As supermarket chain Giant Eagle Inc. can attest,
when it comes to software, more isn’t always better.
Sometimes, you can accomplish more with a single
multifunctional platform than with a host of specialized systems.
The Pittsburgh-based retailer found that out a couple years back when it consolidated all of its existing
transportation systems onto a single platform. Up until
to serve stores throughout Pennsylvania,
Ohio, West Virginia,
Maryland, and
Indiana—had been
using four different
software products to manage transportation. But as
part of a broader business transformation initiative, the
company had decided to overhaul its IT (information
technology) infrastructure. Among other things, that
would mean consolidating systems in order to cut IT
maintenance and software licensing costs, as well as
create better interfaces for data exchange, according to
Ann-Marie Daugherty, vice president of logistics for
Giant Eagle.
In 2015, Giant Eagle switched over to a transportation management system (TMS) from supply chain
software specialist Manhattan Associates Inc. The new
TMS allowed Giant Eagle to eliminate three of its
four transportation software applications, including
inbound procurement, inbound scheduling, and outbound routing, Daugherty says.
Along with the software upgrade, Giant Eagle changed
its organizational structure, moving to a centralized
routing model instead of relying on its six distribution
centers (DCs) to create their own delivery routes. With
a central office now able to “see the whole picture,” the
grocery chain has increased its use of cross-docking to
consolidate orders to stores, Daugherty reports.
Together, the two initiatives have produced significant improvements in transportation metrics such as
trailer cube utilization, the number of stores served by
now send shipments to
our stores seven days
a week, which is very
unique [in the indus-try],” Daugherty says.
“Our health and beauty
care (HBC) line doesn’t
actually need delivery seven times a week, but it gives
our stores the ability to order every day, and it fills out
our trucks.”
By deploying centralized routing and cross-docking
strategies, Giant Eagle has been able to combine ship-
ments of groceries and HBC items into a single truck,
Despite all the gains it has realized to date, the com-
pany is not yet done with its supply chain IT overhaul.
Giant Eagle is now creating an in-house order manage-
ment system (OMS) to feed orders into its TMS, which
it plans to roll out this spring.
