Three Ways to Tell It’s Time to Replace Your TMS Transportation Management System
Maybe your current Transportation Management System enables some planning, optimization and routing tasks, but you know other TMS systems are delivering so much more, is your organization ready to make the change?
Replacing a Piece of Supply Chain Software
Deciding whether and when to replace a piece of supply chain software is a tricky balance;
You can’rsquo;t wait until your operations (or customers) are significantly affected by cumbersome processes or the lack of visibility, yet you know the inefficiencies of your current software are holding you back.
A transportation management system (TMS) is no different.
Perhaps your current TMS enables some planning, optimization and routing tasks, but you know other TMS systems are delivering so much more. Is your organization ready to make the change?
In this article for Talking Logistics, 3Gtms’ Chuck Fuerst looks at three important factors when deciding whether to replace your TMS.
- How does your organization plan to grow? You may have ambitious plans to grow your business in the next several years, but what will that growth look like?
- How easy are integrations? They shouldn’t be painful. A TMS is only as powerful as its connections; if yours are weak, it’s time to replace your TMS. Or, if you have to buy separate modules or use third-party tools and monitoring services, you’re paying a lot of extra costs that could be eliminated with a new system.
- Do you struggle when constraints and factors change? When they do, how quickly can you move to Plan B? If your optimization and route planning aren’t powerful enough to recalculate the best routes and options in real time - and can’t give you visibility into your best alternatives – it may be time to replace your TMS.
Chuck Fuerst, Vice President of Marketing for 3Gtms discusses the recent introduction of continuous pool optimization, which gives you the ability to plan shipments into a predetermined consolidating point or dynamically determine the optimal consolidation facility.
It maximizes achievable freight savings while adhering to pick up and delivery constraints; improves customer service, and may even eliminate your need for warehouses or distribution centers.
“Understanding how your organization’s growth, costs, and flexibility are impacted by your current system will help you determine how far you’re behind – and how far ahead you can get with a new TMS.” Chuck Fuerst, Vice President of Marketing for 3Gtms
Read more about these important factors and get the details at Talking Logistics.
Introducing Continuous Pool Optimization: Putting Creativity to Work in Transportation
TMS innovation never ends because there are always new challenges and complexities emerging in the market, and continuous pool optimization is the latest example of this, explains 3Gtms founder and CEO Mitch Weseley in this interview with Talking Logistics’ Adrian Gonzalez (watch the video above).
“It’s about putting creativity to work; that’s the ongoing role of a TMS. We want to let people get creative and come up with great ideas for better ways to move freight,” he noted.
You can’t build a TMS that addresses every constraint and possibility, so the key is to let logistics professionals get creative with the software – and continuous pool optimization allows for just that: It allows for a pre-determined or dynamic routing of orders through a consolidation network.
Routes can be split into a consolidation point and out of the consolidation point. These inbound and outbound movements can be independently managed, letting the optimization out of the consolidation point be delayed until the user has a better understanding of the freight accumulated at that consolidation point.
In short, the core of continuous pool optimization is embracing those unknown, future options and allowing the user to wait, change plans, and get creative with routes.
Organizations that leverage continuous pool optimization are achieving more freight savings while honoring pickup and delivery constraints, improving customer service and reducing distribution costs.
Watch the full discussion video above between Mitch and Adrian on the benefits of continuous pool optimization and why it’s important to ask any TMS vendor not what features they offer but how the TMS executes those features.
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