The global sourcing boom would not be possible without the continued evolution of the logistics organization. And one of the major drivers of that evolution has been the shipment visibility and planning garnered through advanced logistics software.

Whether it be furniture shipped from Asia or bananas shipped from South America, visibility into inbound materials makes the logistics and supply chain organization's job a lot easier.

When food giant Chiquita Brands International chose to create one centralized logistics organization to support its North American business, the company did so with the knowledge that the centralized organization would have full visibility into its shipments via a transportation management system (TMS). As Deverl Maserang, vice president of North American logistics explains, two years ago Cincinnati-based Chiquita acquired retail chain Fresh Express and, from a logistics perspective, saw a host of possible synergies between the two companies' supply chains.

Both companies were shipping domestic and imported produce mostly in refrigerated trucks and containers across North America. Chiquita mostly ships bananas via steamship from Central and South America into five U.S. ports, which are then put on trucks for shipment to various locations. Most of the Fresh Express shipments originate in the U.S. or Mexico and travel via refrigerated truck to points in the U.S.

However, each company used its own TMS system and to achieve true synergy, the two units would have to migrate to a single TMS. Maserang says because of its complicated supply chain, Chiquita was on the "bleeding edge" of TMS use, as one of the first customers to adopt the LeanLogistics on-demand TMS more than six years ago. Based on that relationship and experience, Chiquita is currently in the process of migrating its entire network, including that which it gained in the FreshExpress deal, to LeanLogistics.

Maserang says there are two main areas where the benefits of increased shipment visibility via a TMS sell themselves to the users. First, there is a direct benefit in the total cost calculations that any importer or major global business must perform in today's market. "In the past we could not get that full transparency into the total landed cost," he says. "We would have to do a near-impossible manual analysis, which was infrequent and not exact. Now with the visibility into both payables and billables in transportation we can do that analysis much more often and gain more leverage."

Secondly the improved visibility gives Chiquita the ability to schedule more continuous moves and minimize its empty miles. "One goal early on after the acquisition of Fresh Express was to use our containers to ship bananas one direction and bring salads back the other direction," Maserang says. "With the entire company on one TMS, we can enable that and manage our cold chain more effectively."

In fact, Chiquita has a unique take on the empty container challenge. In addition to running its own logistics network, Chiquita owns and operates the Great White Fleet steamship line, both for its own shipments and for general freight. Since the majority of its ocean moves come from South or Central America to the U.S., the major challenge is filling containers that are on the ships headed south.

"So we'll fill those refrigerated trailers with everything from paper for our suppliers' packaging plants in South America to resins or even old cars to be sold in South America," Maserang says. "We'll use them as NORs or nonoperating reefers and price that business as a dry move. There's no reason to ship air."

Again, tracking containers and trailers with the TMS helps coordinate those moves and makes the most of the shipments back to Central and South America.

The increased visibility of shipments also brought to light opportunities for Chiquita to use a dedicated fleet in some lanes around its five major manufacturing facilities. Today, Chiquita ships about 15% of its North American freight on dedicated fleet and is looking to increase that amount.

Chiquita has also used its TMS system to keep more accurate carrier scorecards, improving the service levels it receives from its carriers. But perhaps one of the biggest benefits Maserang's organization has received from the TMS is not easily quantifiable—the more strategic view that Chiquita executives now have about the logistics organization.

"In the past, transportation was considered a commodity-type transaction—it was just expected to happen. Now with the work we're doing and the ability to stay competitive with our customers, it has elevated our organization among the senior management board. We've become a strategic asset instead of a necessary evil. Without that visibility, that conversation would never happen."

While the fruit industry is one of the major importers in the U.S., another one is the furniture industry. As John Fusco, vice president of supply chain logistics at the American Drew and Lea Youth Group divisions of La-Z-Boy explains, most furniture sold in the U.S. today is made in factories in Asia. "We use five factories in China, one in Thailand and one in Vietnam," Fusco says.

Exporting 6,000 containers worth of furniture from Asia to the U.S. each year requires several things, but first and foremost, a close relationship with its logistics carriers and service providers. "We look for a dedicated account manager from our freight forwarders who can help us manage the flow of containers from Asia," says Fusco.

One of the freight forwarders La-Z-Boy relies on most is Global Link Logistics of Tucker, Ga., which has brought not only a dedicated account manger to La-Z-Boy, but also a robust logistics software platform from technology provider TradeBeam of San Mateo, Calif. Fusco explains that the TradeBeam system—and Global Link's data—allows him to see when a container has left a factory in Asia, when it is loaded onto a ship and when it arrives in a U.S. port. The major advantage of this visibility is the ability to prioritize containers before they get to port and ship those that are most time-sensitive to customers first.

"In the past, we did not know which containers were due to arrive first, so we had to wait until they came into port before deciding which ones to ship first," Fusco says. Now, by comparing the container information in the Trade Beam system against his internal list of products and containers, Fusco can tell the trucking firms at the port which containers should be prioritized based on what's in them and where they need to go.

He estimates that the Drew and Lea divisions of La-Z-Boy bring in 30–40 containers a week, and typically prioritizes 10–15 to be pulled first based on what's in them. "We can set up our DC staff and cross-dock the priority containers and get them out without even putting them into inventory. So that is a tremendous advantage there in terms of streamlining our supply chain."

And clearly there are customer service benefits of this model, as well. "In our industry, we have a lot of retailers asking where their container is and by using this system, we can tell them where it is and when it will get to them, which is a huge benefit from a customer service standpoint," says Fusco.