Warehousing invested in a dry ice machine for its work with the company. Then, as the cost of dry ice increased during the pandemic, the team at Smart Warehousing identi ed gel packs— previously a more expensive option—as a newly cost-effective substitute. Smart Warehousing also helped Jack Stack reduce transportation costs, which had jumped about 25% over the past few years, says Carl Wasinger, chief executive of cer and founder of Smart Warehousing. To do this, the Smart Warehousing team leveraged its Smart Warehousing Information Management System (SWIMS) to analyze data on tens of thousands of direct-to-consumer orders, continually reviewing order velocity down to the stock-keeping unit (SKU) level. By leveraging SWIMS’ machine learning capabilities, Smart Warehousing could intelligently allocate pork, beans, and other products to its 38 warehouse locations. Also through the SWIMS analysis, Smart Warehousing reduced Jack Stack’s transportation zones, as well as its use of dry ice. The result? A savings in transportation costs of between 8 and 10%. “Before working with Smart, there was no way we’d have had the capacity” to handle the increase in volume, Dorman says.
covered by a 3PL, while also moving farther up and downstream within shippers’ value chains. In general, 4PLs are involved in logistics and supply chain strategy, operations, and support. “These tend to be tech-heavy solutions and require a much higher level of integrated partnerships,” Beckett notes. The following logistics providers and their clients have addressed the challenges of the past few years through collaborative relationships and the effective deployment of technology.
around the country. These supply about 3,000 restaurants across 44 states. Early in the pandemic, vendors had trouble lling orders. Before COVID, it wasn’t uncommon to be shorted three to ve items on each order; during the pandemic, that number shot up to 30 to 50 items. At the same time, packaging became dif cult to nd. “When you’re doing a ton of drive-through, don’t want to run out of packaging,” Brewer says. Brewer connected with Nicole Glenn, founder of Candor Expedite, based in Plano, Texas, appreciating her “out of the box thinking,” he says. For instance, Candor is one of a few companies that offers sprinter vans—a cost-effective solution when you need to move only a handful of pallets. In addition, Candor connected CKE with a company offering pallet wraps that go around skids to maintain frozen or chilled temperatures. These allow CKE to place refrigerated or frozen products on regular trucks, increasing the universe of potential trucks by 75%, while also decreasing costs. CKE has been testing the wraps. “It’s going great,” Brewer says.
SMOKING-HOT LOGISTICS SOLUTIONS Smart Warehousing and Jack Stack Barbeque Jack Stack Barbeque is a Kansas City institution with six restaurants, as well as catering, banquet, and e-commerce operations. While the company previously handled its warehousing and ful llment functions internally, it had dif culty getting these functions to perform to nancial goals, says Keaton Dorman, director of retail operations. In part, that’s because the company ships to all 48 mainland states and does about 40% of its volume during the holidays. Prior to connecting with logistics provider Smart Warehousing in mid-2017, “we were buying warehouse space and an entire team for one month each year,” Dorman says. Smart Warehousing, in contrast, is better positioned at lling in the down time. During the pandemic, shipping orders quickly shot up. The partnership with Smart Warehousing became key to managing the jump in sales. One example: because Jack Stack was using so much dry ice, Smart
A NEW RECIPE FOR LOGISTICS SUCCESS ODW and Plaskolite In 2018, Plaskolite, a global manufacturer of engineering thermoplastics used in windows, doors, point-of-purchase displays, and other products, made ve acquisitions, more than doubling the size of the company. “We weren’t going to be able to take on the logistics functions we needed, with only the logistics department we had,” says Drew Lester, director of
EXPEDITING THE DRIVE-THROUGH Candor Expedite and CKE Restaurants Holdings CKE Restaurants Holdings, based in Franklin, Tennessee, operates 19 distribution centers and warehouses
132 Inbound Logistics • July 2022
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