As one of the world's leading multi-national manufacturing companies, Dow Chemical Company had a vision to create and deploy a solution, standardizing international transportation and trade logistics into one process at the global level.
With manufacturing and distribution channels in literally every major market around the globe, Dow was seeking a logistics partner capable of performing on a truly global scale while significantly reducing costs. In particular, Dow wanted a lead logistics provider (LLP) that could deliver a world-class supply chain strategy, technology, operations management and purchase order execution on a global basis for its Marine Packed Cargo (MPC) business.
Dow wasn't interested in piecemeal capabilities strung together to give the appearance of a supply chain process. It had to be the real thing. So where in the past Dow's needs had only been accomplished on an inter-regional scale, the company wanted seamless global information management and transportation logistics to aggressively manage business costs.
Within a few short months, the implementation began. Step one required transitioning the company's North American operations, beginning with exports and the corresponding importing countries for those transactions. Within two months, implementation activities had been extended to Asia. Dow operations in Latin America would be scheduled for integration next.
Rick Gerardo, Vice President of Dow's Supply Chain organization describes his company's selection of BDP: "In today's competitive world, you need partners who can grow with you, and that's why we have formed a partnership with BDP. As Dow positions itself for future growth, we will need a logistics partner with a proven track record, the right industry expertise, a commitment to provide exceptional value to our customers, and extensive global reach and capabilities. BDP offers us exactly those strengths."
"The capacity to meet the needs of one of the world's largest companies for a standardized international logistics process is unique to BDP," says John Bolte, BDP Chief Operating Officer. "It reflects our long-held belief that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' logistics solution. From the start, the goal then and now has been to drive value back to Dow through their global supply chain, through a strategic approach, metrics and metrics analysis initiatives, as well as transactional order execution functions."
People are the engine of BDP's success with Dow. A centralized BDP LLP team oversees the Dow business activity and ensures that the processes for which BDP is responsible, operate efficiently and effectively within Dow's overall supply chain across five primary service categories: logistics, communication, documentation, SAP entry and review, and customer service.
The day-to-day interface with Dow is handled by dedicated BDP Logistics Service Coordinators (LSC) who are the core point of contact, responsible for orders between Dow and BDP systems for shipment prioritization, performance of key SAP functions, and assignment of carriers, vessels and rates.
A cadre of global logistics management tools supports both Dow and BDP staff. In addition to BDP's extensive Customer Order Processing System (COPS), a suite of web-enabled customer service applications provides Dow unrestricted global analysis and control of their supply chain process. SmartTracking, a global tracking and tracing tool monitors the transportation and documentation status and delivery of shipments, proactively reports exceptions, and links all parties involved with a particular shipment. Dow and BDP team members also can access critical shipment data at any time at the touch of a button in the BDP Data Warehouse, which provides customized database tables for Dow covering all variables, including the specific flow of purchase orders.
Another technology enhancement, SmartDocs, expedites air and ocean export transactions by generating and sending trade documents as paperless transactions via the Internet. BDP's capability goes further than others by enabling the transfer of all documents in a transaction. On-time deliveries are increased, waiting for documents is reduced, and errors eliminated. Dow also can use Customer Correct, an online corrective action tool, to reduce account problems.
The bottom line? After approximately 15 months, Dow has realized significant hard cost savings for their MPC business. More than 20 percent in savings have been achieved on Dow's airfreight logistics process costs.
