Page 38 - Case Study Annual 2018
P. 38
LAA Gold Award
On-demand deliveries
When late deliveries started to become its trademark, WD Ice decided it was time to
implement a route optimisation programme.
AFTER TAKING over the company and delivery schedules caused logistics
analysing its supply chain, the new directors blockages, resulting in rising costs, customer
of WD Ice found many problems that they service issues and dissatisfaction and the
weren’t sure how to solve. They had no inability to grow as a result of the logistics
business background and had to figure out constraints.
solutions as they approached each individual
problem. The business continued to grow The solutions
and each new growth spurt brought new The need for improvement in the delivery
trials to be solved. planning department was identified.
Incremental solutions were taken to alleviate
The challenge the problem, including:
The needs of WD Ice’s clients are dynamic • Automating the order to cash cycle with
and one of the company’s biggest challenges Omni.
was how to plan its daily deliveries. For • Route optimisation and execution with On
example, restaurants need orders before Demand.
their busy lunch run and often don’t have • Market segment analysis.
the space to store enough ice to get them • Resultant distribution models to suit
through the day. The system was run segments.
manually with no cut off times and staff • Earlier loading.
were finding it difficult to get trucks on the The route optimisation programme On
road as the orders kept coming in and the Demand by Descartes was adopted through
deliveries kept changing. VSC Solutions so the company could plan
This difficulty in meeting committed deliveries for the day with insight into how
36 The Logistics News Case Study Annual 2018
