Inbound Logistics | January 2025

[ IN PRACTICE ] CASEBOOK

From Fax to the Future: Do It Best Reinvents Its Supply Chain THE CUSTOMER Do It Best is a member-owned comprehensive and fully integrated hardware, lumber, and building

Aiming to keep pace with the rapidly expanding home improvement market, Do It Best—a member-owned hardware, lumber, and building materials buying cooperative—sought to replace its outdated manual processes with a streamlined, automated system. Since providing exceptional service to its members is crucial to the cooperative’s success, Do It Best partnered with Redwood Logistics to enhance its transportation management system (TMS).

materials buying cooperative based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. With more than $5 billion in annual sales, it serves thousands of locations across the United States and in more than 50 foreign countries. THE PROVIDER Redwood Logistics is a platform- based fourth-party logistics provider headquartered in Chicago. The company utilizes an open platform for digital logistics that allows shippers to mix-and-match any service, partner, or technology for maximum flexibility.

This research led Do It Best to include Redwood Logistics in their vendor selection process and ultimately partner with them to implement a MercuryGate cloud-based TMS. HAIL THE UNDERDOG Do It Best has long championed independent hardware, building materials, and lumber dealers. Initially known as Hardware Wholesalers Inc. (HWI), the organization was the brainchild of Arnold Gerberding, a hardware salesman who believed dealer-owned cooperatives were essential for keeping hardware stores competitive and independent. HWI members could get better volume pricing from vendors by buying together rather than on their own. Eighty years later, the cooperative’s initial membership of approximately 75 independent business owners in four midwestern states has grown to include thousands of member-owned retailers across the United States and in 50-plus foreign countries.

Established in 1945, Do It Best found many of its processes mired in the past. The company carried out routine tasks such as routing pickups and deliveries, compliance reviews, invoice audits, and approvals via phone, fax, or email. “Although this system supported a signicant volume of transactions, we knew there was untapped potential for greater productivity,” says Brad Weems, inbound operations manager at Do It Best. Even data mining was labor-intensive for the cooperative, with employees having to manually enter every number and decimal into spreadsheets. “There was little room for deeper operational analysis,” Weems says. DOING THE RESEARCH Fortunately, Do It Best knew just where to turn for advice. As a Gartner client, they leaned into the technological research and consulting rm’s expertise, specically its Magic Quadrant series of market research reports concerning the transportation management software market.

by June Allan Corrigan

January 2025 • Inbound Logistics 195