Demand for advanced transportation management systems is rising as businesses seek to reduce costs, address capacity constraints, and streamline operations. While optimization is key, not all optimization strategies are equal, and focusing on only one factor can do more harm than good. Companies need transportation management systems that use both heuristic and deterministic approaches concurrently to consider all elements like strategies, details, granularity, and constraints to find the best solution. Ambev saw significant benefits like a 100% ROI in under a year by replacing legacy systems with new transportation management technology.

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www.jda.com

2.  Demand for advanced transportation
management systems is on the rise
 With mounting pressure on businesses to
contain costs, address capacity
constraints, lower their carbon footprints
and streamline movements, a
flexible, agile and functionally rich
transportation management system can
help support their service goals.

3.  Pinpointing the optimal solution is challenging and
complex.
 One factor adding confusion to the search is the manner
in which vendors use — or overuse —the term
optimization.
 Optimization techniques are proven to drive the vast
majority of the business value realized from the use of
transportation management solutions.

4.  However, not all optimization strategies are created
equal and that’s where the confusion lies.
 Vendors too often take a simplified approach and focus
on just one function to optimize, which can lead to more
harm than good.
 A comprehensive approach takes many factors into
consideration.

5. 1. One size does not fit all.
2. The details matter.
3. Concurrency is king.

6.  For the best possible answer in the shortest amount of
time, companies must apply both heuristic (experience
based) and deterministic approaches that use a series of
logical and common-sense decisions along with network
constraint considerations.
 Transportation management systems should offer a
flexible configuration that adapts to each company’s
unique strategies, as well as network constraints and
variables.

7.  Companies that follow optimization best
practices constantly monitor and tune
their strategies to address any changes
in their network, supply chain, market
and customer demands. Capacity, for
example, tends to ebb and flow with
economic changes, and shippers must
be prepared to adapt their strategies to
capitalize on market opportunities.

8.  Intertwining planning and execution processes makes
transportation functions unique among other supply
chain.
 It is critical that all of the details − from network and
dock scheduling to asset capacity and granularly defined
rates− are expertly modeled.
 Ensuring accuracy and visibility into all of the details also
confirms that a company is not missing out on
opportunities to get the same results at lower overall
costs.

9.  A company must also have visibility into the details of the
load that it is moving. Rather than making assumptions
that can lead to added costs and stoppages, the
company needs containerization capabilities to model
the load at a finer level of granularity.

10.  Shippers must rely on an optimization engine that
considers all elements of the problem –
strategies, details and levels of granularity – at the same
time in order to produce the best answer.
 A best-practices transportation management system can
consider all aspects of the problem concurrently
including rating, routing, scheduling and capacity
constraints.

11.  Throughout the process of constantly adjusting and
incrementally optimizing the orders to be
executed, shippers must have visibility across time into
already executed orders. This enables them to
continually refine any network constraints or carrier
commitments.
 It also ensures that they have the required resources to
realize their service goals as efficiently and effectively as
possible.

12.  Ambev is a leading Latin American brewer and PepsiCo
International, Inc.’s bottler outside of the United States.
 Ambev and its subsidiaries produce, distribute and sell
beer, carbonated soft drinks and other non-alcoholic and
non-carbonated products in 14 countries.

13.  Ambev experienced a significant spike in order volume
across its operating regions, and began to search for
better transportation solution that could handle
increasingly complex demands.
 In addition to cost and efficiency concerns, Ambev also
needed to ensure that customer service levels kept pace
with increasing demand.

14.  Ambev sought to improve asset utilization and processes
while positioning itself for continued future growth.
 Ambev decided to replace its legacy systems with
industry-leading transportation and logistics
management technology to better plan and manage its
transportation network.

15.  BENEFITS:
o 100 percent return on investment in less than 12
months
o Improved network-wide visibility
o Increased asset utilization
o Enhanced dock scheduling, resulting in reduced dock
congestion
o Improved customer service while decreasing costs
o Better overall transportation efficiency and
performance

16.  JDA Software offers its list of top 10 optimization
capabilities to more effectively contain costs, reduce
miles and increase utilization: