Nortera, a leading manufacturer of frozen and canned vegetables in North America, was struggling to maintain a complex logistics network with decentralized data and intensive manual processes. Additionally, burdened by insufficient visibility into logistics operations and a lack of coordinated strategy, the company was lagging behind the rest of the industry. Eager to catch up to other leaders in the space, Nortera recognized the need to modernize its logistics activities to reach its growth potential, and partnered with the supply chain consulting firm C2.0 and e2open to implement a transportation management system (TMS).
In this blog, we’ll explore Nortera’s logistics challenges, what the company hoped to achieve with a TMS, and the benefits gained from modernizing its logistics operations.
Nortera and its logistics challenges
An overview of Nortera
Nortera is a full-service manufacturer of ready-to-cook vegetables operating all over North America. The company has 13 plants – eight in Canada and five in the US – and utilizes various third-party warehouses for ingredients and distribution. Primarily operating over the road, its logistics operations also include intermodal carriers that move goods between plants, deliver to customers, and manage inbound purchases from suppliers. In all, it operates a very sizable and complex logistics network that handles around 200 shipments a day.
Lack of efficiency and visibility
Prior to implementing a TMS, Nortera faced some major obstacles that prevented it from moving goods efficiently and having visibility into its transportation activities. These logistics challenges included:
Process inefficiency
The company had been relying heavily on manual, time-consuming processes, with workers tendering documentation by email and instructions being provided in disparate forms. This combined with a lack of automation led to many non-value-added tasks.
Lack of visibility
Shipment visibility was a major pain point for Nortera’s customer service team. The company was looking for more cost control and visibility to ensure that revenues from freight covered its expenses.
Stuck in neutral
The previous state of Nortera’s transportation management hindered its expansion and competitiveness in the industry. Nortera wanted to be more nimble in its ability to respond to uncertainties to better serve its customers.
Decentralized tools
The company needed more control of the end-to-end transportation lifecycle. For example, the US and Canadian logistics teams were on disparate systems that did not share information and needed to be merged into a single solution.
Overall, Nortera wanted to improve efficiency across various areas of the company, from the transportation department to the account payables team.
The desired future state of Nortera’s logistics operations
After recognizing the weaknesses in the current state of its logistics operations, Nortera wanted to look to the future with what its partnership with C2.0 and e2open could achieve. Its overarching objective was to improve efficiency across all transportation functions, with specific goals including:
Automated processes
It was obvious that Nortera needed to overhaul its workflow. It also had to maximize the full potential of its human resources by removing any unnecessary or time-consuming manual tasks from their plates. By aligning best practices with automation and optimized processes, Nortera could limit discrepancies caused by human error.
Real-time visibility
The lack of visibility into costs and shipment locations was hindering Nortera’s ability to operate efficiently, to make smarter business decisions, and to identify opportunities for cost reduction. By increasing and simplifying access to reporting functionalities, the company could streamline and expedite collaboration for employees from different departments, contributing to improved customer experience and market positioning.
Optimized labor
By eliminating any responsibilities that did not add immediate value, Nortera could create a more efficient workforce. This would give employees more time to focus on strategic work and identify and execute optimizations. It would also result in an improved and streamlined onboarding process for new employees and make the company more attractive to prospects.
Increased flexibility
To streamline the entire logistics operation, Nortera needed to align teams and integrate systems into a singular, centralized tool with a user-friendly interface. This would ensure flexibility for future needs and help unify processes and data across the entire enterprise.
TMS implementation process
Nortera had a laundry list of logistics-related needs, but there was some up-front work to be done to figure out how the new TMS would integrate into the existing enterprise architecture. The teams followed a proven five-phase process that helped accelerate user adoption and ensure proper system configuration.
- Enablement: Understanding the current state
- Mobilization: Pulling all the information together learned in Phase 1
- Analysis and Design: Finalizing the future state and training
- Launch: Executing final test measures
- Measure and Adopt: Production set up and go live
A well-structured implementation process for a Transportation Management System (TMS) such as this one is crucial for the long-term success of the software. It ensures operational efficiency with new data collection, future scalability, and seamless integration with other business systems that allows the client to start realizing ROI sooner.
Significant Improvements Achieved in Weeks
Nortera was able to streamline its logistics operations and achieve remarkable optimization. They saw significant improvements in just a matter of weeks after implementation, including:
- Rapid user adoption of 75% within the first two weeks
- A 90% increase in tender acceptance rates from carriers within two weeks
- Streamlined processes that allowed staff to focus on value-added tasks
- Centralized data providing a single source of truth
- Enhanced visibility across all transportation activities
- Paperless operations improving efficiency for multiple departments
From start to finish, the project was a strong collaborative effort that resulted in long-term benefits for Nortera and expresses the incredible transformative power of modern supply chain technology.
“We wanted to have a tool that was not extremely rigid and that would be able to be configured to our business needs,” says Patrice Légaré, VP of Supply Chain at Nortera. “So e2open was the best choice for us in that regard and is what drove a good portion of our decision.”
It’s never too late to modernize your logistics operations
When Nortera embarked on a journey to modernize its logistics management, the team wanted a TMS that was flexible and able to be configured to fit the needs of its business, such as appointment scheduling locations, doc hours, optimization profiles, and hours of operation, and that could be managed independently.
For other companies considering a similar transformation, Nortera’s journey offers valuable insights into the planning execution and benefits of a well-implemented TMS, and demonstrates the transformative power of modern supply chain technology. Not only can it help businesses successfully reclaim or maintain competitive positioning within the market, but also allows for continued growth and adaptability in an increasingly complex logistics landscape.
Pablo Ampuero is Head of Copy at e2open. If you’d like to take a deeper dive into this story, check out the on-demand webinar, Optimizing Logistics: The Nortera Story, featuring Patrice Légaré, VP of Supply Chain at Nortera; Michael Muro, Senior Consultant in Logistics at C2.0; and Chadwick Weeks, Solution Director at e2open.
How Nortera Modernized Its Logistics Operations with a Transportation Management System
Nortera, a leading manufacturer of frozen and canned vegetables in North America, was struggling to maintain a complex logistics network with decentralized data and intensive manual processes. Additionally, burdened by insufficient visibility into logistics operations and a lack of coordinated strategy, the company was lagging behind the rest of the industry. Eager to catch up to other leaders in the space, Nortera recognized the need to modernize its logistics activities to reach its growth potential, and partnered with the supply chain consulting firm C2.0 and e2open to implement a transportation management system (TMS).
In this blog, we’ll explore Nortera’s logistics challenges, what the company hoped to achieve with a TMS, and the benefits gained from modernizing its logistics operations.
Nortera and its logistics challenges
An overview of Nortera
Nortera is a full-service manufacturer of ready-to-cook vegetables operating all over North America. The company has 13 plants – eight in Canada and five in the US – and utilizes various third-party warehouses for ingredients and distribution. Primarily operating over the road, its logistics operations also include intermodal carriers that move goods between plants, deliver to customers, and manage inbound purchases from suppliers. In all, it operates a very sizable and complex logistics network that handles around 200 shipments a day.
Lack of efficiency and visibility
Prior to implementing a TMS, Nortera faced some major obstacles that prevented it from moving goods efficiently and having visibility into its transportation activities. These logistics challenges included:
Process inefficiency
The company had been relying heavily on manual, time-consuming processes, with workers tendering documentation by email and instructions being provided in disparate forms. This combined with a lack of automation led to many non-value-added tasks.
Lack of visibility
Shipment visibility was a major pain point for Nortera’s customer service team. The company was looking for more cost control and visibility to ensure that revenues from freight covered its expenses.
Stuck in neutral
The previous state of Nortera’s transportation management hindered its expansion and competitiveness in the industry. Nortera wanted to be more nimble in its ability to respond to uncertainties to better serve its customers.
Decentralized tools
The company needed more control of the end-to-end transportation lifecycle. For example, the US and Canadian logistics teams were on disparate systems that did not share information and needed to be merged into a single solution.
Overall, Nortera wanted to improve efficiency across various areas of the company, from the transportation department to the account payables team.
The desired future state of Nortera’s logistics operations
After recognizing the weaknesses in the current state of its logistics operations, Nortera wanted to look to the future with what its partnership with C2.0 and e2open could achieve. Its overarching objective was to improve efficiency across all transportation functions, with specific goals including:
Automated processes
It was obvious that Nortera needed to overhaul its workflow. It also had to maximize the full potential of its human resources by removing any unnecessary or time-consuming manual tasks from their plates. By aligning best practices with automation and optimized processes, Nortera could limit discrepancies caused by human error.
Real-time visibility
The lack of visibility into costs and shipment locations was hindering Nortera’s ability to operate efficiently, to make smarter business decisions, and to identify opportunities for cost reduction. By increasing and simplifying access to reporting functionalities, the company could streamline and expedite collaboration for employees from different departments, contributing to improved customer experience and market positioning.
Optimized labor
By eliminating any responsibilities that did not add immediate value, Nortera could create a more efficient workforce. This would give employees more time to focus on strategic work and identify and execute optimizations. It would also result in an improved and streamlined onboarding process for new employees and make the company more attractive to prospects.
Increased flexibility
To streamline the entire logistics operation, Nortera needed to align teams and integrate systems into a singular, centralized tool with a user-friendly interface. This would ensure flexibility for future needs and help unify processes and data across the entire enterprise.
TMS implementation process
Nortera had a laundry list of logistics-related needs, but there was some up-front work to be done to figure out how the new TMS would integrate into the existing enterprise architecture. The teams followed a proven five-phase process that helped accelerate user adoption and ensure proper system configuration.
A well-structured implementation process for a Transportation Management System (TMS) such as this one is crucial for the long-term success of the software. It ensures operational efficiency with new data collection, future scalability, and seamless integration with other business systems that allows the client to start realizing ROI sooner.
Significant Improvements Achieved in Weeks
Nortera was able to streamline its logistics operations and achieve remarkable optimization. They saw significant improvements in just a matter of weeks after implementation, including:
From start to finish, the project was a strong collaborative effort that resulted in long-term benefits for Nortera and expresses the incredible transformative power of modern supply chain technology.
It’s never too late to modernize your logistics operations
When Nortera embarked on a journey to modernize its logistics management, the team wanted a TMS that was flexible and able to be configured to fit the needs of its business, such as appointment scheduling locations, doc hours, optimization profiles, and hours of operation, and that could be managed independently.
For other companies considering a similar transformation, Nortera’s journey offers valuable insights into the planning execution and benefits of a well-implemented TMS, and demonstrates the transformative power of modern supply chain technology. Not only can it help businesses successfully reclaim or maintain competitive positioning within the market, but also allows for continued growth and adaptability in an increasingly complex logistics landscape.
Pablo Ampuero is Head of Copy at e2open. If you’d like to take a deeper dive into this story, check out the on-demand webinar, Optimizing Logistics: The Nortera Story, featuring Patrice Légaré, VP of Supply Chain at Nortera; Michael Muro, Senior Consultant in Logistics at C2.0; and Chadwick Weeks, Solution Director at e2open.
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