Schaeffer Manufacturing
From a single 5-gallon container to a 5,000-gallon bulk tank load, Schaeffer Manufacturing produces a diverse product line of engine oils, industrial lubricants, fuel additives and more for customers and companies of all industries and sizes.
The company has partnered with Flat World for more than a decade, turning to us for help increasing efficiency, updating technologies and improving customer service.
The Challenge
Technology has played a big role in our partnership from the very beginning. Flat World integrated our transportation management system, Pipeline, with Schaeffer’s ERP to easily allow its sales team to choose transportation options during the ordering process—from right at their desk or out in the field.
But there were still several opportunities to streamline and improve Schaeffer’s processes and costs. As one of the oldest companies in St. Louis, the business was distributing items nationally from the centrally located headquarters, so not all orders were getting to their final destination as quickly as Schaeffer needed to match competitors. The company also needed help ensuring it was getting the best transit and cost combinations for shipments.
The manufacturer also faced issues with packaging. Their historic St. Louis facility limited their ability to pack orders efficiently, causing their main carrier to stop accepting their shipments unless the packaging changed. Schaeffer needed our help.
The Solution
The Shipping Solutions
To fully understand Schaeffer’s needs, we performed an audit of their past shipments. The company wanted to fulfill 95% of domestic orders within two days but was having trouble reaching that goal for their customers in the southeast states. Working with a carrier, we set up a warehousing and distribution center in Atlanta.
The solution worked—but eventually, Schaeffer’s needs outgrew the carrier’s capabilities, so Flat World set up a dedicated new distribution center in Atlanta as well as one in Dallas, executing the shipments ourselves.
For the manufacturer’s St. Louis facility, we worked with Schaeffer to find an option that would allow them to continue using the same carrier while making as few changes to their current processes as possible. Now, every day, Flat World picks up orders from Schaeffer’s building and transports them to our own facility to repackage in a way that meets the carrier’s guidelines. And we helped implement a new program to address the need to improve carrier selection: the Schaeffer’s Choice Carrier program, integrated with their ERP, automatically selects the carrier with the best transit time at the most competitive cost, ensuring each order is routed on the optimized carrier.
The Results
With each initiative, Schaeffer quickly saw impactful results.
Setting up additional warehouses across the country helped the company reach its goal of 95% or more of orders arriving to their customers within 2 business days. We’re also working to set up an additional distribution center to continue meeting demand as the company scales.
Our efforts to repackage shipments from the St. Louis facility allowed the company to continue working with the same, cost-effective carrier, while decreasing overages and shortages by 80%—saving the company time and money and preventing negative experiences for customers.
And the Schaeffer’s Choice Carrier program has not only improved transit time for customers, but led to tremendous cost savings, as 90% of shipments are now routed via the optimized carrier.
Stats
95% of orders are delivered to customers within 2 days of being shipped.
80% decrease in overages and shortages thanks to Flat World’s assisting with repackaging items from Schaeffer’s St. Louis facility.
90% of shipments routed on the most cost-effective carrier thanks to the Schaeffer’s Choice Carrier program.
Without Flat World’s sincere efforts, timely interventions and quick calculations, our business wouldn’t have been so successful. Our customers and salesforce have a great opinion about the transportation improvements that have been made over our history.
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