Adopting Strategic Transportation Management at Hayward Industries

• Hayward Industries, the largest supplier of swimming pool equipment in the U.S., sought to increase its supply chain efficiency and visibility.

• Hayward hired Supply Chain Edge to conduct an in-depth analysis and benchmarking of its transportation function, which found several opportunities for improvement.

• Supply Chain Edge helped Hayward consolidate carriers and create more efficient transportation practices.

• After just four months, Hayward had saved nearly $1 million in transportation spending and anticipates additional annual savings. Hayward also has added efficiency and visibility to its transportation function.

 

Hayward Industries, headquartered in New Jersey, is the largest supplier of residential swimming pool equipment in the United States. The growing company has a diverse product line and a worldwide footprint that includes eight manufacturing facilities in North America, Asia and Europe.

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With widely dispersed operations, Hayward has—literally—many moving parts to manage across its global supply chain. And as is the case with other organizations of its type, this geographic dispersion had resulted in substantial complexity and numerous opportunities for redundancy and inefficiency to creep into the system. The company also stood to benefit from a higher level of management insight and transparency in the logistics and traffic area. Hayward employed Supply Chain Edge to get a better handle on where it was spending its transportation dollars, where it could save money, and what changes to the company's processes and practices were necessary to realize those cost savings both immediately and on an ongoing basis.

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Supply Chain Edge began its work by conducting an in-depth analysis of Hayward's existing transportation practices. We conducted an extensive benchmarking of all modes of transportation at Hayward against what the firm considered world-class performance across all industries. Supply Chain Edge also compared Hayward's methods, management style, acumen and contracts for shipping and traffic against those of leading companies. At the end of the assessment, Supply Chain Edge identified where Hayward was performing well and where it had immediate opportunities for improvement.

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Impressed with the results of the assessment and Supply Chain Edge's recommendations, Hayward gave Supply Chain Edge the responsibility for managing and operating the company's entire transportation function. Supply Chain Edge immediately embarked on two key initiatives: consolidating carriers and creating more efficient practices.

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After just four months, Hayward saved nearly $1 million in transportation spending and, overall, anticipates saving a total of between $1.5 million and $2 million in annual savings. The changes Supply Chain Edge identified and implemented have made Hayward generally more efficient and have given the company much more visibility into the overall performance of its transportation function. Hayward believes Supply Chain Edge helped the company regain a strategic understanding of transportation—that it's not an expense, but a functioning part of the business that can contribute in multiple ways. Today, Supply Chain Edge has key professionals "on the ground" at Hayward, working with the company to get the biggest bang for its transportation spend.