DBW digitized their supply chain and saved 18% of supply chain costs
The European automotive supplier, DBW, saved 18% of their supply chain costs by streamlining their logistics network with Orkestra.
With Orkestra, DBW gained:
The challenge
Headquartered in Europe, DBW supplies fiber and metal products to the world's leading automotive manufacturers since 1982. With production operations around the globe, DBW had grown their business to over $100M in revenue, but their facilities in Summerville, South Carolina were unable to meet the demand of their customers. Stock shortfalls led to reliance on express air cargo shipments from Europe, a costly solution that still left customers frustrated.
The DBW team made the decision to close their facilities and focus on offshoring operations. One of their Mexican subcontractors had the capacity to scale up their production, but DBW still faced many challenges. They needed to ensure they could meet customer demand in North America by building a robust, customer-focused, and more cost-efficient logistics model. Secondly, they needed to understand what went wrong in South Carolina — and avoid making the same costly mistakes again. Lastly, they lacked visibility and therefore were unable track open orders, stock levels, and shipments because data was spread across multiple systems like inaccurate spreadsheets.
The solution
The Orkestra team initially conducted a six-week consultation to define a new plan to solve the myriad of issues that DBW faced. The team proposed and deployed a new logistics model alongside the Orkestra supply chain platform.
The new model was designed to optimize operations across the US by automating warehouse processes, selecting new locations for facilities that were located closer to customers, and set up new inbound ports in optimal locations in Tennessee and Indiana. With Orkestra, the DBW team was able to leverage cost-effective carriers, optimize their routes, stock warehouses based on needed demand, and view all their data in one place.
The results
For the first time, all of DBW's logistics data would be visible in real-time and in one place. Orkestra was able to integrate data from their existing ERP and TMS sytems as well as manufacturers and carriers across Europe and the US. As a result, their team was able to seamlessly rollout the new model with cost-effective routes and vendors, track shipments, and monitor inventory levels so they could accurately project demand per SKU.
In turn, DBW saved 18% in costs, including air freight, warehousing as well as trucking partners. Orkestra gave DBW the confidence to manage, track, and scale their global supply chain operations efficiently and deliver on their customers’ expectations.
Ansgar Buschmann
Global Head of Supply Chain
“Orkestra improved our logistics from the “Stone-Age” with its digital platform that provides full visibility from our factories in Europe and Mexico all the way to our final customers in North America. Many thanks for the great support.”