A major manufacturer’s planning group needed a quick, efficient way to manually release orders for material requirements above and beyond planned production inventory. A solution that streamlined the release of EDI orders and communications to suppliers and their Lead Logistics Provider was desired. The manufacturer sought help from Transfreight.

SOLUTION

Transfreight developed the UPO (Unplanned Order) program, one of the many components of our online customer case center available to our customers. This forum enables the material planning department to quickly and manually add unplanned orders to existing timelines, or create unplanned orders that require a separate pickup altogether (expedite). Once the required information, e.g., vendor, part number(s), quantity, delivery time, etc,  is compiled into the online UPO template, the planner releases the order and UPO requirements to all parties involved via fax, email, and EDI. If the planner adds additional freight to an existing timeline, the freight is linked accordingly in Transfreight’s transportation management system (TMS). And if the planner requires a separate expedite truck to pick up their requirements, the EDI is temporarily stored in the TMS until an expedite truck can be booked. 

A separate web board module (UPO Board) captures the data and displays any new expedite requirements, eliminating the need to manually contact their LLP to inform us of a required expedite shipment. Transfreight then sets up an expedite shipment based on the new information on the UPO board.

RESULTS

The UPO program has allowed the customer to quickly and accurately respond to inventory losses by immediately releasing new orders into the system. A process that could easily have taken several hours for all necessary communications and manual adjustments now takes only minutes. The streamlined information and real-time EDI have increased efficiency, allowing material planning to focus on more areas of their business. Most importantly, it has helped drive down total logistics cost, especially when planning has the option to add additional freight to existing timelines, right up until the time when the truck is scheduled to depart from a facility.

UPO Program

UPO Board