Top 10 Logistics Innovators

Sustainability Soars at US Foods

US Foods’ new rooftop solar installation at its Perth-Amboy, NJ distribution center will supply nearly 85 percent of the Metro New York division’s annual energy consumption by July 2012.

The solar installation is the fourth for this foodservice giant.

Once the installation is complete, the solar panels will generate more than 10 million kilowatt hours of energy per year, which is enough to power more than 870 average American homes for an entire year.

In addition to the Metro New York division facility, US Foods recently installed solar panels at its distribution centers in La Mirada, California; Phoenix, Arizona; and San Francisco.

US Foods is pursuing sustainability in other areas. For one, the company is also certified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a SmartWay Partner. In fact, the company’s initiatives on the transportation side of the business, including reduced idling times, more efficient routing of deliveries, and more energy efficient lighting has saved the company more than $22 million in energy and fuel costs.

Goya Foods Brings More Technology to the Table

Goya Foods, Inc., the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the U.S., is a leader in Latin American food and condiments. The company manufactures, packages, and distributes over 1,600 high-quality food products from the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central and South America. It celebrated its 75^th anniversary in 2011.

“We’ve built our company on maximizing our sales by neighborhood, and that approach has worked very well since 1936,” says Peter Unanue, executive vice president of operations and logistics. “But as Goya has expanded, that targeted sales strategy has added incredible diversity to our product line. In just the last five years, the number of SKUs that we carry has grown by 60 percent. That diversity gives us a significant competitive advantage, but it also has added a lot of supply chain complexity,” he explains.

Goya chose several solutions from JDA Software to help eliminate manual processes and more efficiently manage its demand and fulfillment processes.

Four different JDA solutions were implemented, including JDA Demand, JDA Demand Classification, JDA Fulfillment, and JDA Order Optimization. In addition, the process was supported by JDA’s Education, Implementation, and Support Services, along with JDA Per-formance Engineering.

“We found JDA solutions to be highly configurable, both in their functionality and user interfaces—although the solutions are very sophisticated and powerful in running algorithms in the background,” says Unanue. “The people who were assigned to our project from JDA got to know our business, and that enabled them to configure the system in a way that fits our needs.”

Wringing Out Supply Chain Costs at P&G

Procter & Gamble announced last month that it would cut $4.5 billion from its supply chain as part of a larger plan to cut $10 billion in overall costs.

The supply chain savings will come from reductions in raw materials, transportation, and warehousing costs, says P&G’s CEO Bob McDonald.

“We’re working to create substitute materials that deliver the performance customers expect while saving money and increasing sustainability of supply,” he adds, referring to the use of more efficient packaging to cut material and logistics costs.

More efficient packaging was one goal behind the design of the company’s new Tide Pods—small, liquid detergent-filled tablets that are easier to use and less messy than traditional laundry detergent, and less costly to ship because the container is smaller.

L&M Transportation Services Drives Collaboration, Visibility

North Carolina-based L&M Transportation Services (LMTS) has always worked to improve collaboration and visibility with its trucking partners and customers.

For example, the company was an early adopter of TRANSFLO Express, the document imaging and transmission technology from Pegasus TransTech that makes it easier and faster for truckers to get paid.