupe SEB, is a publicly traded company headquartered in France. For their U.S. market they distribute out of their state-of-the-art distribution center in Millville, NJ.

The top concern for Groupe SEB since the beginning of the relationship was getting their product delivered to the retail market in a cost effective manner while providing the highest levels of service performance required by their retail supply chain customers. As an on-going service PDI was asked to be a single source 3PL provider to manage all their prepaid truckload transportation shipments as well as the predominant share of their LTL shipments. In addition, PDI is the first to be contacted to handle emergency and time sensitive shipments that are difficult for most 3PL's to handle, especially in today's tight capacity environment.

For the daily shipments requirements transmitted by Groupe SEB, PDI creates pool distribution loads to minimize total transportation costs. Any savings realized are passed along to Groupe SEB in the form of lower LTL rates.

But the relationship goes beyond transportation management. In 2003, after making a major acquisition, Groupe SEB decided to close the acquired company's 750,000 sq. ft. distribution center and relocate all the inventory to their master distribution center in Millville, NJ, 1,800 miles away. Who was selected to handle this? PDI was, of course.

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CTM Whitepaper - PDI

|Full Report|

The process of collaborating in the transportation area, particularly full truckload transportation, is Collaborative Transportation Management (CTM). CTM is a process that brings shippers, receivers, and transportation service providers together for the sake of "win-win-win" outcomes among all parties. While CTM has been around since the mid-90's it's been like the weather: Everyone talks about it, but no one does anything about it. That is, until recently. With tight carrier capacity, rising fuel costs, port congestion, driver shortages, increased security concerns, hours-of-service constraints, and increasing lead-time variability, more trading partners are taking real steps towards serious collaborative transportation relationships.

This paper describes what collaborative transportation is, what the benefits are, and provides a compelling business case for taking action.

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