Minneapolis August 28, 2002 Seneca Foods, the largest canned and frozen vegetable processor in the world, has achieved cross-company visibility to 99.9 percent of its truckload shipments and 76 percent of its interplant shipments by implementing a Web-based transportation management system (TMS), according to the solution provider involved in the project.
Seneca deployed the TMS system from Nistevo last November and reportedly met its return on investment (ROI) objectives within the first three months after the implementation, saving 2 percent of its overall transportation costs.
Nistevo said that Seneca has been able to use capabilities such as online tendering, shipment tracking and tracing and supply chain event management to improve shipment visibility, centrally manage transportation contracts and carriers, and consistently measure carrier performance.
"Because our business is decentralized, we required a transportation management system that allowed us to manage our operations centrally, yet execute logistics in a distributed manner," said Gene Schaetten, vice president of transportation at Seneca Foods. "Nistevo was a perfect solution for us because it provided sophisticated TMS functionality, comprehensive shipment visibility and rapid deployment, so we could quickly achieve a return on our investment."
Prior to using Nistevo, Seneca managed its carrier contracts through a centralized route guide, but regional transportation managers selected the carriers. Contracts were negotiated on a regional basis instead of a corporate-wide contract rate. Shipments were tendered via phone and fax with no cross-company visibility to shipment status. Nistevo's Web-based Network provides a centralized view of all shipments, enabling Seneca to improve control over its logistics operations and minimize off-contract purchasing.
Currently, Seneca has five plants and 90 customer locations on the Nistevo Network and manages more than 500 shipments per month. The company uses the network for intermodal shipments as well as converting less-than-truckload (LTL) to full truckload (FTL) shipments. By the end of 2002, Seneca plans to incorporate Nistevo's LTL capabilities.
