Palram Americas, Inc. (Palram), a subsidiary of Palram Industries, is a premier manufacturer of semi-finished extruded thermoplastic sheets, panel systems and finished products serving commercial, industrial, residential, marine and DIY construction markets. The company was founded in 1963 and is headquartered in Kutztown, PA.
Partnering for Visibility & Collaboration
Palram lacked visibility and control over its carrier selection process. They were looking for a partner who could help them control transportation costs and manage transportation operations on the strength of an integrated technology platform and collaborative partnership approach.
Lack of Options in an Ever-Changing Market
Prior to Transportation Insight, Palram was leveraging a carrier agent that controlled the carrier rates and selection process. The company lacked capacity for their flatbed loads. They also lacked robust reporting and analytics capabilities, limiting their management insights to basic accounting information. Without having a billing and settlement process integrated with their ERP, payment discrepancies were common. Audits and reconciliations were largely manual. Palram needed a cohesive transportation management system to support operations, create efficiency and continuously improve.
“We gained significant scalability in terms of resources and technology over the last two years with Transportation Insight. They definitely enabled our success through the pandemic and positioned us for even greater gains.”
– Ed Jennings, Director of Manufacturing & Logistics, Palram Americas, Inc.
Building and Nurturing a Collaborative Environment
Palram’s journey to efficiency and improvement hinged on decisions made early in the relationship that continue to pay off.
Initial Transportation Transformation
- Assigned a fully dedicated account management team to support day-to-day activities along with strategic improvements
- Integrated Insight TMS with Palram’s ERP
- Re-negotiated contract rates for all modes of transportation complementing Palram’s go-to market strategy
- Enabled freight invoice audit and payment service to drive financial settlement
- Provided preset dashboards and reports for visibility into carrier performance and shipment data
- Performed aggressive recovery, reporting and root-cause analysis of claims.
TI continues to build on the baseline strategy, adding more optimization and collaborative expertise to Palram’s transportation ecosystem.
Ongoing Mission to Improve
- Collaborated on LTL sourcing and carrier/route optimization and truckload optimization
- Introduced private bid board marketplace
- Deployed Insight Fusion solution for data and analytics
- Added a self-service Dock Scheduler program to streamline scheduling, loading and unloading
- Mitigated and negotiated favorable general rate increases (GRI)
- Updated the GL coding system
- Identified opportunities for sustainable, efficient intermodal conversions
“Transportation Insight’s team immediately tuned-in to our business concerns, demonstrating a level of attention to details we had not experienced before. This set the tone for our collaborative partnership that continues to drive efficiency and improvement across our transportation operation today.”
Paul Chormanski, Warehouse Manager, Palram Americas, Inc.
Poised to Perform for Years to Come
TI’s dedicated account management team meets weekly with Palram’s transportation management staff, providing insights into cost-saving opportunities despite industry-wide demand increases, driver shortages, elevated contract and spot rates, and rising fuel costs. Results entering H1 2021 included:
- 4% average savings on TL shipments by adding specialized carriers that matched Palram freight characteristics
- 99% pick-up and 98% delivery on-time performance for LTL
- 14% General Rate Increase mitigation for $28,000 in LTL savings
- Presented $670,000 savings in intermodal conversion opportunities
- $470,000 in LTL freight savings Y-O-Y
With a proven partnership and forward-looking infrastructure in place, Palram will continue to improve its visibility, control and insight for a more productive and efficient transportation network.
Executive Summary
Client: Palram Americas Inc., a leading plastics product manufacturer serving commercial, industrial, residential, marine and DIY construction markets. Need: Improve reporting, leverage analytics, enhance billing accuracy, and gain visibility and control over carrier selection. Response: Integrated Insight TMS into company ERP, re-negotiated contract rates, enabled freight audit and payment capability, and sustained improvement through out-of-the-box solutions and collaborative professional services. Outcomes (H1 2021 Report):
- Improved accuracy and visibility into transportation costs
- Uncovered opportunities for savings beyond rate shopping through data analysis
- 21% freight cost savings Y-O-Y 2020-21
- $470K total savings Y-O-Y 2020-21