A Mid-sized 3PL in NJ has gained operational productivity and enhanced customer service through use of (Instaknow) by eliminating manual operations and automating processes internal and external to the company.

Problem: The 3PL would receive orders from its client, a provider of manufactured goods to its retail customers, by e-mail. The information had to be entered manually into its AS400 system.  Pick up sheets letting drivers know where to go and what to "pick up" were printed and delivered to the trucker. A copy of the pick up sheet had to be sent to the inventory source, the product provider, to confirm that the product was available to be picked up.  These manual steps involved a number of administrative staff. Too often manual look up of location of the product provider and delivery location were inaccurate.

Solution: CT's Supply Chain/Logistics solution automatically posted pick orders from e-mail into the AS400 system in real time and printed pick up sheets. The solution verified address locations, provided travel directions to the trucker and automatically alerted both customer and product provider that the process was underway along with expected times of pick up and arrival. The system could also track weather and traffic delays that could interfere with and delay the process. The systems "fuzzy logic" was able to quickly and correctly deal with misspellings of location addresses, names of companies, etc. that often created confusion and delays when conducted manually. Dispatching was automated as well.

Benefits: The automated solution would also automatically read the manifest and corroborate truck weight with inventory to be delivered eliminating manual count of items. Both client, product provider, and final customer destination systems were updated automatically eliminating a number of people making phone calls and looking at multiple computer screens. With hundreds of pick up orders per week, the 3PL was able to expedite faster and more accurately than its competition, cut operating costs, eliminate wrong directions to truckers, mitigate inventory short falls, and reassign staff to more important operations.