DistTech Manages with KPI's

Distribution Technologies, Inc. (DistTech) was founded in 1932 as Manfredi Motor Transit. Along with a name change, the company  has evolved into an established industry leader in dedicated contract carriage, common carriage and logistics services and returnable container management, primarily for liquid bulk commodities. DistTech combines a modern, secure fleet with the latest technology to offer customers such value-added services as real-time satellite tracking and communication, electronic load tendering and computerized dispatch. Headquartered in Newbury, Ohio, DistTech operates more than 30 facilities and a fleet of 700 tractors nationwide for a host of customers that include Sunoco, Ashland Chemical Company, Degussa and Master Builders.

In order to effectively compete with the largest trucking and logistics providers, it’s imperative for DistTech to continually measure the performance level – and cost – of each facet of the operation. “Our customers want to be assured that we have the ability to know exactly what our total costs are, and they want that information quickly,” explained John Hazenfield, Senior Vice President/CIO for DistTech. To achieve that goal, Hazenfield and his team used TMWSuite’s Management Reporting capability to manually generate reports every morning, measure the performance metrics for each customer and analyze the data. As the company continued to grow, however, the reporting process became time-consuming and labor intensive.

To automate the process of measuring metrics and monitoring contracts, DistTech deployed ResultsNow by TMW^TM, a web-based performance monitoring application, in 2003. After creating a “dashboard” of its Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), including Empty Miles, Revenue per Working Day, Loads per Day and Revenue per Load, DistTech uses ResultsNow to automatically run a pre-scheduled list of real-time management reports. At a glance, DistTech can compare its performance versus each of the metrics that are critical to running the operation smoothly and profitably – and know instantly what the total cost of operation is for each customer. To monitor performance more closely, DistTech used The Dawg^TM to define “alert thresholds” for each KPI. Every morning, the management team receives an exception report from The Dawg that lists any data points that are outside the acceptable range. For example, if there is a substantial swing in Revenue per Day, The Dawg reports the exception so that DistTech can investigate whether there was a data entry error that needs to be addressed.

Because ResultsNow and The Dawg help detect problems before they escalate and provide greater visibility into daily operations, the tools have enabled DistTech to achieve significant dollar savings, improve productivity and increase revenue opportunities. Here are a few of the benefits that DistTech has realized:

• Decreased the billing lag time to less than five days from the time a shipment is delivered to the time the customer is invoiced. Because The Dawg alerts the appropriate departments when delivered loads aren’t billed within three days, DistTech has been able to determine where the problem lies and resolve any issues faster.
  
• Increased Revenue per Working Day per Tractor and Revenue per Load. Additionally, DistTech has also reduced empty miles by approximately 7%.
  
• Entered new markets because the company has the ability to easily monitor and measure the metrics that are meaningful for each individual customer, such as Cost per Gallon.

“With ResultsNow we’re truly monitoring our performance, and we’re focused on key objectives every day,” said Hazenfield.